Mumbai, July 22: The proposed 30,000-seat Global Capability Centre (GCC) in Powai has come under fresh scrutiny after an RTI response from the Maharashtra State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) revealed that it has no record of any Environmental Clearance (EC) or Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project.
The disclosure has intensified concerns over the Brookfield project, which involves large-scale hill cutting and development in the Powai-Vikhroli area.
RTI Response Raises Questions
NatConnect Foundation Director B. N. Kumar had sought information under the RTI Act regarding the environmental clearances for the project and its EIA.
"In the reply, the SEIAA said that officials searched records available with the Authority, the Union Environment Ministry's PARIVESH portal and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board's environmental clearance portal, but found no record relating to the Powai GCC project. The RTI response speaks for itself," Kumar said, adding that if work is proceeding without these statutory processes, the government must immediately clarify the project's legal and environmental status.
Residents Seek Project Review
Recently, a petition was also submitted by the Powai Area Locality Management (ALM) and nearly 20 cooperative housing societies to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking an immediate review of the project before any irreversible decisions are taken.
The residents' petition says the proposed two-million-square-foot campus, designed to accommodate around 30,000 employees, would overwhelm the already saturated Powai-Chandivali road network, particularly the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, besides placing enormous pressure on civic infrastructure, emergency services and the fragile Powai Lake ecosystem.
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They have also expressed concern over hill cutting near the Parksite-Vikhroli slopes, warning that it could damage natural drainage, biodiversity corridors linked to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park landscape and the Powai Lake catchment.
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