HC allows Navi Mum civic body to develop cycle track along Palm Beach Rd

The Bombay High Court approved NMMC's eco-friendly cycle track project along Palm Beach Road, despite objections regarding its location in CRZ zones.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday permitted the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) to proceed with its proposed cycle track and area development project along the Palm Beach Road.

HC allows Navi Mum civic body to develop cycle track along Palm Beach Rd

Designed to promote eco-friendly transportation and encourage fitness, the project had faced objection from the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) due to its partial location within the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and mangrove buffer areas. The court, however, deemed the project fit to be executed in the wake of public interest.

NMMC had proposed the ₹13,90,83,934 project along the service road and the main lane of the Palm Beach Road, Nerul, in 2021. It approached the court for its approval, highlighting that it would encourage healthy and eco-friendly mode of transport for daily commute in the city.

After obtaining the requisite clearances from Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA), the chief conservator of forest (mangrove cell) and the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), the NMCC informed the court of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification issued on January 18, 2019, by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF), which set out the prohibited activities in the CRZ zones. It stated that the project, which is to come up towards the landward side of the road, is permissible under the CRZ-II category.

The division bench of chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice Bharati Dangre witnessed an opposition from the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), who contended that the project is not a permissible activity within CRZ-II.

However, the court did not find the argument sustainable. “It is a project of ‘public utility’ which, in fact, does not cause any harm to the mangroves,” the court said.

Observing the adequate safeguards imposed by the MCZMA, SEIAA and forest department, it ruled in favour of NMMC, granting it permission to proceed with the project. It also directed the NMMC to file an affidavit, undertaking the necessary compliance within two weeks.

The court also noted the many benefits of the project as the road runs parallel to north-south thane creek boundary of Navi Mumbai and serves to connect distinct nods through eight junction points. Underscoring that the Palm Beach Road serves as an intra-city connectivity for high-speed traffic, comprising four wheelers and two wheelers, it stated that the project would serve as a gateway to de-congest the roads in a systematic manner.

The project will span over a length of 7.5 km, with a width of 3.5 meter, covering a total area of 2.625 hectare starting from Sion-Panvel highway underpass to Uran junction (near NMMC) head office, Kille Gaothan. Its detailed graph includes a division of the track into 10 sections, out of which half of the sections would lie partly under the CRZ and partly under the mangrove buffer zone.