Environmental impact assessment: It’s now mandatory for all RHD projects

The Roads and Highways Department must carry out the Environmental Impact Assessment for all its future projects to avoid possible negative impact on the environment.

It must take the Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) from the authority concerned before undertaking any infrastructure project, according to a recent decision of the Road Transport and Highways Division under the Road Transport and Bridges Ministry.

The RHD usually carries out EIA and takes ECC only for foreign-funded projects and does not do so for the government-funded ones.

The decision made by the Road Transport and Highways Division in September left the RHD in trouble as many of its project proposals waiting for approval do not have such clearances.

So, the RHD must do assessments and take clearances before moving forward with the projects, which will take time, said RHD officials.

EIA is the systematic study, assessment, and reporting of the impacts of a proposed programme, plan or project, including a management plan for dealing with negative impacts, according to an RHD management plan.

EIA, which is prepared at the feasibility level, includes quantification and valuation of the impacts, it says.

The move comes amid rampant allegations that rivers and other water bodies are dying due to many unplanned infrastructures developed by different government and non-government agencies as well as individuals.

The National Committee on Air Pollution Control, in its second meeting last year, made a similar decision to prevent water, air, and sound pollution, said officials.

RHD is one of the major government agencies implementing many projects for building or expanding roads and bridges. It is now implementing 122 infrastructure projects, of which 17 are foreign-funded, shows planning ministry documents.

At the monthly coordination meeting of the Road Transport and Highways Division on September 24, its Senior Secretary Ehsanul Hoque asked whether RHD carries out EIA and takes ECC before undertaking any project.

In reply, RHD Chief Engineer Syed Moinul Hasan said they do EIAs and take ECCs for the foreign-aided projects, but they usually do not take such clearances for the government-funded ones, read the meeting minutes.

Then the meeting decided that assessment must be done and ECC has to be taken for any government-funded project.

At the meeting, the chief engineer mentioned that 48 Development Project Proposals (DPPs) were now pending at different stages of the approval process.

Moinul told The Daily Star yesterday that they usually carry out EIA based on the project size. Now, they will make EIA and ECC mandatory for every project.

He added that some of the DPPs are now at the preliminary stage and some at the advance stage.

Responding to a question, Moinul said, "Yes. It would take time to carry out the assessments, but we will do as per the directive."

Another top RHD official said some of the pending DPPs may not be moved forward for now given the changed situation.

But it will take time to do EIAs for the other proposed projects in the approval process and thus the number of RHD projects will decrease in the coming days, the official said, wishing not to be named.