The Bombay high court on Monday directed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to clarify through an affidavit if Mahim Nature Park was included in the Dharavi redevelopment project.
A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Abhay Ahuja was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by NGO Vanashakti and environmental activist Zoru Bhathena, seeking the park’s exclusion from the purview of the project and the tender floated for its execution.
Though the counsel for SRA orally stated that the park was not part of the project, the bench asked it to file its clarification within four weeks.
Adani Realty recently bagged the tender for redevelopment of Asia’s biggest slum that spreads over 254 hectares.
According to the PIL, when the state decided to redevelop Dharavi in 2004, only 4 sectors were included in the project. In June 2009, the government added sector 5, which is spread over approximately 37 acres, near Bandra-Kurla Complex and the park.
SRA had already replied to the petitioners’ e-mails assuring them that the park would not come under the redevelopment project. However, the petitioners expressed concern as sector 5 was still shown in the project area and the map annexed to the tender clearly showed the park as one of the locations to be acquired for redevelopment.
“The map clearly shows that the issuing respondent authority has marked Mahim Nature Park as a plot that is liable to be acquired for the execution of the project,” the PIL said.
“Being a protected forest, the park cannot be included in any SRA scheme nor be acquired or developed by any planning authority,” it stated. “A protected forest cannot be treated in the manner as provided under the RFQ cum RFP [request for qualification cum request for proposal] and is therefore liable to be excluded entirely from the project,” it added.
The plot, formerly a dumping ground, was studied by a project group set up by the Maharashtra Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). Based on its recommendations, the MMRDA requested the World Wildlife Fund for Nature India to build a park there.
In January 1984, the MMRDA approved the block estimates for Mahim Nature Park and thereafter, the revenue and forest departments in March 1991 declared the park and the adjoining mangroves as a “protected forest” under section 29(3) and section 30(e) of the Indian Forest Act, 1927.