Mumbai: The Bombay high court Friday granted permission to BMC for a proposed Coastal Road North—a 26.3 km Versova–Bhayander DP (Development Plan) Road project—that would require a maximum of 45,000-odd mangroves to be felled. The HC was hearing BMC’s plea for the court’s approval for the project since it impacts mangroves. Accepting as salutary a suggestion made by senior counsel Aspi Chinoy for BMC, a division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad also said it would keep the plea pending for 10 years with the civic body having to file a yearly update on the compensatory tree plantations.The project seeks to provide a crucial link between Mumbai and Mira Bhayander. BMC said 45,675 out of the 60,000 existing mangrove trees on the project land may need to be felled, and three times that number would be required to be planted, apart from a statutory afforestation of 103 hectares proposed in Chandrapur district.The BMC told HC 102 hectares of forest land, largely mangroves, are affected, with the project inevitably impacting 10 hectares of mangroves equivalent to 9,000 actual trees, which would be cut for the actual road construction.In Sept 2024, the mangroves division conducted a site visit and found that the actual area of construction would need over 8 hectares and 4,459 mangrove trees to be permanently destroyed and another 4300 elsewhere but on remaining 68.5 hectares, while 36,925 mangroves would be destroyed they are prepared to be restored there via compensatory planting post the road construction.The proposed road would commence at Versova, run through western suburbs to Dahisar, and then end at Mira Bhayander. It is a continuation of the Coastal Road South, the Worli Bandra Sea Link, both operational, and the under-construction Bandra-Versova Sea Link. Following an earlier HC judgment in a public interest litigation aimed at mangrove conservation, for every project, even if public, that impacts mangroves, the court’s permission is required to be sought.While the conditions usually require afforestation or compensatory planting of trees, three times those cut, and placing the data on the authority’s website, senior counsel Chinoy, himself suggested that an “effective and salutary” solution would be for the HC to keep the matter pending for 10 years and seek a yearly update from the civic body on the trees planted. “This would be better than having data put up on a website which then may remain untracked... Keep the matter pending so that it is alive, under proper supervision… officers having to file reports in court may have a greater responsibility,” said Chinoy assisted by advocate Joel Carlos before the CJ-led bench which agreed. The HC order would be available next week. The HC said on the second Monday of each new year the report be placed by the BMC. To a query from additional govt pleader Prashant Kamble, the bench confirmed such reporting would begin from 2027.The ambitious project, the BMC informed the HC, would reduce the existing almost 2-hour road time between Versova and Mira Bhayandar to less than 20 minutes and reduce travel distance by 10km from 33.6km to 23.2km. The BMC executive engineers, including Jitendra Patil, a techno-legal executive appointed for the project, were present in court. The BMC had applied in Aug 2024 to the MCZMA for the green clearance on the basis of a rapid Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared by the Centre of Envotech and Management Consultancy for the Versova-Bhayander DP Road. The free nod was received last year. On almost 19 hectares, no mangroves would be disturbed, the BMC said.The principal chief conservator of forest mangrove cells has marked 84 hectares of land in Palghar around Boisar, Dahanu and Vasai for mangrove compensation, and the proposal is to plant over 1.3 lakh mangroves, provide a chain link fence, and undertake maintenance for 10 years. The MCZMA, in its reply, said the project is outside any eco-sensitive zone, and the proposed alignment is not affected by any archaeological or heritage site.
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