Mollem: The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) constituted by Supreme Court of India started on site inspection of three infra projects passing through Goa and Karnataka forest.
CEC comprising of former Union Environment Secretary P V Jayakrishnan, Amarnath Shetty, Member Secretary Mahendra Vyas and A D N Rao, Amicus Curie were assisted by PWD Principal Chief Engineer Uttam Parsekar, Chief Conservator of Forest Santosh Kumar and other officials.
Complainant Claude Alvares of Goa Foundation was also present for the inspection.
During the inspection, the team has suggested some diversions in alignment to save heritage trees.
The complainant Claude Alvares assisted the team in showing how the project of NH4A is going to impact the forest and wildlife sanctuary.
The team conducted inspection on only NH4a widening, said PWD engineers.
The engineers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that there will not be much impact on forest as major of road would be on still.
“There is also not going to be much of hill cutting,” they said.
The CEC team has now left for inspection to Castle Rock and Tinai Ghat in Karnataka and will return to Goa tomorrow.
