CIDCO on account of receiving bidding offer ‘far below’ the prevailing market rate for the 25,138.86 sq mtr plot Seawoods tender plot 2A, located at Sectors 54-56-58 Nerul, has cancelled the tender process.
Bhagwati Empire quoted a price of Rs 1.51 lakh per sq mtr for the plot located adjacent to NRI Seawoods Estates and the newly built water taxi jetty. As the Seawoods tender plot 2A’s market-anticipated value of Rs 750 crore, going by the price of Rs 3 lakh received for a plot at Ghansoli earlier, was not met, the auction was cancelled.
The Western Zonal bench of the National Green Tribunal has been informed of this decision. CIDCO has also given an undertaking to the NGT that as mandated, it would ensure in the re-tendering process that the 50-meter buffer zone from the CRZ is maintained.
Interestingly, this is the same plot that environmentalists said falls in the Coastal regulation Zone1 (CRZ1). Navi Mumbai Environment Preservation Society (NMEPS) and a group of citizens, in separate petitions before NGT, had challenged the CIDCO’s tender process on the ground that the plot falls within CRZ1.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) has filed an affidavit with NGT affirming that the disputed plot partly falls under CRZ1 and CRZ 2. MCZMA and the environment department has recommended to the NGT that CIDCO should obtain the CRZ map from the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), Anna University, Chennai in 1:4000 scale, which will cost Rs 4.5 lakh.
The NGT has directed CIDCO to make the payment within a week and get the CRZ map process completed. It has also directed CIDCO to submit a report on the mapping and barred CIDCO from initiating the re-tender process till the CRZ map is prepared.
