PUNE: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) bench in Pune has directed city realty firm BramhaCorp Ltd to deposit Rs2.37 crore as environmental damage compensation with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and a Rs74.18 lakh penalty with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) for violation of environmental norms relating to a mega housing project ‘Brahma Exuberance Elite’ in Kondhwa Khurd.
The compensation and penalty are to be paid within a month of the uploading of the green tribunal’s order of Nov 29 on its website and must be used for a remediation plan and improvement of the environment in the area concerned, the bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh and expert member Vijay Kulkarni said in a judgment on Nov 29.
Arguments over the long-drawn matter had finished on Nov 7, following which the bench had reserved its judgment.
The project — spread over an area of 17,433.10 sq m — involves five buildings, four of which are completed, with a total of 249 flats (194 completed) and an overall built-up area of 41,500 sq m.
Nana Peth resident Ajay Bhosale had filed an application through his lawyer Tanaji Gambhire in 2019 alleging that the firm undertook the project without obtaining prior environmental clearance, which is mandatory for constructions involving more than 20,000sq m of built-up area, from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and without Consent to Establish from the MPCB. Bhosale also cited various violations of environmental norms.
The project proponent had applied for an ex-post-facto environmental clearance, which was granted on Oct 19, 2023.
The tribunal upheld the State Experts Appraisal Committee (SEAC) and SEIAA’s calculation of 6,083 days of violations and held that there was no error in the calculation of the compensation and the penalty amounts.
When contacted, BramhaCorp’s lawyer Raghunath Mahabal told TOI, “This project started in 2005, which increased in size later and needed an environment clearance. We applied for the clearance as the same was not obtained in the past. The amount needed to be spent on restoration of the environment, as calculated by SEIAA, is Rs2.3 crore. We will be paying it to the PMC in a bank guarantee and the civic body will tender and execute the remediation plan which we recommended as a community resource augmentation plan. We will also pay the penalty amount, as directed, to the MPCB.”
The NGT had first heard the matter on Oct 22, 2019, following which it had constituted a joint committee of representatives from the SEIAA and MPCB to verify the facts and circumstances set out in the original application filed by Bhosale and submit a report. The joint panel visited the project site on Dec 15, 2019, and submitted its report to the green tribunal on Jan 7, 2020.
The panel’s report stated, among other things, that as per the architect’s certificate, the project proponent (BramhaCorp) had by then carried out construction activity for a built-up area of 32,651.61 sq m, which requires an environmental clearance under the Environment Impact Assessment notification of Sept 14, 2006, and the project proponent (PP) had not obtained the same.
Further, the PP had not obtained Ground Water Survey Authority’s permissions for two bore wells. A 70KLD sewage treatment plant at the site was not found operational and there were other shortcomings related to 10% recreation and open space and basements, the report noted.
BramhaCorp had argued, among other things, that the application was outrightly time barred and that the project had started in 2005, and the revised plans were sanctioned in 2006 much before the EIA notification of Sept 14, 2006, came into effect. As such, the notification provisions were not applicable to the project, it argued.
