Environment Clearance in Khalapur, Panvel.

Large plants in Khalapur (chemical, metallurgical, food and other process units) often fall in the EIA Notification's schedule, and so do the larger resort and township projects on its farmland. A greenfield site here usually has no baseline record, so the season of air, water, soil, noise and ecology monitoring the EIA needs is also the first proper record of the site. We plan it early, place stations where the river, villages and hills tell us to, and build the application on it.

Khalapur is the taluka east of Panvel, through which the expressway to Pune and the old highway climb towards Khopoli and the Sahyadri ghat. It lies outside the municipal corporation and is a different kind of place from the CIDCO nodes. Factories and warehouses stand along the highways and around Khopoli, some of them large process plants; between them are farmland, villages, weekend homes, resorts and a theme park. The Patalganga river runs through the taluka, and forested hills rise on its eastern and southern sides. Land here is still being converted from farm to industry and leisure.