Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and opposed the new 4,179.59 sq km eco-sensitive zone in the Bhagirathi Valley, which put tough restrictions on tourism and hydel projects in the hill state.
Bahuguna, leading a delegation comprising the party's state MPs and Congress general secretary Birendra Singh at Parliament house, told Singh there should be a review of the eco-sensitive zone where the area has been increased from 40 sq km to 4179.59 sq km, without taking the consent of the state. Bahuguna also met the minister for state for environment and forest, Jayanthi Natarajan, separately on the issue and urged the centre to set up a high-powered committee to review the eco sensitive zone.
Bahuguna said in the draft notification, the eco-sensitive zone had stopped the construction of hydel projects with capacity of more than 25 Mw, but in the final notification all the hydel projects were completely banned.
The central government's recent decision to declare eco sensitive zone on Bhagirathi had dealt a final blow to hydel projects in the vast stretch of the river between Gomukh and Uttarkashi regions in Uttarakhand. Altogether, hydel projects with a capacity of over 1743 Mw would be affected by the eco sensitive zone in the area where the centre has put up restrictions on any big construction activity.
Bahuguna also said the eco sensitive zone will also adversely affect the construction of roads along the India-Tibet border and certain defence projects also.
The move has also put the Chief Minister in a bind as he was trying hard to revive three major hydel projects which were scrapped on the environmental and religious grounds on the river. These projects are 600 Mw Loharinag Pala, 480 Mw Pala Maneri and 380 Mw Bhaironghati. Besides, a series of other projects including 150 Mw Karmoli and 50 Mw Jadganga of THDC India Ltd have also been scrapped due to the decision.
A rough estimate suggests that the projects worth over Rs 10,000 crores have been affected due to the declaration of eco sensitive zone, experts said.
After facing attack from the opposition on the issue, the state cabinet decided to oppose the Centre's recent notification on the eco-sensitive zone saying it would adversely affect the development of the area.
Bahuguna said several infrastructure development projects are in the pipeline in the region and the Centre's move will tantamount to stalling nearly all of them including construction of bridges, Border Roads Organisation's realignment work and flood control measures.
