Badalta Maharashtra: Strike balance between environment & development for progress

“There has to be a right balance. Environmentally, though permissions have been granted for mega projects, at times the conditions applied are a bit too stringent,” Bhatia said.

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He said that recently, while granting permission for the Sewri-Nhava Sheva Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, the environment ministry had told the government to set up two new bird sanctuaries as the project’s alignment is in the vicinity of the Karnala bird sanctuary. “One of the proposed bird sanctuaries is now coming in the way of the Navi Mumbai International Airport project. So, should we focus on the airport or on the proposed bird sanctuary? In such things, we often lose sight of the larger picture,” Bhatia said.

Authorities also stressed on the importance of convincing all people impacted by infrastructure works about the benefits of the projects and winning their confidence to secure their cooperation.

Bhatia said, “We had announced our intention of giving 22.5 percent of developed land back to the people who would be impacted by land acquisition for the Navi Mumbai International Airport. We have already managed to get 97.5 percent of the required land in our possession as we showed people that we stick to our word and earned their confidence. This is very important.”

Similarly, Mahesh Zagade, metropolitan commissioner of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority, said, authorities often fall short in marketing the benefits of development works to people. “This is the reason projects get stonewalled due to massive opposition. We will not face this kind of opposition if we just manage to market the projects better,” he said.

Activists and authorities often blame the presence of multiple agencies in charge of infrastructure works in Mumbai as the main reason for delayed projects. However, Sanjay Sethi, additional metropolitan commissioner at Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority
(MMRDA), one of the multiple agencies in Mumbai, said the number of agencies is not as much of an issue as the need for better communication between them.

“The number of agencies involved may be trimmed, but having just one agency in charge of infrastructure in Mumbai is not practical. It is the communication between the agencies that has to improve,” Sethi said.