8. Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)
8.1 Introduction
Environment preservation is now a critical issue for the world as a whole. Global warming (mainly caused by increase of CO2), destruction of Ozone layer, securing of energy resources, air and water pollution, acid raining, cutting of trees of tropical rainy woods arc the major critical issues occurring on earth.
To prevent the worsening of environmental conditions, every project must be properly assessed from the view point of environmental preservation, and if there are any negative impact inf1uenced by a project, some appropriate measures must be taken. This is a practice now prevailing in all over the world. Indian Government including Karnakata State Government, recognizing the significance of environmental problems, issued the following acts which should be adhered to in implementation of a project.
(1) Environmental Protection Act, 1986, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF)
(2) EIA of Development Project, 1984, MOEF
(3) Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, MOEF
(4) Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, amended in 1988, MOEF
(5) Hr (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, amended in 1988, MOEF
(6) Government of Karnataka's Environment Protection Rules, 1986
Following the Government policy BMRTL implemented an environmental impact assessment for ELRTS project which was carried out by Rail India Technical and Economic Consultancy Services (RITES) in l995. The results of the assessment were reported in the Report of ”Environmental Impact Assessment for Elevated Light Rail Transit System, December 1995“(hereinafter referred to as EIA Study).
EIA Study, assessing the ELRT project, made clear the negative and positive impacts of the project and presented the major countermeasures for the negative impacts.
Further, after some change of the conditions of the project, mainly routes, Consulting Engineering Services (INDIA) Limited prepared ”Report on Environmental Baseline / Benchmark Studies for the Elevated Light Rail Transit System for Bangalore, August 1997“(hereinafter referred to as Baseline Study). This Baseline Study made clear the current situations of various aspects of environmental problems such as vehicle accidents, influence
