Reclamation has happened before: BMC defends coastal road project

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), continuing with its arguments in the Bombay high court (HC) on the coastal road project on Tuesday, pointed out that reclamation is not new for the city. BMC’s counsel, Darius Khambatta, said reclamations have taken place in the past and did not result in severe damage to environment, as claimed by the petitioners.

The petitioners in the case, raising objections over the reclamation for the project, had said the step would cause irreversible damage to the city. However, Khambatta submitted that as reclamation had not caused severe damage to the city in the past, reclamation for the coastal road would also be carried out with minimum damage, and hence it should be allowed.

When the bench of chief justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice NM Jamdar inquired if the Environment Impact Assessment Authority (EIAA) report was submitted to the relevant authorities, Khambatta said the coastal authority and the environment ministry had given their clearances for the project, based on the report.

The BMC also justified not conducting a public hearing on the project. It said that EIAA had submitted its report to the authorities concerned, in light of which, a public hearing was not needed and that the EIAA took into consideration all the aspects of reclamation in its report.

He said the report contained not only the impact of the project, but also the measures to reduce the damage to the environment and BMC was ensuring that all the measures are taken.

Khambatta further submitted that BMC would abide by the Coastal Regulation Zone amendment.

First Published: Jun 26, 2019 06:36 IST