The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has cleared the ambitious `3,600 crore Renuka Dam project to be constructed on a tributary of the Yamuna river in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh. The Renuka dam has been in the eye of a storm because water activists are opposed to water being supplied to the NCR from large distances. The Renuka dam is located 250 km from Delhi and on completion will supply 275 million gallons of water per day to Delhi. The principal bench of NGT vacated the interim stay for awarding compensation in lieu of acquisition of private land but refused to vacate its stay on land covered under the Forest Conservation Act. This will come up for final hearing on August 14. The bench headed by Justice C.V. Ramalu said, “Since land acquisition was finalised in respect of some land owners and compensation was paid, we think it is desirable that other similarly placed persons should also get compensation.” The NGT had last year directed the Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation to stop the land acquisition process and also restrained it from carrying out construction activity on both non-forest and forest land. This directive was given following activist Durga Ram’s petition challenging the environmental clearances granted by the ministry of environment and forest in October 2009. He argued that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the project was unsatisfactory.