4. description of the environment - Gujarat Pollution Control Board

5. PUBLIC CONSULTATION
Public consultation has been taken up as an integral part of environmental assessment process
throughout the project preparation stage of this project.
5.1 INTRODUCTION
Public consultation is a continuous two way communication process which involves promoting full
public understanding of the project, its benefits, problems and solutions. Public consultation
ensures participation of the project beneficiaries in decision making with respect to environment
and social aspects. This contributes to the design considerations of the proposed project and is
essentially a part of environmental and social assessment process.
The process benefits both the project proponent and potentially affected communities. The
significance of the Public Consultation process is discussed below:
Educates the potentially impacted communities about the proposed course of action, the
alternatives to it, the costs and benefits associated.
Solicits the views of the potentially affected communities regarding impact on environmental
components due to the project and their significance.
Allow potentially affected communities to provide input into such matters as project design and
selection of mitigation measures before irrevocable decisions are taken.
Serves as an important tool for collecting information about the natural, social and cultural
environment as certain information are only available through these interactive grass root level
discussions.
Since the residents have a much better knowledge of their circumstances, environment and living
conditions, they sometimes contribute to the identification of new alternatives to the proposed
alignment.
Provides insight into public acceptance of the project within the Corridor of Impact.
Helps in lessening public resistance to change by involving them in decision making.
Consultation with community and their involvement at the project planning (screening) stage
helped in informing and educating the stakeholders about the proposed action before the
finalisation of design. It assisted in identifying the problems associated with the proposed project
and the needs and values of the population likely to be impacted by the project.
The minutes of the consultations carried out in respective locations is presented in the next
section.
The consultation process has been summarized in the following Table 5-1.
Table 5-1: Details of the Consultations along the project corridor
S.No. Date/Venue of Consultation/Participants Issues Raised Remarks
25/11/2008 at Jetpur Bypass in District Rajkot at Land The villagers told that the land
1
Developer Office cum Farm- Naran Bhai K Patel-farmer,
Rampariya Suresh-Building Developer, Rajnikanth B
required for road development
beyond the railway track has
Ranparita- Builder, Rupesh Valiji Bhai-Developer, Virji Bhai many structures and thus it
5-1