'Illegal' 5-star comes up in Lower Parel

A 39-storey luxury hotel has risen on the city’s skyline without getting an environment clearance. The five-star Shangri-La at Lower Parel on the premises of High Street Phoenix has been partially occupied.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest’s state expert appraisal committee, which visited the construction site recently, found that the structure has been partially occupied and the work on the interiors was in progress.

The hotel has been constructed above the luxury mall, Palladium, at an estimated cost of Rs773crore and occupies floors eight to 39.

“The entire building is constructed and part of the commercial building is occupied (other than the hotel floors) and no environment clearance has been obtained. It is also noted that the recreational ground is almost negligible,” the committee said.

The project proponent, Phoenix Mills Ltd, first sought environmental clearance from the committee in December 2011. The panel had criticised the company for not obtaining clearance before construction.

The project proponent had told the committee before it visited the site that a major portion of the hotel building was constructed without any environment clearance as Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) had issued a no-objection certificate.

However, neither the committee members nor the environment department seems to be sure if the MPCB in this case is competent to issue such exemptions.

“The environment department will confirm whether the MPCB is a competent authority to issue the exemption,” said the committee.

A committee member confirmed that they had not heard from the department.

“The (environment) department has not received the comments yet. We will examine the issue and give our answers as soon as we get the committee’s queries,” said Valsa Nair, state environment secretary.

In December, the committee had expressed concerns about the structure’s construction. “There is too much non-compliance to the current Development Control Rules (DCR) on safety and ground coverage. Therefore, it is difficult to assess the existing structure with respect to the current DCR. However, the committee agreed to visit the site to understand the proposal and assess the implications of the modifications on the environment,” it had observed.

The committee has asked the company to submit documents concerning mandatory clearances from several agencies in the next meeting which is expected to be held later this month.

Initially, chief executive officer and MD of Phoenix Mills Ltd, Shishir Shrivastava, texted that he was “out of the country” but willing to answer messages.

However, he did not respond to the queries regarding the hotel.