Consultancy Services for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) including Environmental Management Plan (EMP) along with Environmental Quality Test and Assessment of 30km Feni-Belonia Dual Gauge Railway Link (Bangladesh Portion) Project

Length [km] / Lanes: 30km; Bridges / Box Csulverts: about 10

Feni junction is an important rail station on the Dhaka Chittagong MG (Meter Gauge) line. The 27.35 km MG line from Feni to Belonia (India – Bangladesh border) has not been used since 1997 and at present the railway track is abandoned (Figure 3.1). Belonia station is situated less than 500 m from the India – Bangladesh border. There are no major bridges on the route. There are 8 minor bridges and seven flags (non-crossing) stations between Feni to Belonia. On the Indian side Belonia (India) is a station on the Sabroom – Agartala proposed BG (Broad Gauge) line which is expected to be completed in March 2017.The aim of this project is to open another new point of rail connectivity between India and Bangladesh. The project will re-construct the old existing abundant MG line to DG (Dual Gauge) line. The approximate route length of the project is 30 km including 10 bridge/box culvert.

The scope of work of the EIA includes:

§  Review of relevant all documents and data/information from secondary sources, and identifies gaps to be filled, relevant to the environmental screening needs from field surveys.

§  Provide a description of the environmental baseline (such as baseline data on physical, biological/ecological, and socio-economic characteristics of the subproject site along with area of influence).

§  Represent the field surveys where include baseline (air, noise, surface water and ground/drinking water) environmental quality monitoring at representative and sensitive locations, and identification of macro-level environmental issues within the Sub-project’s influence area.

§  Collection of Environmental quality data including soil investigation(pH, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn), air quality ((Wind speed, Wind Direction, SOx, NOx, Pb, CO, O3, SPM, PM10, PM2.5), water quality (pH, Temperature, Humidity, Turbidity, EC, TDS, ORP, Total Hardness, TSS, Phosphate, DO, BOD, COD), vibration level and noise level etc. for the selected site; the possible locations of the selected site will be identified as per DoE Guidelines.

§  Collect information on environmentally sensitive locations on and along the sub-projects as well as within the sub-project’s influence area.

§  Arrange consultation with the local people especially project affected persons (PAPs) to find out their opinions about the sub-projects.

§  Analysis of alternatives to the proposed sub-projects.

§  Identify and assessment of potential environmental impacts due to implementation of the sub-projects.

§  Conduct preliminary analysis of impacts and management measures of the nature, scale and magnitude of the impacts that the sub-project is likely to cause on the environment and classify the same using established methods.

§  Develop Environmental Management Plan (EMP) including Monitoring Plan for successfully implementing the mitigation/enhangement measures.

§  Assess BR, s institutional capacity to execute and monitor the EMP and recommend necessary institutional capacity building including additional professionals for environmental management.

§   Prepare an EIA report in accordance with the DOE safeguard policies and guidelines.

§  Assist the Client in coordination and liaison with the DOE to organize presentation and facilitate the process of EIA approval and thereby issuance of Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC).