Now storm brews over proposed chemical hub in West Bengal

Calcutta News.Net
Saturday 10th November, 2007 (IANS)

Storm clouds are gathering over a proposed chemical hub in the Nayachar Island in West Bengal, with the government and green activists at loggerheads. This follows the government's discomfiture over proposing Nandigram for the same hub.

Chemical and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has promised the state government to expedite clearance for the project even as environmentalists argued that the area does not meet minimum criteria for a petroleum, chemicals and petrochemical investment region (PCPIR).

Paswan's assurance to fast-track the clearance came just two weeks after a letter received by DISHA, an environmental NGO, from the central ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), which argued that Nayachar is located inside the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) under a 1991 notification.

Setting up or expanding industrial activity is prohibited in such an area.

The MoEF letter was sent by additional director A. Senthilvel in reply to a right to information query submitted by Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action (DISHA), the NGO working to protect coastal ecology in West Bengal.

The West Bengal government, however, denies any dispute and maintains that the hub would come up in keeping with the law.

Environment secretary M.L. Meena said the chemical hub project would not violate any law or rule.

'It would be developed beyond 200 metres from the high-tide line. We would have to demarcate the line so that the CRZ at Nayachar remains unaffected,' Meena told IANS, adding 'there's no conflict regarding the situation at Nayachar'.

DISHA rejects this.

'The entire Nayachar Island falls under CRZ grade I and III area. It's a small 50-year-old island not very high from mean sea level. A large part of it goes under water during high tide,' DISHA assistant secretary Santanu Chakraborty told IANS.

He said that there was not enough dry land available on the island for a chemical hub. According to him the island is 15.9 km long and 4.5 km wide at low tide.

According to government guidelines, the minimum area required to establish a PCPIR is 25,000 hectare (250 sq km).

The state government sent a proposal for a chemical hub at Nayachar near East Midnapore's Haldia area with only 14,000 hectares of land at hand.

Of the 14,000 hectares, the government owns 11,000 hectares and the Haldia Development Authority 3,000 hectare.

The deltaic estuary of Nayachar on the river Hooghly would be included as the processing zone while Haldia would have both processing and non-processing areas.

'They (state government) should first think about the CRZ regulation. We think that there should be meaningful discussion on this issue as the ecology of this region is very fragile,' said Chakraborty.

Meena, however, said: 'The ministry concerned has given us the nod and we will go ahead with it.

Chakraborty accused the government of lack of transparency. 'If the government has demarcated land beyond 200 metres from the extreme high tide point, they should come out with all the details,' he said.

During Paswan's visit to Kolkata Nov 5, the minister had said the PCPIR proposal of West Bengal would be discussed in the empowered committee and would then be sent to the cabinet for approval.

Nayachar, an island some 150 km from Kolkata, has been selected as the likely place for the proposed chemical hub in West Bengal after a flare-up over land acquisition forced the government to abandon its plan in Nandigram in the same district.

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