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A greenfield airport at Mopa in North Goa, being developed by GMR, seems to have finally crossed all hurdles. A Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta, has given its nod for the construction of the airport and asked the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to oversee the project to ensure that there is no environmental damage.

The bench directed the concessionaire of the project to adopt a zero carbon programme in the construction and operational phases of the airport. It said conditions imposed by the centre’'s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) and the NGT are sufficient to protect the environment and approved the project. Incidentally, the Court had last year found fault with the environment clearance (EC) given to the project and directed the EAC to re-examine it.

Mopa village is situated in Pernem taluka in North Goa, close to the inter-state boundary with Maharashtra. The proposed airport is approximately 35 km north-east of Panaji, the capital of Goa. The site is a lateritic tabletop plateau at a height of 180 m above sea level and is surrounded by steep slopes.

As the airport at Dabolim is saturated and is a military airfield, there are restrictions on civilian airlines. In 1997, Goa government initiated a process to commission studies and project reports for a proposed international airport. The project was granted an EC by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in accordance with the procedure mandated in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of September 14, 2006.

After the Terms of Reference were issued by the EAC, the draft EIA report was submitted to the Goa Pollution Control Board, and a public hearing was conducted at the project site on February 1, 2015. On May 20, 2015, the Goa government submitted the final EIA report to the MoEFCC, seeking the grant of an EC for the project.

The EAC, at its 149th meeting in June 2015, deliberated the EIA report and sought additional information. These were:

10 years'’ data regarding rainfall in the area.

Drawing of a traffic circulation plan.

Minimum 20 percent energy conservation measures should be adopted in incorporating provisions for use of LED and star-rated ACs and a revised energy conservation plan to be submitted.

Measures taken to comply with Central Pollution Control Board guidelines formulated for noise pollution control in the airport area to be submitted.

Representations were sent to the EAC by the Federation of Rainbow Warriors, a civic and social organisation. The EAC requested the project proponents to respond to the issues raised. Further clarifications were sought by it and eventually the project was granted an EC on October 28, 2015.

However, this was challenged in the NGT bench in Pune by Hanuman Laxman Aroskar and the Federation of Rainbow Warriors. Though the NGT initially stayed the felling of trees at the site, the stay was subsequently vacated. The NGT dismissed appeals upholding the validity of the EC and imposed several additional conditions. Subsequently, the order issued by the Forest Department to permit the felling of trees was challenged before the High Court of Judicature in Goa in March 2018. The High Court set aside the order of the Deputy Conservator of Forests and remanded the matter to be heard by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF). On April 2, 2018, the PCCF stipulated several conditions for the cutting and the felling of trees at the site including: (i) enumeration of trees (ii) plantation of 10 times the number of trees felled.

Which of the following can be inferred about EAC and Rainbow warriors?

A) Their views are opposed

B) They are unrelated

C) They have the same views

D) None of the above