NGT orders Rajendrasinh Bhamboo Infra to compensate for environmental damage

NGT orders Rajendrasinh Bhamboo Infra to compensate for environmental damage

Directs the highway construction firm to pay Rs.55.47 crores within a month

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered Rajendrasinh Bhamboo Infra Private Limited to pay a penalty for causing environmental damage by illegally excavating stone, sand, and murram for its projects in the Nashik and Hingoli districts of Maharashtra.

The Pune bench of NGT western zone, in two separate orders, directed the highway construction company to pay Rs.36.35 crores and Rs.19.12 crores to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board within a month.

The green tribunal stated that the activity of mining was conducted by the project proponent without taking prior environmental clearance. It violated the rules and adversely impacted the environment.

The pleas were filed before the tribunal by Dattatraya Phalke. He suggested that the company should be blacklisted for repeatedly violating the environmental norms for its commercial benefits. He said the company was punished by NGT earlier also, but it continued to violate the norms.

Phalke reiterated that the construction company deliberately did not obtain environmental clearance for its project at Kalamnuri in Hingoli. Illegally, it excavated more than 4,50,000 brass of stones, murram, and sand.

Additionally, for its project at Nandgaon in Nashik district, the company carried out illegal mining of 25,000 brass of similar construction materials.