The Vishwamitri river rejuvenation project, a mega project of the state government, which was first proposed in 2010, is yet to see the light of the day.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s latest announcement of Rs 1,200 crore for the project to mitigate Vadodara’s flood problem is yet another in the series of assurances given by the civic body as well as the state government to the city’s residents.
A day after the announcement was made late on Thursday after the Chief Minister’s visit to the flood-hit city, Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) officials said only a “primary discussion” of the project was held in the presence of Patel. While VMC Commissioner Dilip Rana said that the project discussed in presence of Chief Minister Patel was only “a primary discussion”, Chief Whip of the state government and Raopura BJP MLA Balkrishna Shukla told this newspaper that the state government has handed out “strict instructions” for a coordinated effort of the departments concerned to ensure that Vadodara city does not witness floods of the same magnitude again.
The previous announcement — a “mega project” to rejuvenate the Vishwamitri — was made by the Vijay Rupani-led government in December 2019. This was four months after Vadodara city went under water on two occasions — in July and August that year. However, despite being called a “holistic development project” that would work on the river from its origin at Pavagadh in Panchmahal to its amalgamation with the Gulf of Khambhat, the project did not take off even after the National Green Tribunal approved a Detailed Project Report (DPR) submitted by the VMC, officials said.
Although conceptualised by VMC in 2008, a Feasibility Report Master Plan of the Vishwamitri Riverfront Development Project (VRDP) was prepared only in December 2014 by an Ahmedabad-based consulting firm, HCP Design, Planning & Management Private Limited. The application for Environment Clearance (EC) for the project was submitted to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, Gujarat State (SEIAA) on November 26, 2015. The same year, VMC resubmitted the proposal after SEIAA flagged some shortcomings in the project.
A year later, Rohit Prajapati of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti, a not-for-profit environment protection organisation, were among activists who moved the Western Bench of the National Green Tribunal questioning the activities planned by the civic body as part of the project. They contended that the activities, including demolition, dredging, digging, filling, levelling, construction, announcement of projects, etc, are illegal in nature as these are undertaken before the completion of due processes for Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and EC as per EIA Notification, 2006.
Prajapati says, “Understanding the ecology of the Vishwamitri is especially critical since it is a unique habitat for ‘Schedule I Species’ as listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The Vishwamitri project should be intended to increase the flood carrying capacity, clean the river to make it pollution-free, retain and replenish the water, create a safe habitat for crocodiles, integrate with slum redevelopment policy, increase groundwater recharge, create public and recreational spaces, strengthen the river edge, improve accessibility and connectivity, generate resources to pay for all of the foregoing and integrate with city development.”
The activists sought an interim order to restrain VMC from proceeding with the project on the assertion that it had not obtained EC. VMC filed a withdrawal application stating the project was in an “early stage”. NGT then asked the civic body to maintain status quo and not carry out any further construction and development-enabling activities within the area of VRDP until and unless the prior EC is obtained for the said project.
In February 2018, after the civic body had spent close to Rs 2 crore for consultation and preparation of the feasibility report for VRDP, the project was rechristened Vishwamitri River Revival Project with a new consultant on board to prepare the conceptual note. Environmentalists questioned the rationale behind spending money on the project and then scrapping it, instead of following the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) approach.
A senior official said then VMC Commissioner Vinod Rao had proposed to implement five Town Planning Schemes along the course of the Vishwamitri River in the city to eliminate encroachments on private lands and clear the path for a complete development. However, after rechristening the Special Purpose Vehicle from Vishwamitri Riverfront Development Corporation Ltd to the Vishwamitri River Revival Corporation Ltd, the project failed to take off.
“It is an issue of the state and so rightfully, the CM has instructed that the project proposal should be created in coordination of the departments and immediately. It will include widening storm water drains… superimposing a green belt around Vishwamitri to ensure that floods are mitigated but it is not a project that will be completed within a year or two,” he says.
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