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Message: <blockquote data-quote="monson" data-source="post: 22282573" data-attributes="member: 30005">News on 2017.09.17:Ruwanpura: RDA pushes ahead without EIA reportBy Namini WijedasaCEA sources critical of process as being 'inside out'The Road Development Authority (RDA) has started acquiring land for the US$ 1.8 billion (Rs. 275 billion) Ruwanpura Expressway even before a mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA) and an economic feasibility study are completed, prompting Central Environment Authority (CEA) sources to denounce the process as ‘inside out’.Tens of families have been issued notices under the Land Acquisition Act’s controversial Section 38(a) which allows for immediate takeover of land on grounds of “urgency” with compensation to be paid in the unspecified future. It is not clear what the urgency is as neither the EIA nor feasibility study is ready. And there is still no budget to pay landowners for the properties they will forfeit.The RDA has already advanced Rs 314 million to a consultancy firm for the feasibility study which was initially given out for 32 weeks but is still not final, details obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act revealed. The job was assigned more than two years ago, in November 2014, to Maga Neguma Consultancy and Project Management Services (Pvt) Ltd which subcontracted it to Skills International. A penalty was not imposed for the delay. The agreement was merely extended.Meanwhile, the EIA–which is crucial as the expressway will traverse environmentally sensitive areas–is yet to be presented to the public for comment. “We have to see it first to gauge whether it is suitable enough to open out for public comment,” a CEA official said, on condition of anonymity. Several areas along the proposed trace, running 73.9km from Kahathuduwa to Pelmadulla via Horana, are prone to disaster.Eighteen percent of land acquisition is now finished in the 26.3km stretch from Kahathuduwa to Ingiriya while 40 percent of preliminary design work is also done. “The RDA is violating every step in the book in its rush to push this through,” the official pointed out. “What will they do if the EIA is rejected or there is a call for the trace to be changed? Or if the feasibility study deems the project to be economically unviable?”The Auditor General’s Department has also queried the process, the Sunday Times learns. Civil works contractors have not yet been selected. It has not been decided whether to request proposals from a nominated contractor for the first section or to go for a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) option, project officers said in response to the RTI application.More:<a href="http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170917/news/ruwanpura-rda-pushes-ahead-without-eia-report-259984.html" target="_blank">http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170917/news/ruwanpura-rda-pushes-ahead-without-eia-report-259984.html</a></blockquote>

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