In a major setback to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Bombay High Court on July 16 set aside the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearance for the southern part of the coastal road project and said environmental impact assessment was required.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice N.M. Jamdar held that the coastal road work had been proceeding illegally and no further work could be done by the BMC on this.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Worli Koliwada Nakhava Matsya Vyavasay Sahakari Society Limited and Worli Machimmar Sarvodaya Sahakari Society. They stated that the project would lead to the loss of direct access to the sea and coastal commons due to the reclamation and loss of coastal resource, habitats and fish-breeding areas.
A public interest litigation petition was filed by NGO Vanashakti Shweta Wagh, a member of the Collective for Spatial Alternatives, the Conservation Action Trust and the Society for Improvement, Greenery and Nature and petitioner-in-person Prakash Chanderkar. They pointed out that the project was started without the requisite environmental clearances and that it would affect the marine biodiversity.
Earlier, the BMC contended that the project did not require environmental clearance under the environment impact assessment notification of 2006 as it did not attract the qualifying norms under the said notification.
The civic body also filed an affidavit saying, “The total number of trees affected on the site is estimated to be 143, out of which it is proposed to transplant 53 trees at the same location; 90 would be cut after taking appropriate permissions of the statutory committee, that is, the tree authority. To compensate for the trees that will be cut, three times the number will be planted on the site. All the transplanted and freshly-planted trees will be maintained by the BMC.”