A technical team from the environment ministry will tomorrow visit the site of the Lavasa township near Pune, whose construction is held up for want of environmental clearance.

A five-member ministry team headed by Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) division adviser Nalini Bhat will make an on-the-spot assessment of the controversial Rs3,000 crore hill project, sources in the ministry said today.

The sources said it would take at least three days to complete the assessment.

The ministry will also submit its reply in the Mumbai High Court by January 10 in connection with a petition filed by Lavasa challenging the stay on construction ordered by the ministry.

The ministry team is visiting the site as per the Mumbai high court's direction. Last month, the high court had asked the environment ministry to take, by January 10, a final decision on the show-cause notice issued to the company.

The high court had directed that before taking the decision, a state/Centre-level Environment Impact Assessment Committee must visit the site "at least for three days" for inspection.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh had last week said a technical team of the ministry would visit Lavasa soon.

The environment ministry served a notice to Lavasa on November 25 asking why it did not obtain environmental clearances, as per notifications issued under Environment Protection Act, before the hill city project started in 2004.