Governments of Assam intend to upgrade the existing Inland water transport system in state. To modernize and transform IWT in Assam, the World Bank is assisting the GoA through a phase-wise project which includes up gradation of ferry Infrastructure, last mile connectivity. Fleet modernization, institutional capacity development etc. for total 11 identified Terminal/ Jetty / Landing point locations. However, in phase-I, three ghats/ landing points have been selected.The projectincludes civil works along with new construction activity; for which it has been categorized as Environment Category-A according to World Bank classifications.
Project development / civil intervention works during development may have interface with various physical, social and biological components of the environment, i.e. water quality, aquatic and terrestrial flora & fauna, air quality, noise levels etc. at all project development stages. All these environmental components will get affected due to development and operation of the terminals and a detailed environment and social impact assessment has been carriedout toassess all the potential impacts of the project. Further the impacts of development can be due to its location or due to the nature of activities to be performed during its development and operation phase thus both these aspects should be looked into while carrying out EIA study.
As thecomplete lists of project activities and locations havenot been finalized, a framework approach has been adopted. Under this approach, the present Environmental ManagementFramework (EMF) has been prepared to identify all the potential but generic negative environmental and social impacts, propose mitigation measures, provide basic screening criteria for selecting subprojects, implementation and provide institutional arrangements, grievance redressal mechanismsand monitoring, reporting and documentation measures for environmental and social safeguards compliance. The EMFcovers all physical works activities as well as feasibility and other studies to be carried out under the project.