Amid protests by Opposition parties, non-governmental organisations like Forum for Better Visakha (FBV) and fishing community associations, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) today conducted a public hearing on the proposed expansion plan of Gangavaram Port Limited here.
“Construction of additional berths at the port would increase the pollution levels significantly in the surrounding villages and hence we are opposing the expansion,” said Narasinga Rao, secretary, CPM, Visakhapatnam district.
Representatives of political parties like Telugu Desam, CPI and CPM and local fishermen were excluded from the public meeting. The joint collector and APPCB officials conducted the proceedings and took the opinions of the company management and locals. Over 200 people were taken into custody by the police.
GPL, the country’s deepest and multi-purpose port, has submitted a proposal for expansion of cargo-handling capacity from 16.54 tonne per year to 40.95 tonne. Additional berths (coal-1, multipurpose-3), most-modern mechanised cargo-handling system, additional storage and evacuation facilities have also been proposed keeping in view the future requirement.
The expansion will involve an investment of Rs 995 crore. The port now has five berths.
In a statement today, GPL said no land acquisition was involved for the proposed expansion and it was within the existing harbour, in the available land and port premises. Earlier, the state government had transferred 1,800 acre GPL in lieu of equity. The land usage proposed for the expansion was within the above land, the port said.
Quoting the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF)’s guidelines on appraising port expansion projects, EAS Sarma, convener of FBV, a coalition of NGOs and concerned citizens, said GPL's present proposal failed to comply with the requirements of those guidelines.
“No cumulative impact study on the implications of the project on the ecology of the coastline has been carried out, especially keeping in view the environmental havoc caused by Phase-I of Gangavaram by cutting down the mangroves and generating a significant pollution load. In view of this, there is an added reason as to why MoEF should outright reject the port expansion proposal,” he added.
However, GPL responded to various issues stating it would develop a green belt per the statutory condition ie, in an area of 33 per cent of the available land. It has already developed a green belt on 240 acre and propose to develop on 300 acres more in the next five years. As part of the current initiatives, it has developed avenue plants along the port boundary wall and other areas along with a dedicated in-house nursery with 1,00,000 saplings, it said.
The port further said it had made all efforts to provide employment to the people affected by the construction. “We have recruited 508 people as against the promised jobs for 600. According to the original agreement with the government, these jobs were to be provided over a period of 3 years but based on subsequent requests from the government, we gave all these jobs in the first year itself, even though there wasn’t any requirement for unskilled manpower in the port,” GPL added.
