SOURCE: UNI
Indian Navy is preparing for the foundation stone laying ceremony of its Very Low Frequency (VLF) Station at Pudur village under the Damagundam reserve forest block in Vikarabad on Tuesday, with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to be the chief guest, people from different sections are intensifying their protest against the project and demanding the State government to rethink its permission for the land to the Navy.
The Navy utilizes VLF communication stations to connect with personnel on ships and submarines. This will be the second such station in India, following the INS Kattabomman Radar Station in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, which has been operational since 1990. The Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam identified Telangana as a suitable location for the second radar station.
Construction of the VLF station, township, schools, parks in the forests would cast an adverse impact on the local environment, they argued, asking the Centre and State government to hold public discussions on the issue. If ecological balance was not ensured, it would lead to natural calamities, they said.
Since 2010, the Navy has been in touch with the state government. Despite all the environmental permits and clearances, the allotment of land did not proceed due to the negligence of the previous government. With the special initiative of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, all the obstacles to this project were removed. Commodore Karthik Shankar, Circle DEO Rohit Bhupathi and Captain Sandeep Das met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday.
The officials of Vikarabad DFO and Naval Command Agency signed the agreement for the transfer of forest lands. 1174 hectares of forest land under Damagudem Reserve Forest has been handed over to the Navy. In 2014 itself, the Union Forest and Environment Department approved the Navy’s proposals. Campa funds of Rs 133.54 crores for handing over forest land and Navy has paid Rs 18.56 crores for the works undertaken for land conservation measures.