Maharashtra WDFC stretch delayed as centre, state squabble over green norms

State govt yet to give its go-ahead for project's continuation

The crucial stretch of the western dedicated freight corridor (WDFC) in Maharashtra has once again entered a policy and political quagmire. This is because the Centre and the state government are at loggerheads over environmental restrictions on earthwork to be done for the corridor.

Railway Board chairman Vinay Kumar Tripathi has written to the chief secretary of Maharashtra Manukumar Srivastava, asking him to allow work on the corridor to continue. He stressed on how important the project is, Business Standard has learnt.

Since March, the state government has stopped all earthwork, which has no environmental clearance and this includes the corridor being built by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCI).

The move was undertaken after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) passed an order in February against stone quarrying and stone-crushing work for infrastructure projects.

“Pursuant to the NGT Pune order, the government of Maharashtra has issued directions to the divisional commissioner and collectorates that mine and minerals earthwork permits should not be issued without environmental clearance. This has stalled the progress of DFC works,” said the letter by Tripathi, dated June 10.

Tripathi argued that the NGT order applies to stone quarry and stone-crushing activities and does not apply to ordinary borrowing of earth.

He said the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) has already pointed out that DFCs are exempted from environmental clearances for the excavation of ordinary earth. This letter is the latest in months of the continuous back-and-forth between the Centre and the state.

“We have been trying to reason with them for three months now. There’s slow progress on the discussions, which is why the letter had to come directly from the chairman,” a senior official, in the know of the matter, said.

Another senior official said while environmental laws have to be respected, the present issue is not one of adherence but of interpretation of the NGT order.

In 2016, the Supreme Court had stayed a previous NGT order, ruling that linear rail projects like metro and DFCs were not required to seek environmental clearance. This is because such a requirement would delay the projects. “According to the ruling, we should be allowed to continue our work,” he said.

In 2020, the MoEFCC had issued a notification exempting ordinary earth borrowing from environmental impact assessment. However, the environment tribunal, in a recent order, took firm exception to blanket exemptions for earth excavation in cases of linear projects.

The ruling was in a plea made by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on the issue of construction and maintenance of national highways in the state. It said work was being hindered due to the March order by the state government.

“We thus find that the view taken by this tribunal (via a previous order) does not enable unconditional blanket exemption for extraction of earth for linear projects from environmental regulations.

In fact, the tribunal directed the ministry to revisit the notification granting such blanket exemption,” NGT said in a May 31 order. The tribunal refused to strike down the state government’s March order.

The WDFC, which will connect the northern and western industrial belts directly to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and other major ports such as Kandla and Mundra, has repeatedly seen disruptions in Maharashtra, in terms of land availability and clearances.

Even today, around two kilometres of land remains encroached and unavailable for construction. Delays in the stretch have pushed the completion timeline for the logistics project by months.

While most of it and eastern corridor are likely to be completed in June 2023, WDFC’s Nilje-JNPT stretch will take up to March 2024 to be completed.

This is one of the many projects of the ministry of railways that are facing delays in Maharashtra. Two marquee projects — DFC and High Speed Rail or bullet train project — are also seeing delays.