Type of Project and the Category. This project consists of augmentation of thirteen existing GSs, building four new GSs, and building four new transmission lines over newly established rights-of-way. According to the ADB Environmental Assessment Guidelines2 (clause 142), this subproject can be classified as follows: Project type: Electrical Transmission Category: B 3 DESCRIPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT Information in this section is presented for groups of substations where appropriate, to avoid repetition of common information. Wherever special situations exist, they are separately stated. A key feature of the proposed subproject is that thirteen GSs to be augmented in this project will be at the present premises, within the available land space already owned by CEB, with no additional land to be acquired. A selection of the GSs showing the space available is shown in Figure 3.1.
Type of Project and the Category. The National Grid Development Project consists of augmentation of fifteen existing GSs, building four new GSs, and building five new transmission lines along a new corridor developed for each new line. All the fifteen GSs would be augmented within the available space, and no new land will be acquired. The four new GSs would be built on land acquired from the government, and presently there are no settlements on any of these four blocks of land earmarked to locate the four GSs. As such, there will be no involuntary resettlements or loss of land/livelihood or disturbance to any member of public owing to the augmentation/construction of GSs. This project includes the development of five new rights-of-way for transmission lines and the construction of five lines. There will be some temporary obstructions to the people who own or use the land over which the line are to be drawn, during construction. During operation, there will be some land-use restrictions, the extent of which, and method of compensation are explained under Chapter 3. There will be no temporary or permanent displacement of people from their homes or livelihoods. According to the ADB Handbook on Resettlement4 (page 14) and Operations Manual5, this project can be classified to have insignificant resettlement, with less than 200 persons subject to “loss of productive and other assets (including land), income and livelihoods”. It is emphasised that the project would not cause any loss of productive and other assets, income and livelihood, but would cause some land use restrictions, as explained in this plan. Therefore under ADB guidelines, this project is classified to be of “Involuntary Resettlement category B: Not Significant”. Thus, this project requires a “short resettlement plan” under the ADB guidelines.
