NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has said that ports as an industry are allowed in the ecologically sensitive Dahanu taluka area, which includes Vadhavan in Maharashtra’s Palghar district, where the Centre plans to build an ambitious new Major Port estimated to cost Rs 65,544.54 crore.

The Ministry conveyed its stand on the issue in early June to the Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority, which had raised objections to the Vadhavan project, planned to handle some 254 million tonnes (mt) of cargo, including 9.87 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). This Authority was set up by the Maharashtra government as an oversight agency to “monitor” projects coming up in the ecologically fragile zone.

The Environment Ministry’s stand will remove a big hurdle in the development of the port, to be helmed by Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), a Shipping Ministry official said.

While seeking “in-principle” approval from the Cabinet to build the new port on February 5, the Shipping Ministry had said there was no restriction on constructing a port in Vadhavan as a port, in the absence of any manufacturing or processing activity, is not an industry but an infrastructure project.

Yet, a petiton filed by the Vadhavan Virodhi Manch seeking to retain the status of the Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority, nudged the Environment Ministry to communicate its stand on the issue.