GUWAHATI, May 8 - The National Green Tribunal (NGT) Principal Bench has directed the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) to shift its Pachim-Boragaon dumping ground of municipal solid waste to its proposed site in Chandrapur area within a period of two months.
The Tribunal has also directed the Railways, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and the Forest Department to file their respective affidavits within two months on the aspect of a long-term solution for free movement of the elephants in the Deepor Beel area and the time required to construct the underpass for the rail track so as to providing safe passage of elephants through the Deepor Beel areas.
The NGT order, on April 29, 2019, and received by this newspaper here today, was issued in connection with the Original Application Number 472/2018 (Earlier Original Application No 19/2014 � Eastern Zone), in which Rohit Choudhury is the applicant and the Union of India and others are the respondents. The order was issued by the court of Judicial Member Justice K Ramakrishnan and Expert Member Satyawan Singh Garbyal.
The NGT bench has also directed the Railways to file a compliance report regarding the implementation of the earlier direction on reducing the speed of the trains passing through Deepor Beel and setting up sensors in the Deepor Beel stretch of the rail tracks.
The GMC has also been directed by the NGT bench to submit an affidavit on the steps taken for shifting the dumping ground from the existing place to the new site at Chandrapur.
It needs to be mentioned here that the GMC made a submission before the NGT bench that a decision was taken by the �Municipal Committee� to shift the dumping ground from the forest land in Deepor Beel area to Chandrapur and the GMC would take steps to shift the dumping ground within the time frame fixed by the Tribunal.
The Railways stated before the Tribunal that they had already taken measures to implement the Tribunal direction on limiting the speed of the trains in the Deepor Beel stretch with effect from March 15 this year, by introducing temporary measures to reduce the speed limit to 30 kmph while passing through the Deepor Beel stretch.
The Railways also submitted that the sensors as directed by the Tribunal would also put in place within a period of 15 days from April 29, 2019. They also stated that there were consultations between the Forest Department and the Railways at the Ministry level and they would evolve a solution on the ways to meet the expenditure for construction of the tunnel to lay the rail tracks through this stretch on the forest land as a long-term solution for free movement of the elephants.
Once the scheme is approved by both the Ministries, the necessary action plan will be prepared for implementation, said the Railways in their submission before the Tribunal.
