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Forward into the past: HC rules Tata housing project in Goa is on forest land, orders restoration of greenery

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The first real estate project of the Tata Housing Development Company in Goa has received a severe blow with the high court ordering removal of all the developmental work carried out so far and restoration of the land to its original green cover.

The Goa bench of the Bombay high court has, however, stayed the order for six weeks, allowing the company to file a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, on the condition that all construction or development activity would be stopped during the appeal period.

It is the first residential and commercial complex taken up by the THDC, in collaboration with a local firm, Key Holdings, on the picturesque Betim Hill on the banks of the Mandovi, opposite the capital city of Panaji. All the permissions and licences obtained for the project have also been quashed.

"The project, which will come up after violating conditions of licence, would be an eyesore in the green belt of the hillock towards the river Mandovi," said the division bench comprising Justices R K Batta and A A Desai.

The court has thus allowed a writ petition filed by the Goa Foundation and the Nirmal Vishwa, Goa's two leading environmental groups. The lengthy order has come after the completion of arguments in June.

Serious strictures have also been passed on the state town and country planning department for adopting a "casual approach" in allowing felling of 200 trees on the plot of 11,275 square metres, without bothering to check that the plot was classified as forest land.

The high court has agreed with the petitioners' contention that the company had not obtained permission of the central government for non-forest activities while the same area was altered from orchards to settlement in the Outline Development Plan of Goa. Even the ''indiscriminate'' felling of trees was in violation of the construction licence.

While over Rs 50 million have already been spent on the project, the companies have also collected over Rs 40 million by selling 28 units. The project has remained in controversy right from the beginning as it is located opposite the Goa secretariat, across the Mandovi. The Sawant Committee, appointed later, has confirmed that the private land is indeed a forest land.