Cuffe Parade tower cleared by state: Navy objects again

“Despite repeated intimations to various concerned departments of state government not to issue an NOC or occupation certificate,temporary or permanent,it has come to the notice of Naval Authority last Friday that the MMRDA has issued an occupation certificate to the Adarsha Society Building,” said a Ministry of Defence statement Monday. “The Navy has again written to all concerned departments of the state government not to issue an NOC or an occupation certificate…”

The statement followed media reports that the names of some senior Army personnel had cropped up in what could be a case of land grab on a plot where a two-bedroom house would cost an estimated Rs 2 crore,at least.

Promoters of the housing society have refused to give details of the society’s members. A public interest litigation moved in the Bombay High Court in March this year had accused a former municipal commissioner of Mumbai of abusing his powers while sanctioning construction of the highrise when his son was a member of the housing society.

Social worker Santosh Daundkar,the petitioner,had opposed the construction saying the building exceeds the sanctioned height approved by the BMC’s highrise committee. His petition alleged the former commissioner cleared a 97.6-m building though it was on Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) land. It said that the Development Control Regulations of 1991 were used to sanction the height of 97.6 m; that approval of the highrise committee was sought; and that subsequent orders allowed a higher building at 104.6 m. Daundkar’s lawyer Y P Singh said the PIL has not come up for hearing.

The building has not got the approval of the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority,but secured an occupation certificate from the MMRDA.

Two years ago,the environment department had observed some violations in the project and issued a stop-work order. Environment secretary Valsa Nair-Singh said the society was asked to produce details of permission received and it did so before construction was allowed to resume. “The MCZMA’s permission is,however,still pending.”

This permission has always been mandatory for projects on CRZ land ,but the practice was not very rigidly followed in 2001,when construction on this project began. “Before 2006,acquiring this particular permission was not followed very strictly. In most cases,permission was only sought from the local body. In the case of Adarsh Society,it is the MMRDA. It was only from 2006 that this rule began to be followed very strictly,” said the environment secretray.