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The Rs 8,800-crore Mumbai Trans Harbour Link project has hit one more road block. Well-known environmental conservation body Bombay Natural History Society is now seeking a change in the alignment of the sea link, as the current design will completely destroy the habitat of flamingos at Sewri mudflats in central Mumbai.
The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, popularly called MTHL, will connect Sewri in the island city to Nhava in Navi Mumbai with a 22-km-long sea link. The link will provide the crucial connectivity to the proposed Navi Mumbai Airport.
The link was first proposed in the JRD Tata Committee Report of 1984.
Over last 27 years, the project did not leave the drawing board, mainly because of the huge finances involved. However, in recent months, the project has been shifted to the cash-rich Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which has now called for pre-qualification bids.
The Director of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Dr Asad Rahmani, addressing the media on Wednesday said that if a section of the sea link is built at the current site, it will endanger the habitat of Lesser Flamingos – a ‘near threatened' bird species. Therefore, MMRDA should realign the link so that the habitat is saved, he said.
“We are not against MTHL project but the present site chosen for the sea link at Sewri not only destroys the habitat of flamingos but also of other endangered bird varieties. The present site should be shifted by another 700 metres,” Dr Rahmani said.
Dr Rahmani pointed that the MTHL is being built on an Environment Impact Analysis (EIA) report, which is more than 15 years old, while the flamingos have been nesting at the mudflats for the last 10 years during winter months. Today, there is a whole change in the environment. Therefore, a new EIA report is required, he said.
Dr Rahmani, who is also a member of the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife said that he would take up the issue with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
“If MMRDA goes ahead and destroys the flamingo habitat, then BNHS will not be keeping quiet about it,” Dr Rahmani warned.
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