HC allows BMC to construct road connecting lagoon road to Infiniti mall

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday granted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) permission to proceed with a road project in Malad through an ecologically sensitive mangroves buffer zone. Noting that the BMC has taken up compensatory afforestation for the mangroves to be cut for the project, the court ruled that the project should be allowed as it is of ‘public interest’.

The court, on September 17, 2018, had passed an order, directed the state to preserve and protect the mangroves and mandated obtaining prior permission from the high court for any construction in mangroves areas or buffer zones of 50 meters.

The proposed road construction project by the BMC, was reported to be falling partly in Coastal Regulation Zone-IA (mangroves and 50-meter mangroves buffer zone). Subsequently, BMC filed the petition, seeking the court’s permission to execute the project for road construction from Elia Sarwat Urdu high school, Malwani Nalla to Malad wastewater treatment plant bridge connecting the lagoon road (Malvani) to Infiniti mall, Malad.

On April 3, 2024, BMC submitted an application to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, for diversion of 0.8949 hectares of forest (mangroves) for the project situated in Village Malwani, Mumbai Suburban district. On the same day, BMC also submitted an application to the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) for clearance of the project. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change granted clearance to the project in October 2024.

Senior counsel for BMC submitted that 37 mangroves are being cut, whereas the BMC shall plant and maintain 370 mangroves in 0.1 hectares of land. He informed the court that the BMC has been granted construction permission by the Mangrove Cell on September 4, 2024.

The division bench of chief justice Alok Aradhe and justice M.S. Karnik granted leave to the BMC to execute the project of road construction in the area, taking into account, recommendations made by Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority and the clearance granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest in October 2024 in view of the public importance of the subject project.