Bombay high court paves way for two housing projects near defence land

MUMBAI: In two judgments delivered on Wednesday, the Bombay high court quashed refusals by the defence ministry for naval and army no-objection certificates (NOCs) and allowed construction of two residential high-rise projects in Mumbai to go ahead. These are: the tobe 30-storey Waterfront Tower in Colaba, and a redevelopment project of a society of retired IIT professors and others in Kanjurmarg (W). Both projects were on hold following stop-work notices issued in 2017.

In the wake of the Adarsh scam, the defence ministry stipulated in May 2011 that military NOCs be obtained for real estate constructions near defence establishments in the city. In 2015, it amended the rule to say that constructions approved prior to the 2011 circular didn’t require such NOCs, except if approvals were sought subsequently for height changes. On Wednesday, an HC bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre quashed the BMC’s 2017 stopwork orders in the two petitions filed last year. The issue was whether the ministry’s NOC was required in the Colaba and Kanjurmarg projects. A third order, albeit interim, has allowed construction to resume on several towers at another large site in Kanjurmarg by staying a stop-work notice issued earlier this month.