First step to get environmental clearance for Parandur airport begins
The Hindu
Review of Terms of Reference for Chennai's second airport underway, involving high-level committee for environmental clearance process.
As a first step to getting the environmental clearance for Chennai’s second airport proposed at Parandur, the Terms of Reference of the project is under the review of a high-level committee at the Centre.
There are a host of procedures involved to get the environmental clearance. To begin with, the Terms of Reference of the project was sent by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change sometime back, along with various other documents, including the pre-feasibility report, connectivity plan for the airport and the justification for building the project.
“The first round of presentation to the Expert Appraisal Committee happened recently. The Terms of Reference is currently under the review of the committee and they have to approve it. Subsequently, in the coming months, the TIDCO will have to hold consultations with stakeholders involved in the project, including public consultations. This is a long drawn process and is likely to go on for sometime,” a source said.
TIDCO had sent the Terms of Reference some months back, but later took it back and reapplied after making a few changes in the document.
As soon as the State government announced the project, environmental activists explained about why it was not advisable to build such a massive infrastructure at this site where there were a lot of wetlands. In the airport which is proposed to be constructed over 5,368.93 acres, 26.54 per cent of the area is wetlands.
Meanwhile, Louis Berger, the consultant appointed by TIDCO, is in the process of carrying out the Environment Impact Assessment. Recently, a hydrogeological report too was submitted to the State government — it talks in detail about the measures to be taken to address the concerns and the ways to implement the project with minimal impact on the environment.