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Order of the National Green Tribunal regarding approval for parking lot for Hotel Sea Rock and other constructions falling in the no-development zone of CRZ, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 13/08/2019

  • 13/08/2019

Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Sonia Raj Sood Vs Union of India & Others dated 13/08/2019 regarding approval for parking lot for Hotel Sea Rock and other constructions falling in the CRZ no-development zone, Mumbai, Maharashtra.

A Joint Committee comprising representatives of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA), Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) and Institute of Remote Sensing, Chennai was constituted to look into the allegations of allowing construction in ecologically sensitive coastal areas.

Sonia Raj Sood - the Applicant has raised serious objections to the report of the Committee especially on the matter pertaining to Bandra Fort and Hotel Sea Rock. It is contended that although the report indicates that Survey Nos. 1153 and 1155 falls in CRZ-IB category being the areas between Low Tide Line (LTL) and High Tide Line (HTL), the National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) has approved the plan for a parking lot on Survey No. 1155 for Hotel Sea Rock. The Applicant also has raised objections to the location of Bandra Fort shown in the final (Coastal Zone Management Plan) CZMP which according to her has been found to be superimposed on the Hotel Sea Rock and refers to a 1981-2001 Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay Sanctioned Development Plan, where Bandra Fort has been shown distinctly as falling in the CRZ-I area, an ecologically sensitive area where no development is permitted.

The NGT directs the Committee to look into the concerns raised by the applicant. The Committee would now also include an additional representative of the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), who preferably should be from Chennai and one member from the NCZMA, Delhi. The applicant has been asked to appear before the Committee within three weeks and the entire exercise has to be completed in a period of two months.

Further, the NGT order of August 13, 2019 said that "in order to allay any apprehension on the part of the Applicant, we direct the maps and plans to be prepared in the scale of 1:4000. If there are better technologies available in this regard, the Committee shall adopt those for convenient transaction."