Coastal road work remains on hold as HC refuses to lift stay

The work on the Rs 14,000-crore coastal road will remain stalled as the Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday refused to vacate the stay on the ambitious civic project, which seeks to cut travel time between south Mumbai and the western suburbs by nearly 70%.

The division bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Nitin Jamdar, which was hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the project, also rejected a plea filed by the contractor, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) India Limited, wanting to be party to the public interest litigations (PILs).

The judges, however, expressed willingness to allow the civic-appointed contractor to “strengthen” the work already done to protect it from damage during the monsoon. “We understand that during the monsoon, the sea will be rough and the work done will get washed away, and requires protection,” the judges said, adding that the strengthening work will be permitted only under the supervision of a court commissioner, who will record it on video, and suggested the state and the civic body file an application, disclosing the work already done.

Earlier this month, while hearing petitions filed by a group of activists and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) — Society for Improvement of Greenery and Nature — raising environmental and ecological concerns about the coastal road, the HC had directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the nodal agency, to not carry out any new reclamation for the project until further orders. On April 16, the court had directed the BMC to maintain status quo by pausing all work on the project.

On Tuesday, senior advocate SU Kamdar, representing L&T, urged the court to allow the contractor to be a party to the proceedings as it will be directly affected by the orders. He submitted that L&T had already invested more than Rs 300 crore in the project and the status quo order was hurting its pecuniary interests. He also said the work already completed will get washed away during the monsoon if the status quo order was not vacated. Senior advocate Shrihari Aney, representing the state, also tried to impress upon the HC that the interim order was required to be vacated in larger public interest.

The HC has now posted the bunch of PILs for further hearing on June 2, after Aney and senior advocate Anil Sakhare, representing BMC, appeared hesitant to file the application on the work done on the project till now.

While the group of activists, led by architect Shweta Wagh, have complained that the reclamation work flouts environmental laws and will irreversibly damage the coastal morphology of Mumbai, the NGO has expressed concerns about the loss of green cover which will occur if 200 trees in south Mumbai’s Tata Gardens are cut for the project.