New Delhi, Nov 9 (IANS): The environment ministry Wednesday gave conditional clearance to the first phase of Rs.3,000 crore Lavasa hill city project near Pune in Maharashtra, officials said.

"The ministry has cleared the Lavasa project, saying all the preconditions have been met with the Maharashtra government taking action against the company for violation of green laws," a ministry official told IANS.

The ministry last month denied environment clearance on non-compliance of the preconditions.

Lavasa, a project of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), had in February applied for fresh environment clearance of phase-I spread over 2,000 hectares in Mulshi sub-district near Pune.

The preconditions included credible action by the Maharashtra government against the violation of environment laws, submission of a written commitment by the company that green violations shall not be repeated, and that the scale and intensity of development of the hill town shall be as per Hill Station Regulations.

The ministry had Nov 25, 2010, slapped a show-cause notice on Lavasa Corporation as it had allegedly failed to secure necessary environmental clearances before starting work on its 5,000-plus hectare lake city project coming up in Mulshi sub-district of Pune district, around 200 km from Mumbai.

The company approached the Bombay High Court against the environment ministry's order.

The Maharashtra government had filed a criminal complaint against Lavasa Corporation, naming six officers and all nine directors of Lavasa, including Ajit Gulabchand and Annirudha Deshpande, in the case.