Team Herald
PANJIM: Following an onslaught on the environment in the name of endorsing Goa as an ‘investment hub’, the Investment Promotion Board (IPB) chaired by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar recently deferred permissions to four hospitality projects that proposed the conversion of around 1.96 lakh sq mts of land.
In the last one year, while granting approval to 90 projects, 45 per cent of which are in the hospitality industry, the IPB had allowed conversion of lakhs of sq mts of land. At its January meeting it had approved zonal changes of 23,500 sq mts of land.
The projects deferred at IPB’s April meeting are Delhi-based Acquire Builders Pvt Ltd’s proposal to construct a 100-room luxury hotel at Varca, which involved the conversion of nearly 13,740 sq mts of land which includes 11,838 sq mts of paddy fields and 1902 sq mts of orchard area. The project worth Rs 60 crore is proposed on a plot measuring 19,240 sq mts of land, of which only 5,500 sq mts is marked as settlement zone in the Regional Plan 2021.
Interestingly, the project is one amongst the three projects proposed within 200-500 meters of the CRZ. While on one side it will lead to massive destruction of green land, the project proponent has claimed to have proposed various green methods to conserve the local environment.
The second project involved conversion of 9,988 sq mts of agricultural land into commercial or institutional zone. The 120-room five-star hotel cum convention centre project was proposed by Victor Hospitals and Medical Services Ltd at Merces. The project proponent intends to promote medical tourism through a Rs 50 crore project.
The largest conversion sought was for the controversial and earlier rejected Mini India Park Project, proposed by Pune-based Movaj Enterprises Pvt Ltd, in around 9.16 lakh sq mts at Cavelossim. This involves the conversion of around 1.25 lakh sq mts of orchard land and the balance is paddy fields or khazan land. In the RP 21, around 35,000 sq mts of this land is earmarked as settlement zone but subject to clearance from the Agriculture Department.
The project was initially stalled after Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) refused to grant permission under CRZ.
The last is the Delhi-based Firmament Reach Builtech Pvt Ltd, Hotel Project at Reis Magos that had sought conversion, even as the entire zoning of the property measuring 48,141 sq mts as per RP 21 has been kept on hold. It falls partly in settlement, partly in natural cover and no-development slope.
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Town and Country Planning (TCP) Francis D’Souza is on record having stated that while undertaking rectification of the 2021 Regional Plan, all land conversions approved by the IPB would be made part of land plan.
