Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) owes Rs 110 crore to the Mangrove Foundation of Maharashtra for the Coastal Road project, according to an official from the state mangrove cell.
The expert appraisal committee (EAC) for projects related to the Coastal Road Project, at its meeting held on March 17, 2017, in New Delhi, had directed the BMC to deposit two per cent of the total cost of the project for the conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity, to the Mangrove Foundation of Maharashtra. “A letter has already been sent to the BMC, asking them to deposit the money, but so far no reply has been received. We plan to send a reminder letter this week,” the official said.
BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta was unavailable for comment. Another civic official, Mohan Machiwal, chief engineer, coastal road project, said he was unaware of any letter from the state mangrove cell, when The Free Press Journal asked him for a comment. The EAC had clearly mentioned in the minutes of the meeting that the funds had to be transferred on or before the commencement of the work and a report had to be forwarded to the regional office of the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC).
The officer from the mangrove cell said, “The BMC is arguing that since there are no mangroves which are going to be affected, therefore they are reluctant to transfer the funds.” The officer further asserted, “Although the mangroves are not being affected in the first phase, however, the project will have an impact on the coastal and marine biodiversity, so the expert committee directed the funds to be transferred to the mangrove foundation, as we look after both, not just mangroves.”
As per the circular issued by the state government, the authorities like the BMC, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and others have to deposit a certain percentage of the total project cost under Corporate Environment Responsibility (CER), analogous to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which requires private companies to spend a portion of their total profits towards the betterment of society. The official remarked, the mangrove cell has received three per cent of the total project cost — Rs 115 crore — from the City and Industrial Development Corporation(CIDCO) which is undertaking the Navi Mumbai international airport project and Rs 67 crore from the MMRDA towards the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) project.
The officials asserted they have a corpus fund of Rs 140 crore received from these projects so far. Moreover, the funds collected are exclusively meant to be used for the improvement of biodiversity. In the case of the coastal road project, the funds which are expected to be received from the BMC are to be utilised exclusively to improve the coastal and marine biodiversity of Mumbai and Thane region, as per the directive of the EAC. The BMC will undertake Phase 1 of the Coastal Road Project, a 9.98km-stretch linking Marine Drive to the south-end of the Bandra-Worli sea link, the groundbreaking ceremony for which was performed on Sunday by the Shiv Sena party chief, Uddhav Thackeray. The project will include an undersea tunnel running from Marine Lines, near the Princess Street flyover, to Priyadarshini Park.
