E-Paper
HC allows BPCL to cut 11,677 trees for pipelines from Mahul to Rasayani
The Bombay High Court has granted permission to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) to cut 11,677 trees, including 10,582 mangroves, for laying four pipelines from its refinery in Mahul to Rasayani. The court allowed the plea on the grounds of larger public interest and after BPCL obtained all necessary permissions. The pipelines will reduce the need for road transportation of petroleum products between the two locations.
MUMBAI: The Bomba high court on Tuesday allowed Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) to cut 11,677 trees, including 10,582 mangroves, for laying four pipelines from its refinery in Mahul in Chembur to Rasayani in Raigad district.
A division bench of justice AS Chandurkar and justice Jitendra Jain allowed the BPCL plea primarily on the grounds that “the project was in larger public interest” and that the public sector undertaking had obtained all other requisite permissions.
BPCL, as stated in its petition to the high court to reduce carbon print, proposed to lay four pipelines from its existing refinery at Mahul in Chembur to Rasayani in the neighbouring Raigad district by cutting on the requirement of transporting the petroleum products.
The public sector undertaking was required to move to the high court for permission, as the 43-km pipelines pass through lands belonging to the Mumbai Port Authority Land and CIDCO, besides private lands, and required cutting of mangroves.
Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL), the high court in September 2018 directed that any project involving cutting mangroves would require prior approval of this court – after obtaining all requisite statutory permissions from the coastal zone management authority, the ministry of environment, forests and climate change and the forest department, etc.
BPCL argued before the court that the pipeline project assumes great importance, as there is no railway line for the transportation of bulk quantities of petroleum products between Mahul and Rasayani. It added that the underground pipeline would completely wipe out the requirement of road transportation, and apart from reducing transportation costs, it would also result in a reduction of losses on account of loading and unloading operations. Besides, it said that transportation by pipeline would not be affected by factors like floods, etc.
Given the benefits, the bench allowed BPCL to undertake the pipeline project by cutting 10,582 mangroves and 1,095 other trees after noticing that the public sector undertaking had obtained all requisite permissions from MOEF&CC, Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) and had also deposited an amount of ₹3.70 crore with the forest conservation department for compensatory afforestation.
The court, however, directed BPCL to file an affidavit, undertaking that all the conditions imposed by the authorities while granting their respective permissions would be scrupulously followed.
