PANAJI: The Environment Minister, Mr Aleixo Sequeira informed the House on Friday that he has written letters to the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat and the Revenue Minister, Mr Jose Philip D’Souza asking them to keep in abeyance the ongoing land acquisition process for the expansion of NH 17 and NH 4A as it requires environment impact study.

Mr Sequeira also said that he has directed the Goa State Pollution Control Board to appoint an agency for carrying out the environment impact assessment for the project.

Maintaining that the National Highway Authority of India had sent different alignment plans to different government agencies for widening of the national highways running through the state, the Minister for Environment informed the House that there are no identification landmarks in these plans. Hence, he said, he has cancelled the public hearings pertaining to expansion of the highways and decided to ask NHAI to submit papers providing the related details.

Earlier, the leader of the opposition, Mr Manohar Parrikar pointed out that the NHAI had recently written a letter to the GSPCB stating that if the alignment plans were made available to the public, there could be dilution of the issue as regards environment clearances. "This shows that the NHAI is against making available to public, details of the proposed project," he added.

Speaking further, the Minister for Environment said that upon further studies it was found that the alignment for expansion of NH 4A and NH 17 was passing through certain sensitive areas like turtle nesting site at Galgibag and it also required cutting mangroves in certain regions. He also made it clear that the proposed work of the national highway cannot start without the environmental clearance.

The leader of the opposition maintained that out of the 35,000 passenger car units, as pointed out by the NHAI, regularly travelling from Margao to Canacona and out of Goa, nearly 28,000 belong to Goans and hence the NHAI would earn maximum toll amount from the local population.