Don't reclaim stretch of sea not needed for Mumbai link road: SC to BMC

The Supreme Court on Monday told the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation not to reclaim any more of the stretch of sea than what is required for the construction of the coastal road project to connect Marine Drive area in south to suburban Borivali in northA bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde noted that the BMC must not overreach the apex court order The bench emphasised that there shouldnt be more reclamation of the sea than which is needed for the coastal road projectThe SupremeCourt on Monday told the BrihanmumbaiMunicipalCorporation mybmc not to reclaim any more of the stretch of the sea than what is required for the construction of the coastal road project to connect MarineDrive area in the south to suburban Borivali in north pictwittercomEjMY0uRMqJmdash IANS Tweets ians_india August 17 2020The Chief Justice said the court is inclined to see the map where the officers would point out the areas they are going to touch and those which they are not going to And you are not going to go beyond this the bench told the BMC The top court asked the BMC to file an affidavit detailing the land it is acquiring land required only for road along with a map of the area in two weeksEnvironmentalists have opposed the project saying no EIA was taken The observation from the top court came while hearing a plea seeking a stay on the ongoing reclamation work by the BMC for the coastal road projectIn February the Conservation Action Trust CAT and Shweta Wagh founder of Collective for Spatial Alternatives had urged the Supreme Court to stay the ongoing reclamation work of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations BMC coastal road project to connect the Marine Drive area in the south to suburban Borivali in the northThe applicants contended before a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant that the BMC was violating the top court order by reclaiming more land than required for the Rs 14000 crore coastal road project On December 17 the top court had stayed the Bombay High Court decision to quash the coastal road zone CRZ clearances granted to this projectThe counsel representing the petitioners opposing the project contended instead of 22 hectares of coastal land 75 hectares have been reclaimed so far Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the Maharashtra government and its authorities had vehemently opposed this contention by citing minimum requisite land for the project was being reclaimed Can I stand in the sea and build a road Rohatgi had contended He told the top court that minimum facilities were required for construction of the coastal roadThe court asked the parties to bring on record through an affidavit whether 95 hectare land was required for reclamation for construction of the coastal road project The court will hear the matter after two weeks The court also asked the concerned authorities to examine the loss of livelihood of the local fishermen due to construction activitiesThe top court in its December order had restrained the BMC from carrying out any other development work instead of the coastal road project until further ordersThe Bombay High Court in July last year had quashed the CRZ clearances granted to the coastal road project saying that there was serious lacuna in the decisionmaking process and lack of proper scientific studyKeep scrolling to read more newsCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever