The Supreme Court was told on Tuesday that Mumbai's civic body BMC was violating its order by reclaiming more land than required for the ambitious Rs 14,000 crore coastal road project to connect Marine Drive area in south to suburban Borivali in north.
The top court on December 17 last year had stayed the Bombay High Court's decision to quash the Coastal Road Zone (CRZ) clearances granted to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) project.
It had also said that the BMC was "free to reclaim the land" for building and securing the road with a caveat that "they shall however not carry out any other development work until further orders of this court."
A bench, headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, was informed by senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the petitioners opposing the project, that only 22 hectares of costal land was needed to be reclaimed for building the road, but 75 hectares more was being reclaimed for it.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Maharashtra government and its authorities, opposed the submission and said that minimum requisite land was being reclaimed for the project.
"Can I stand in sea and build road," Rohatgi said, adding that for construction of the coastal road minimum facilities were needed.
The bench then asked the parties to file an affidavit saying whether 95 hectare land was needed to be reclaimed for construction of the coastal road project and fixed the matter for hearing after two weeks.
Meanwhile, the bench asked authorities to consider the aspect of loss of livelihood of fishermen of the area due to ongoing construction activities.
The Bombay High Court in July last year had quashed the CRZ clearances granted to the the coastal road project, saying that there was "serious lacuna" in the decision-making process and lack of proper scientific study.
It had said the BMC cannot proceed with work on the 29.2 km-long project, proposed to connect Marine Drive area in south Mumbai to suburban Borivali in north Mumbai.
It had allowed a bunch of petitions filed by activists, residents and Worli Koliwada Nakhwa Matsya Vyavasay Sakhari Society Ltd against the project.
It had quashed and set aside the approval granted by the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) on January 4, 2017, the nod given by the EAC on March 17, 2017 and the final approval granted by the MoEF on May 11, 2017.
The high court, however, had upheld the December 30, 2015 amendment to the CRZ Rules which permitted reclamation of land in coastal regulated areas for constructing roads.
The project, proposed to connect south Mumbai with north western suburbs of the metropolis, was one of the flagship infrastructure schemes of the then BJP-led Maharashtra government.
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