· The Environment Ministry has amended laws that now allow a proposed tourism project in the Aves island, of the Andaman and Nicobar island (A&N) territory, to come up.
· The project was the only one of three high-profile proposed tourism projects that did not get a clearance from an expert committee on coastal clearance. The projects which got the clearance were Lalaji Bay on Long Island and at Smith Island.
· This was because the proposed Aves island project was located 20 m away from the High Tide line(HTL) and existing rules required such projects to be at least 50 m away.
· While the new rules did ease the way for the Aves island project, it was also done to broadly align the changes in coastal zone regulations in the country’s mainland States with the island regions.
· The government had issued a coastal regulation zone notification that largely allows tourism and development projects located near coasts in mainland States to come up closer to the sea.
· It also issued an Island Zone Protection Notification to allow similar relaxations in the A&N Islands.
· The Centre has been working on a long-term plan to make several of the A&N islands more conducive to tourism.
· Last year, the Home Ministry revived an Island Development Agency that would coordinate infrastructure projects to aid tourism in the A&N islands as well as Lakshadweep.
Source : The Hindu
10.03.2019