Milford Dart Tunnel

The group which presented a petition opposing the Milford Dart tunnel to Parliament has been invited to make a submission to a select committee on the Department of Conservation (Doc) concession process.

A report commissioned by Environment Southland considering access options to Milford Sound is flawed and of no use, Southland Mayor Frana Cardno says.

Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson must make the final decision on whether to allow the Milford Dart Tunnel, Green Party conservation spokeswoman Eugenie Sage said yesterday.

Unesco is keeping a close eye on the Fiordland and Mt Aspiring national parks and their status as a World Heritage site may be under threat from two controversial commercial proposals.

Few issues provoke such emotional responses as proposals to develop New Zealand's precious conservation land. This has been evidenced by any number of examples, such as the 1959 to 1972 Save Manapouri campaign, through to the more recent reaction to the Government's proposal to consider opening up to mining some areas of schedule 4 conservation land. National parks are considered by many to be sacred, in which man-made development or disturbance should be forbidden.

The online petition created by Glenorchy woman Patricia Ko opposing the proposed Milford Dart tunnel has made international headlines with the growing number of signatures it is receiving.

Milford Dart Ltd's proposal to build an 11.6km, $150 million commercial bus tunnel through two national parks was "technically viable" and the tunnel could be constructed and operated within environmental and safety constraints, the company's engineering expert says.

The cost to Milford Dart Ltd for hearings into its proposed $150 million Dart Passage Tunnel was "outrageous", coming in at a total of $70,000 for 10 days of hearings, MDL director Michael Sleigh told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.

A Queenstown resident yesterday compared the "minor" effects of the proposed Dart Passage Tunnel construction to terminal cancer and told Department of Conservation hearings chairman Paul Green and assistant Chris Visser "I'll see you at the funeral".