PANJIM: Voicing their opposition to the proposed mega project at Karapur, the residents of Sanquelim and Bicholim in a letter to the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department, North Goa Collector, Public Works Department and Karapur-Sarvan Village Panchayat have termed the project as investment driven and marketed for its speculative commercial potential, guaranteeing high returns to each buyer, while also offering them a piece of land in Goa, a desired destination for the Delhiites.
Demanding that the conversion sanad be suspended immediately, the residents also called upon the authorities to cancel the provisional no objection certificate (NOC) and demanded that the development permission issued to the real estate firm be revoked at the earliest.
The residents - Siddhesh Tari, Pritesh Salgaonkar, both from Karapur, and Swapnesh Sherlekar from Mulgao, Bicholim- demanded that the conversion sanad issued by the North Goa Collector, provisional NOC issued by the TCP Department and the village Panchayat of Karapur-Sarvan issued to Abhinandan Lodha Group through Errichter Infra Private Limited for the subdivision and development of the plot in Karapur village be suspended and revoked. They called upon the authorities to revoke the above after issuing a proper show cause notice followed by a hearing.
They pointed out that the real estate company has received provisional approval to subdivide the land into 1,388 plots, each ranging from 116 to 170 square metres.
“This subdivision is blatantly illegal as the minimum plot size should be 225 square metres, as per existing regulations. The only exceptions to this rule are under the affordable housing policy and the Goa (Regulation of Land Development and Building construction) Relaxation Rules 2023, which allow for a minimum plot size of 100 square metres. However, in this case, the proposed project does not fall under the criteria. This is clearly being done as a pure commercial real estate project, targeted for the residents of NCR Delhi and being marketed as such,” they claimed.
“Each plot is being sold for more than Rs 95 lakh, which indicates clear misuse of the provisions. This project is clearly investment driven and is being marketed for its speculative commercial potential, guaranteeing high returns to each buyer, while also offering them a piece of land in Goa, a desired destination for the Delhiites,” they stated in the letter.
The residents also demanded a thorough investigation into the procedural and regulatory lapses associated with the project and called for protecting the right of life of the villagers and agricultural tenants.