MoEF may ease coastal norms for real estate

As part of its plans to ease coastal rules in the country, the Ministry of Environment has proposed to lift restrictions on real estate development that will ease FSI regulations, relax the extent of no-development zones and also permit the construction of public amenities, ministry documents revealed. The documents were accessed under the RTI Act by non-profit organization Centre for Policy Research, and reviewed by DNA. The proposed changes are part of the draft notification — now called Marine and Coastal Regulation Zone — that will supersede the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification of 2011.

These changes are in line with the recommendations made by the Sailesh Nayak Committee, that was tasked with reviewing the 2011 notification.

Under the existing notification, 500 m of area between the high-tide line (HTL) and the hazard line on the landward side is classified as CRZ.

The plan to ease private real estate development and allow greater floor space index (FSI) in CRZ-II areas is largely in tune with the demands made by the Maharashtra government and Mumbai's real estate sector. The 2011 notification had frozen FSI as per the norms of the erstwhile 1991 notification. It also mandates that slum redevelopment schemes ought to be done with a 51 per cent stake of the state government. But, the draft MCRZ will do away with that condition, allowing private developers full stake and greater area to build. The new development though, will be subject to a public hearing.

In CRZ-III areas, rural and urban areas that are lesser developed and are home to fishermen colonies,the ministry has proposed to relax the existing no-development zone (NDZ) to 50 m from the high-tide line (HTL), from the earlier norm of 0-200m construction of homes and other structures is prohibited in the NDZ. This relaxation will allow the construction of houses and temporary tourist facilities beyond the 50 m mark.

Likewise, in CRZ-I — intertidal areas that are ecologically sensitive — the draft MCRZ proposes to allow public amenities such as link roads, coastal roads, sewage treatment plants and other such activities. This will do away with the requirement of an environmental clearance. Presently, no new construction is allowed in this zone. The draft MCRZ also proposes to limit the CRZ area to only 500m of land from the HTL, excluding the hazard line.

Hazard line identifies areas that are prone to coastal calamities and vulnerabilities.

On March 4, Environment Minister Anil Dave chaired an internal meeting on the draft MCRZ and sought inter-ministerial consultations on the issue. Subsequently, on March 20, a meeting was held that saw the participation of the tourism, commerce,shipping, and urban development ministries, NITI Aayog, ministry of petroleum and natural gas and the ministry of earth sciences.

The shipping and tourism ministries made it clear that the NDZ in CRZ-III needs to relaxed to more than 50m. The shipping ministry sought more relaxations for port facilities, while the tourism ministry sought relaxations to develop islands.

The 2011 notification has categorised areas as CRZ - I, II, III and IV — based on their vulnerabilities and the existing development. For protection of coasts, people and ecology at large, activities are regulated in these four zones. CRZ-I is an ecologically sensitive inter-tidal area, CRZ-II is the built-up area near coasts and high-tide line in cities, CRZ-III is less developed areas in rural and urban areas, also used by fishermen and CRZ-IV is the the water area from the Low Tide Line to 12 nautical miles on the seaward side.