Pune: The Pune bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday listed 30 major defaulters among 189 construction projects, including the twin towers named after US President Donald Trump, and directed the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to issue show-cause notices to them.
The bench of Justice U D Salvi and expert member Dr Nagin Nanda directed MPCB to issue show-cause notices, asking why these project proponents should not be saddled with environmental compensation for not discharging their obligations under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, according to Pune Mirror.
It has alleged that levels of pollution are rapidly rising in the Mula-Mutha due to sewage flowing directly into the rivers and that the sewage plants run by PMC and other establishments are faulty.
The pollution control board had earlier warned the Trump's construction to apply for Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) so that it can remove the contaminants from wastewater. But Trump's Indian partner failed to install it.
In March 2016, the NGT had asked MPCB, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) and others for details on sewage water flowing in the city, present operating capacity and performance data of the individual STP.
Trump Organisation has finalised five luxury residential and office projects in India in association with local partners in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, and Kolkata. The gross development value of the five projects is $1.5 billion, according to The Economic Times.
The ongoing projects include a 75 storey luxury residential project called Trump Towers in association with the Lodha Group in Lower Parel in Mumbai, a luxury residential project and an office project with M3M India and IREO, respectively, in Gurgaon, a luxury housing project with Panchshil Realty in Pune and a yet to be launched project in Kolkata.
While the Pune project with Panchshil Realty has been completed, the project in Mumbai will be ready by 2018-19.
According to the agreement, Lodha Group and Panchshil Realty will pay Trump an undisclosed sum in royalty based on the sales for licensed use of his firm’s brand name in the projects.
Meanwhile, the project owners said they were not at fault. Atul Chordia, chairman, Panchshil Realty, which owns Trump Towers, said, “The project is not occupied fully and only four families are staying here. To keep the STP functional, we require 40 per cent capacity input to operate properly. Due to lack of feed, the plant has stopped. Otherwise, it is fully functional and working.”
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