Scrap environmental impact assessment, public consultation for PRR project, activists tell govt

Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), a people’s collective, has told the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and public consultation for the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR), scheduled for August 18, be scrapped.

Instead, the collective wants a new scheme to be presented for public review due to a change in alignment, as mandated by the Karnataka Town & Country Planning Act.

In a letter to KSPCB Chairman Vijayakumar Gogoi, CfB noted that the PRR was proposed without due process and proper public consultation. “This is a project costing over Rs 15,000 crores, with 33,000 trees facing the axe and spanning over 65 km, covering water bodies, catchments areas and reserved forest areas.”

The initial EIA report submitted, the collective noted, was deemed erroneous and rejected by the National Green Tribunal, as the Bangalore Development Authority had revealed that only 200 trees will be axed for the project. The Horticulture and Forest Department submitted to the NGT that 16,685 trees would have to be felled.

Despite BDA’s protests, the Supreme Court ruled that a fresh and accurate EIA be prepared, which brought to light that over 33,000 trees would be felled. However, the BDA changed the alignment of the Peripheral Ring Road, hence rendering it a new project as per the Karnataka Town & Country Planning Act.

“This voids the current EIA and calls not just for a fresh EIA, but a new development proposal (scheme) to be drafted, including wide-ranging public hearings, feasibility studies, alternatives and fresh budget approvals from the Government of Karnataka,” the letter said.

A public consultation scheduled in the midst of a pandemic at Nityotsava Kalyana Mantapa in Singanayakanahalli, Doddaballapura Road, is “downright unsafe and irresponsible. In fact, it is a violation of the Disaster Management Act, which forbids the arrangement of congregations,” CfB contended in the letter.