KGS Moves SC on Aranmula Airport.

The KGS Group has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the Chennai bench of the National Green Tribunal's order cancelling the environmental clearance given to its Aranmula airport project and seeking a stay on this.

In its appeal, KGS has argued that the National Green Tribunal bench quashed the project without considering the study on environmental impact of the Union Environment Ministry.

The Green Tribunal had found that Enviorocare, the agency that had carried out the study on environmental impact of the airport project, was not adequately qualified for the job and that the public hearing on the project had not been carried out in accordance with the set norms. The NGT had on May 28 quashed the environment clearance to the controversial project, billed as the first private international greenfield airport promoted by Chennai-based KGS Group, on environmental grounds.

In its petition, KGS pleaded to the court to stay the NGT decision and permit it to continue the building work on the project site. The petition also said the Ministry of Environment and Forests had granted the environmental clearance to the Rs. 3000-crore project after doing a comprehensive assessment and review of the environmental impact of the project. 'The tribunal did not consider these while quashing the environment clearance', the petition states. The Kerala Government has a 10 percent stake in the project and the Oommen Chandy Government has openly supported it.


THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS