Navi Mumbai: CIDCO needs to get clearance for CRZ plot before putting on tender, say developers

Navi Mumbai: At a time when a plot along the Palm Beach Road in the Sanoada node fetched over Rs5.54 lakh per sq m (almost four times of base price, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) failed to get the right price for a 25,138.86 sq m plot in sectors 54-56-58 in Seawoods. The sea-facing plot is located near the NRI Complex in Seawoods and developers from the city believe that the plot has the potential to get at least five to six times the base price. However, the plot received a lukewarm response from and received bids of just Rs1.51 lakh per sq m while the base price was Rs 1.36 lakh per sq m.

An office bearer of the Builders Association of Navi Mumbai said that the planning agency should have taken consent from the authority concerned before putting up the plot for tendering. “As the plot partially falls under the CRZ, being a government agency, it should have taken all necessary clearances,” said the office bearer.

As the plot partially falls within CRZ-I and CRZ-II zones, the Navi Mumbai Environment Preservation Society (NMEPS) and a group of citizens, in separate petitions before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), had challenged the tender process. However, CIDCO informed the Western Zonal bench of the NGT that the auction was cancelled as the bidding offer received was “far below” the prevailing market rate.

According to CIDCO, there is no restriction on the sale / auction of CRZ-affected plots and as per the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) of 2011, approved in 2019. In such a scenario, the buyer of the plot has the responsibility to get CRZ clearance from Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority.

In June 2022, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) rejected the CRZ permission for the construction of a residential cum commercial building on a 1950 sq m plot, allotted by CIDCO in the Dronagiri node. The plot is located in Sector 53 of Dronagiri and the authority found that a major portion is situated within a 50 m mangrove buffer zone area. Environmentalists say that it's not about one project that was rejected, but about the fact that a government-owned body is allotting environmentally sensitive areas to various projects which is worrisome.