06 Jun 2021  |   03:58am IST

VVRA writes to Cabral, summarises Vainguinim beach developments

VVRA calls upon govt to take necessary corrective action

Team Herald

PANJIM: The President of the Vainguinim Valley Residents Association (VVRA) which has been objecting to the construction work of a linear wall on Vainguinim Beach in a letter to Environment Minister Nilesh Cabral has summarised all the developments so far and has called on the government to take necessary corrective action on World Environment Day.

In the letter, Collin Curry, VVRA president shared the details of the NOC given by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) in 2017 that listed various conditions and the scope of work permitted.

Thereafter, Collin said the hotel had written to the Water Resources Department (WRD) in 2017, where it mentioned the NOC obtained from GCZMA.  In that, the hotel had said, “W

e propose to provide eco- friendly cantilever deck in wood after strengthening the existing pitched wall and regards linear wall repairs, we propose to use wooden piles driven along the existing wall backed up with laterite rubble filter covered with existing sand fill.”

In Collin's letter to the minister, he said," Please take note that the permission to provide a cantilevered deck was outright rejected by the GCZMA in its NOC/Permission for repairs. This cantilevered deck has now been built sans permission being obtained, on concrete pillars which rests cross sections of ‘I’ steel beams and covered with a plastic compost material. The permission was rejected for two reasons, one because of the use of concrete and two because it would overhang a distance of 2 metres beyond the retaining wall and further subject to the confirmation with local building bye laws. It has now extended more than 4 metres overhang on to the beach with no permissions whatsoever and has been built of concrete and steel with plastic compost which are not eco-friendly materials,”

Collin also shared details of the recent show-cause notices issued by GCZMA regarding the work of the linear wall, wherein the use of concrete, work in CRZ zone, etc, had been flagged in GCZMA’s inspection report.

Collin criticised the letter sent by WRD on May 6, 2021 which stated that it had permitted construction which was being carried out in consultation with its department.

He said, “It was inconceivable as to how the WRD could issue such a letter authorising the hotel to carry out a construction on the basis of GCZMA’s permission dated July 25, 2017, which was only issued for repairs.”

Collin said the hotel under the garb of repairs has built a new RCC concrete wall on the Vainguinim beach, and is now claiming the portion of the beach on the landward side as its private property, much to the dismay of all the inhabitants and citizens at large.

Collin appealed to the Minister to look into the matter with utmost urgency and reiterated that the hotel had carried out the construction of a permanent RCC cement wall on the beach in an ecologically fragile Inter Tidal Zone for which no permission or authorization is or can be issued.