Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Bhopal and Satna have secured environmental clearance (EC) for Smart City projects while five cities including Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Sagar and Ujjain are yet to receive the clearance. Madhya Pradesh State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) stated this in a reply to an RTI.
Big cities like Indore and Gwalior are among the five cities that have not yet received the nod from the environmental agency to implement the smart city projects, said SEIAA in its reply. There are seven cities where smart city projects are underway. Ajay Dubey, environmentalist who had filed an RTI, said, “MP SEIAA in its reply shared information that only two cities - Bhopal and Satna have been given EC clearance for smart city project implementation, while the smart city projects of Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Sagar and Ujjain have not yet been cleared.”
Environmentalists have raised the issue with higher authority regarding these lapses. However, the smart city authorities have claimed that the Smart city project of Bhopal and Satna are of redevelopment nature so environmental clearance has been granted to them in the two cities. While the projects in other cities, which have not got the nod so far, are retrofit in nature, they added. EC clearance depends on the nature of development work and for the same reasons, the smart city projects of Bhopal and Satna have received nod for implementation from the agency, they added.
They further mentioned that EC clearance is mandatory in housing cases, wherever it is part of the Smart city project. Dr SC Pandey, green activist, said, “MP SEIAA has given EC for smart city project implementation. There are environmental factors associated with development of Smart city in Bhopal so it was mandatory to get the clearance before carrying out the projects.”
