CRZ plot for Rugby: CM asks UD secretary Gagrani to probe

“We received an email from Shinde marking it to Bhushan Gagrani, the principal secretary- urban development-1, who is in-charge of the state’s municipal corporations,” said NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar, who had complained to the government

NAVI MUMBAI Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde has responded promptly to environmentalists’ complaints and concerns over burial of wetland in Kharghar by the state government-owned CIDCO and its decision to allot land for a rugby ground in that falls under coastal regulation zone (CRZ).

CRZ plot for Rugby: CM asks UD secretary Gagrani to probe

Shinde has asked the urban development department to look into it.

“We received an email from Shinde marking it to Bhushan Gagrani, the principal secretary- urban development-1, who is in-charge of the state’s municipal corporations,” said NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar, who had complained to the government.

Kumar not only thanked CM Shinde for his prompt response, but also hoped that a detailed investigation will be conducted into this habitual burial of wetlands by CIDCO under the guise of development.

NatConnect has also filed a complaint with the high court-appointed wetland committee which is slated to meet soon.

NatConnect alleged that CIDCO has buried over 10-acre intertidal water body at Sector 25 in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai and allotted over three acres of it for a rugby ground.

Intertidal area is designated as CRZ1B by the CRZ notification of 1991 issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Environment Change (MOEFCC).

Satellite maps and ground study clearly show that the area is an intertidal wetland with water around the reclaimed plot with the creek at a stone’s throw, NatConnect director B N Kumar said in his complaints.

Kharghar Wetlands and Hills group convenor Nareshchandra Singh, citing the Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre map, pointed out that the reclaimed area in Sector 25 clearly falls in CRZ. As per the revenue department map, the rugby plot is covered by survey numbers 261, 262, 267, 268 and 270 of Taloje Phanchanand village. The CRZ map confirms the area’s status, he said.

CIDCO had recently floated for sale a 25,000 sq m CRZ dominated plot at Nerul and allotted a similar area for Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s (NMMC) super speciality hospital. Earlier it allotted a Mangrove zone for Tirupati Balaji temple, Kumar recalled.

“There is nothing new in CIDCO’s act of violations,” said Nandakumar Pawar, head of Sagar Shakti, the marine division of NGO Vanashakti. The planner has been allotting wetlands and mangrove zones to infrastructure projects, Pawar pointed out.

CIDCO has refused to comment on the allegations.