Govt cranks up efforts to get green nods for Musi project

Hyderabad: The State Government got cracking to obtain environmental clearances from the Union Government for the prestigious Musi Rejuvenation project. It requires a lot of clearances from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) since the project is being taken up in separate packages and they are being developed on the popular Musi river passing over a stretch of more than 50 km in the middle of the city.

Top officials of the state Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) said that the major challenge to take up the Musi rejuvenation project was environmental clearances. Every package requires a different clearance from the Union ministry as it is needed to fulfill some environmental norms to construct big structures alongside the river, management of river water for domestic needs under the rejuvenation project, maintenance of water quality as per the standards prescribed by the ministry, etc.

The official said that the package of detailed project reports were finalised and some of them sent to the ministry for consideration. The MA&UD wing is in constant touch with the officials of the MoEFCC to clear their doubts and get expedited approvals.

Once the Musi project gets all clearances for all packages, the officials said that the works will be expedited. However, the government did not set any deadline so far for clearances and completion of the project works following the project is still in the finalisation of the project reports.

Further, the officials said that the government will take a call on fund requirement and mobilisation of funds only after getting all environmental clearances. The government already held the first round of talks with the World Bank representatives seeking loans for the Musi project. Other funding agencies and financial institutions have also been contacted and no such concrete announcements were made by these agencies to fund the project till date, officials said.