By IANS
Kolkata : West Bengal Environment Minister Sailen Sarkar said Wednesday the state government had not approached his department for an environment impact study at the Nayachar island, the new site for a proposed chemical hub.
“Nayachar has been selected for the proposed chemical hub in West Bengal, but my department has not received any request to carry out an environment impact study at the site,” Sarkar said during a seminar on ‘Sustainable Initiative – strategies for business development’, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here.
Nayachar, a 40 sq km island on the Hooghly riverbed in East Midnapore district, has been selected as the likely place for the chemical hub that was originally to be set up at Nandigram.
Violent protests against the land acquisition plan for the project forced the government to shift it elsewhere.
The state government owns 11,000 hectares of land at Nayachar; a sparsely populated island located about 150 km from Kolkata. Some of the land there is also owned by the Haldia Development Authority (HDA).
Talking about environment pollution, Centre for Environment and Development (CED) director Ashis Ghosh said the government should do a detailed stability study at Nayachar before setting up the chemical hub there.
“The piece of land has newly emerged on the Hooghly riverbed and it’s not more than 50 years old,” Ghosh said.
Pointing out the pollution potential of the petrochemical industry, he said the state government should ensure that chemical waste is not dumped into the Hooghly river.