The environment and forests ministry has halted all constructions at the new Lavasa lakeside hill station in Pune district and issued a show cause notice to reply within 15 days why the unauthorised structures should not be demolished "in entirety".

It acted on a complaint of the environment violations from an NGO, National Alliance of People Movement, in June and cracked the whip through a notice issued on November 25 only after due verification of facts from the Maharashtra government.

The developers, Lavasa Corporation Limited, a Vikhroli-Mumbai-based company of the HCC Group, are engaged in building an entirely new hill station permitted on 2,000 hectares in Mulshi and Velhe talukas of Pune district. They seem to have not bothered about new clearances required due to changes in the environment notifications, banking entirely on the provisional no objection certificate of December 13, 2002 and the final environment clearance of March 13, 2004 secured from the state government. The notice deems all structures as unauthorised as built without any environment clearances under the notifications of 2004 and 2006 and requires that "status quo ante for construction, development as on date should be maintained" pending decision on the show cause notice.

The crackdown comes two months after the ministry directed the state environment department through a letter on September 20, 2010 to re-examine and verify the status of the project and take action against violation as also ensure the state environment impact assessment authority (SEIAA) grants no environment clearance on the developers' applications pending this verification. 

The developers have been asked to provide with their response to the notice the details of the project, clearances obtained and status of the project "with photographs/satellite google maps indicating the constructions as on 18.03.2004, 07.07.2004, 14.09.2006 and upto date." The developers are assured a hearing in person, if so sought, within one week of the receipt of reply, with a warning that final directions without any further reference to them will be passed for initiating formal action under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, if no response is received with 15 days. 

Though the environment clearance granted by the state government to the Lake City Corporation in March 2004 was to build the hill station at a height of 640 to 900 metres above sea level, the ministry's notice says the developers have built above 1,000 metres on 47.30 hectares of land without obtaining its prior clearance. The ministry's approval is necessary if any construction is done above 1,000 metres. The developers are also charged with violation of the environment impact assessment (EIA) notifications issued in 2004 and 2006, amending the original 1994 notification, for carrying on constructions without securing the clearances. The 7.7.2004 notification applied to not only the new constructions but also to all projects where the construction has not come up to the plinth level and where expenditure does not exceed 25 percent of the sanctioned cost. The notice says the developers had spent only Rs 115.20 crores until the date of the 2004 notification which is just 5.33 percent of the sanctioned project cost of Rs 2,153 crores and as such it should have taken clearance before proceeding further.

The ministry has also noted that no details were available on how many buildings were under construction and what was their status at the time of the 2004 notification. The notice also questions changes that may have been made in the project during the first phase starting March 18, 2004 and constructions done after the EIA notification of 2006. It quotes various responses of the Maharashtra government's environment department and correspondence with it and quotes from the collector's report about constructions on 47.30 hectares above 2,000 metres of the height from sea level.