IPB onslaught on environment continues

PANJIM: Dealing yet another blow on the environment, the Investment Promotion Board (IPB), chaired by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, has cleared a five-star hotel project in an area marked ‘No-development slope’ in the Regional Plan 2021 (RP21). Overruling the RP21, IPB has proposed the conversion of around 23,500 sq mtrs of land for zonal change in the plan, to facilitate the project and another in Candolim.

The Investment Promotion Act, under which the IPB is constituted, can allow such conversions bypassing clearances under the Regional Plan, the Land Revenue Code, any notified development plans, and even the Panchayat Raj Act.

As such, Mumbai-based private firm Penha De France Properties Pvt Ltd has been granted permission to construct a five-star hotel at Malim in Bardez taluka in an area of 34,840 sq mtrs. The area bearing survey No 76/0 and 77/1, which is likely to be declared as investment promotion area for the project, falls under natural cover and no development slope as per RP21.

The official company email id is created on yahoo mail and company records on the web show Frtiz Trasis D’Silva and Nirad Dhirajlal Mehta as the directors of this firm with its registered address in Marine Lines, Mumbai.

Area of around 18,500 sq mtrs is required to be converted from RP21 to settlement commercial zone, the proposal reads. The project has an investment of Rs 127 crore, with employment avenues for 200 persons.

IPB, at its meeting held on January 21, granted in-principle approval to nine projects including four five-star hotels and other industrial projects, worth Rs 1850 crore.

For another hotel project, proposed by Soham Leisure Ventures Pvt Ltd at Candolim, IPB has proposed conversion of 5000 sq mtrs of orchard land into settlement commercial zone. Around 20,000 sq mtrs of orchard land is being allotted for the project. The project consists of 104 rooms including four corner suites, private pools and seven villas in orchard land, the project proponent has said in its plan.

In the last nine meetings held in 14 months, IPB has cleared 71 projects with total investment of Rs 7114 crore.