Landmark Verdict: Bombay HC allows construction in mangrove-buffer zone

In a major verdict that could have a far-reaching positive impact on the fortunes of the troubled real estate industry, the Bombay high court in a recent order has removed all the legal hurdles for construction on vacant plots spread across five layouts that fall within the 50-metre mangrove buffer zone, under the three-decade-old Bombay Urban Development Project at Versova, Gorai, Charkop, Malwani and Mulund.

In their response to applications filed by Mhada and several housing societies that had been allotted plots here in the late eighties and nineties, Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Anil Menon exempted them from a 2005 HC ruling that effectively banned construction activities anywhere inside the stipulated buffer zone.

The division bench further noted that the said layouts had since been extensively developed with several amenities and were located beyond an existing tarred road.

In its landmark order, the court said, "The plots that fall in the 50-metre buffer zone but are part of an approved layout for which environmental clearance has been granted by the Union ministry of environment and forest, then it will be treated as falling in the Coastal Regulation Zone II."

Adding, "It is clarified that when deciding on CRZ clearance, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority will have to satisfy that the plot is beyond an existing tarred road on the landward side."

According to industry experts, the ruling is expected to have positive implications for many industry players active along this belt and is also likely to assist other projects that had received the environmental clearance but were hindered by legal considerations.

In the light of this new ruling, such projects can now directly approach the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority for approval. In its PIL before the High Court in 2005, the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) had claimed that the plots fall within CRZ I, where no construction is permitted.

BEAG also sought that all buildings that had already been constructed between 1994 and 2003 when environmental clearances were granted be declared as illegal. The High Court had subsequently banned all construction activities in stipulated mangrove areas in 2005.