The National Green Tribunal (NGT) southern zone has directed a private builder from Coimbatore to pay Rs 10 crore as interim compensation for building an apartment complex without obtaining environmental clearance.
A government team has been asked to analyse the site and submit a report within two months.
The said complex, Golden City, with 500 residential units is located at Vedapatti in south Coimbatore.
Town and City Developers, the company engaged in building these houses, had initially proposed to construct more than 1,000 flats of variable sizes on the 10-acre plot.
This is a ‘B’ category project and the company should have obtained environmental clearances before starting the construction work, said environmentalist Sankara Subramanian, who approached the NGT in 2015, referring to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification, 2006.
Even as the application for prior environmental clearance was pending before the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), not only was major part of the work completed, but 500 of them were sold before September 2015, Subramanian added.
Since the project, near agricultural area, was damaging the environment and ecology of the area, the environmentalist requested NGT to direct SEIAA to delist the project, initiate legal proceedings for violating local laws and stop further construction activities and sales.
The case hearing was adjourned in 2016 because similar cases were pending before the Supreme Court. In October 2017, the petitioner’s counsel Muthu Vairam submitted that the incomplete application from Town and City Developers was not accepted by the Union ministry of environment and forest too.
After hearing both sides, members of the NGT southern zone — Justice K Ramakrishnan and Saibal Dasgupta — directed the company to pay Rs 10 crore as interim compensation within 30 days. The amount should be deposited with the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) so that it can be used for ecological restoration.
The government was also directed to form a committee to analyse the site in Coimbatore and submit a report. The case was adjourned to April 2020.
According to Supreme Court guidelines, penalty can be levied up to 5% of the total value in case of violations, Vairam added.
