No green nod for AIIMS: Bengal board chief ahead of Modi's event

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Kalyani in West Bengal, which is scheduled to be dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday along with the inauguration of four other AIIMS, does not have an environmental clearance, the West Bengal pollution control board (WBPCB) said on Saturday.

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According to the guidelines of the ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC), a project bigger than 20,000 square metres requires an environment clearance, WBPCB chairman Kalyan Rudra said at a press conference. AIIMS, Kalyani, located around 50km from Kolkata in Nadia district, sprawls over an area of more than 220,000 sqm, he said.

"The AIIMS Kalyani authorities had applied for environmental clearance to State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) on October 6, 2022 through Centre's Parivesh portal," Rudra said.

"The application was under the 'violation' category as the construction process had started before the request for an environmental clearance was made." Following the MoEFCC guidelines, the WBPCB on October 19, 2022 imposed an environmental damage cost and a penalty that summed up to over 15 crore, he said.

In September 2023, however, AIIMS Kalyani applied for an exemption, contending that it was a health care facility and does not require an environmental clearance.