Colaba residents’ body seeks interim order to restrain piling work for proposed jetty

In the intervention plea filed Monday, CHCRA sought directives from the court not to carry out drilling or piling work till June 16, the scheduled date of the hearing of their petition.

The association has said in its application that towards the end of March 2025, a piling barge was brought to the promenade near Radio Club in Colaba, apparently for the purpose of fixing pillars into the seabed for the proposed project.

The plea said that after the residents protested and representation was made to the local MLA, the work did not start and the piling barge was removed.

However, at the end of April, the plea added, an area of the promenade was barricaded, which raised concerns among the residents that there was an intention to break the seaside wall. The association then approached the High Court.

In a hearing before the court on May 2, the state government had said that as per the schedule for the proposed project, the wall on the footpath of P J Ramchandani Marg is not slated to be broken before June 20.

The court had then directed the state and the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) to file replies to the petition and scheduled a hearing on June 16.

The intervention plea said that the very next day after the hearing, the process of filing piles was restarted.

The plea stated that if the piling is started, it is likely to cause damage to the seaside wall and the buildings near the worksite, stating that the sea bed area will be “irreversibly altered” and will cause the residents “irreparable prejudices”, even before a hearing takes place.

The plea, therefore, seeks intervention and interim relief restraining the work.

The petition filed by the association has challenged the order of the MCZMA, the no-objection certificate (NOC) for the same issued by the Heritage Conservation Committee, the Mumbai Police’s traffic department, and the BMC.