Palghar: Regional Plan of Dahanu approved, to come in force soon

The regional plan of Dahanu is approved and will come into force after two months from the date of publication of the notification of the said plan in the Maharashtra Government Gazette. It was a long wait of 31 years for the people of Dahanu taluka to get its Regional Plan (RP) approved by a competent authority which will ease the environmental restrictions in this region.

The Maharashtra state government approved the RP of Dahanu taluka on March 14 and the notification for the same was done on March 29. This has opened the gates for the development of the eco-sensitive Dahanu taluka. This will help the implementation of The United Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR building rules) in this Dahanu Taluka.

A brief history of approval of RP:

Ministry of Environment, Forest (MOEF) had declared Dahanu Taluka an ‘Environmentally Fragile Area’ by issuing a notification on Jun 20, 1991. The ministry had directed the Government of Maharashtra (GOM) to prepare Master Plan / Regional Plan for that taluka. This happened after BSES had commissioned its thermal power plant in Dahanu.

The Urban Development Department of GOM declared Dahanu Taluka as a ‘Dahanu Region’ in Nov 1993. The RP of Dahanu which was submitted to MOEF ON May 3, 1995, was sent for verification to National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) Nagpur. The Supreme Court accepted the RP with NEERI’s recommendations and constituted ‘The Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority’ (DTEPA) on Dec 19, 1996, for protecting the ecological fragile area and controlling pollution in Dahanu Taluka.

GOM directed to prepare regional plan for Dahanu

As the RP prepared and submitted to MOEF was not prepared under any statutory law and with no legal authority the DTEPA directed GOM to prepare RP for Dahanu Region. The Regional Planning Board could not prepare the Dahanu RP within the stipulated time prompting GOM to appoint two senior bureaucrats to prepare the RP.

The RP was published after being approved by DTEPA in 2006 and 2009 and suggestions and objections were invited for the same. After giving a hearing of the objections and suggestions after implementing the necessary changes the RP was submitted to MOEF for sanction in 2014. MOEF with certain modifications asked GOM to submit it to Supreme Court.

State government directed to take approval fr om DEPTA

The MOEF approved the Dahanu RP with two Schedules but during the same time the Bombay High Court while giving a judgement in a writ petition directed the State government to take the approval of Dahanu RP from DTEPA. Meanwhile, MOEF amended the 1991 notification on Feb 22, 2021, which stated to get the plan approved by the competent authority in the State government instead of MOEF.

These changes made the DTEPA send the Dahanu RP for approval by the State government. The same was approved on March 29 and this has opened the doors of the development of Dahanu Taluka.

The people of Dahanu taluka are delighted and optimistic about the development of the Dahanu Region after the Dahanu RP will come into force after two months. This will help to undertake infrastructural works which are carried out by government institutions.