Supreme Court Halts ILS Hill Road Project In Pune Till Grant Of Environmental Clearance

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that the ILS Hill road project which is part of the Balbharati - Paud Phata Link Road in Pune shall begin work only after the grant of an environment clearance (EC) 

The bench of CJI BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran was hearing a plea by environmentalist Dr. Sushma Date in the TN Godavarman Case. 

The bench passed the following direction: 

"We direct that the project shall not be commenced unless EC is granted by EIA. Having taken into consideration the project being pending for a long period, we direct EIA to decide the application for the grant of EC within a period of 3 months." 

Sr Advocate Anitha Shenoy, appearing for environmentalist Dr. Sushma Date, stressed that the proposed road would be running through a 'virgin forest hill' which had more than 400 species of trees, 1700 trees in number, and was crucial in for maintaining groundwater levels in western side of the city. 

She referred to an earlier order of the Bombay High Court in 2016 which directed an ERA (Environment Risk Assessment) of the region. The consultants for the ERA were appointed by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the report of the ERA stated that instead of a one-time ERA, a 4-season ERA was recommended in order to understand the impact of the project on the hill.  She thus stressed for the need for a cumulative assessment of the hill project

Sr Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the Indian Law Society (ILS), also added that a road shouldn't be built in the region without a proper assessment, as doing so would be “completely disastrous”. He added that a status quo ordered by the Bombay High Court in 2005 against the takeover of the ILS Hill by the project authorities was still in operation. 

During the hearing, CJI inquired whether the road passes through the Hill and affected the hill in any way.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for PMC, replied that it doesn't pass through the forest region. He clarified that as per the map, the road's pillars of the elevated road will come at the bottom of the hill.

He added that as per the PMC, the project road is labelled as 'Development Plan' road and it does not require an EC as per the rules. The project will affect a batch trees under 600 metres area, for which SG suggested that aforestation measures will be taken.

Case Details : IN RE : T.N. GODAVARMAN THIRUMULPAD Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.|W.P.(C) No. 202/1995