Times of India: Mumbai: Saturday, September 08,
2018.
A golf course and a residential project
are set to come up on a large water body surrounded by mangroves next to the
NRI Seawoods Complex in Nerul, sparking outrage among residents and
environmentalists.
The City and Industrial Development
Corporation’s (Cidco) controversial plan to award the 35.5-hectare project the
size of four Oval Maidans to a builder has been challenged in the Bombay high
court. Cidco is the planning authority for Navi Mumbai.
Sunil Agarwal, a Navi Mumbai resident,
says the place is a feeding ground for flamingos, which are already losing part
of their habitat because of the upcoming airport and the proposed Sewri-Nhava
bridge.
Apart from environmental concerns, Cidco
has tweaked its original 2002 plan for the golf course. The earlier proposal
was to utilise about 34 hectares for an 18-hole course and another 1.5 hectares
for residential buildings to make the project financially viable. But documents
procured through the RTI Act reveal that in 2016, Cidco changed the agreement
with builder Mistry Construction to increase the housing area to over 15
hectares while reducing the golf course to 20 hectares.
Bureaucrat Bhushan Gagrani, who was Cidco
VC & MD when the modified agreement to lease was signed with the builder in
2016, told TOI: “Cidco had taken a stand that technically, there are no
wetlands in Navi Mumbai. These plots look like wetlands but are artificially
created because of non-use of land. Local fishermen created bunds, but they are
not natural wetlands... if technical experts declare them as wetlands and the
court accepts it, the golf project will have to go.”
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