Proposed statue of Sardar Patel under NGT radar

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious project to build the world's tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel has been caught in the National Green Tribunal net.

The group comprising nearly two dozen activists, including Rohit Prajapati, Girish Patel, Nandini Oza and Himanshu Thakkar, have moved the Western Region Bench of the tribunal located in Pune, demanding that the project be scrapped. The activists have charged that the requisite environmental clearances have not been obtained for the project, which they say is being built on an eco-sensitive zone on the Narmada riverbed, and is located close to the Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Pune bench of the tribunal has issued notices to the chairman of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust, chairman of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam, Gujarat chief secretary, member secretary of the Gujarat State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change as well as the chief executive of Larsen & Toubro. The tribunal has given the Gujarat government time till May 8 to respond.

Besides a stay on the project, the petition calls for action against the concerned officers for failing to ensure compliance of environmental laws and regulations before allowing construction work to commence.

In late 2013, the activists had written to the environment ministry and the state environment impact assessment authority calling for detailed environmental scrutiny of the joint venture "Statue of Unity" project of the Gujarat government and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Rashtriya Ekta Trust.

The activists say the project neither has the mandatory environment clearance nor has carried out environmental and social impact assessment or any public consultation process. The project’s developer, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam, had told ETthat all requisite clearances from the appropriate agencies had been secured. The Statue of Unity is being built inside the Narmada River, 3.2 km downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam and the Shoolpaneshwar sanctuary.

The activists in their petition say the Statue of Unity Project, "is not simply the construction of a mute monument but an elaborate tourism project".