The regional empowered committee (Nagpur), constituted by the Union environment ministry, has held off on green-lighting the City Industrial Development Corporation’s (CIDCO) proposal to divert 23.7 hectares of forest land in Thane district, to make way for Phase 1 of the Nerul-Uran railway corridor. This was done in the light of previous violations of the Forest Conservation Act (1980) and the Bombay High Court’s orders on mangrove conservation in Maharashtra by CIDCO, reveal the minutes of the REC’s last meeting on September 16, a copy of which was accessed by Hindustan Times this week.
REC in its considerations noted that CIDCO had already obtained Stage-1 forest clearance for diversion of 4 hectares of forest land for Phase 2 of the Nerul-Uran Railway Corridor,
