The Adarsh housing society does not have any clearance from the Central environment ministry, and the construction of the building is therefore illegal, the director of the ministry told the Adarsh commission looking into the controversy on Thursday.

The statement has brought the issue of environmental violations in the society to prominence, barely two weeks after the issue of ownership of the land reached a degree of closure with the commission’s report holding that it belongs to the state government.

MUMBAI: The state government seems to have finally hit upon the idea of trading in scarce land as equity for slum redevelopment in areas governed by coastal regulation zone (CRZ) norms. S Zende-Patil , chief executive officer of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), proposed to the government to use land and floor space index ( FSI) of 3 offered for shanty redevelopment as its "equity" .

Currently, for a slum redevelopment scheme, the developer has to pay 25% of the ready reckoner rate as premium for the encroached land.

In a major setback to OPG Power Gujarat, the National Green Tribunal has directed it to stop work at its 300 Mw thermal power plant at Bhadreshwar, Gujarat.

The ongoing construction work was challenged before the Tribunal by fisherfolk, saltpan workers and local villagers. The Tribunal said till all approvals were obtained by the project proponent, no construction activity should take place, said Ritwik Dutta, legal counsel for the appellants.

Seeks talks after court battle lost

Crying “discrimination”, the Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) wants to initiate a fresh dialogue with the environment ministry to arrive at a solution enabling the expansion of its aluminum refinery in Orissa.Vedanta has claimed the ministry discriminated against it by not clearing its Lanjigarh project, while the Jindal Power and Lavasa projects got the green signal.

After dealing with the Adarsh file on several occasions, seeking a green nod for its construction and owing a flat in the same building, former babu PV Deshmukh now says that he isn't sure if the 31- storey apartment building in upscale Colaba is legal or illegal. " I cannot say whether the construction of Adarsh building is legal or illegal," Deshmukh, a former deputy commissioner in the UDD, who also owns a flat in the building, told the Adarsh inquiry commission on Thursday. Deshmukhs admission came during his cross- examination by advocate Saket Mone, counsel for Adarsh members.

A committee headed by Brihanmumbai Municipal commissioner (BMC) Subodh Kumar submitted the plan of a 35.6km road between Nariman Point and Kandivli, which runs parallel to the coast. The plan, termed as the dream project of chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, is expected to be tagged as a national project and will cost Rs8,000 crore. The committee submitted its report to CM Chavan on Tuesday at the Mantralaya. With the stretch extending up to the end of the western suburbs, the proposed second phase of the Worli-Haji Ali Sea Link is likely to be scrapped by the government.

The technical committee studying the feasibility of building a coastal freeway connecting South Mumbai with the suburbs and the rapidly growing metropolitan region submitted its report to the state government on Tuesday, recommending a combination of tunnels, bridges and roads stretching 35 km along the coast.

MUMBAI: In a bid to push the plan for setting up a 29-km freeway along Mumbai's western coast, the state government on Monday asked the Centre to consider modifying the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms and permitting reclamation for construction of a road. The demand was made during a meeting with T Chatterjee, secretary, ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), at Mantralaya, which was attended by state chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad and other senior state officials.

After numerous delays in the construction of the city’s longest Metro corridor, running between Charkop and Mankhurd, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) seems to have finally woken up.

The authority has sent a strongly worded letter to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) asking it to relax stringent coastal regulation zone (CRZ) norms for car depots of the 32km-long metro.