The Supreme Court on Friday remarked that developing countries cannot be told to stop their projects only because they are likely to cause climate change. The commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has welcomed this decision and said that this decision is very encouraging.
BMC Commissioner Iqbal Chahal said, "Very encouraging order in BMC coastal road matter by the Hon’ble Supreme Court bench presided by Hon’ble Justice Chandrachud yesterday... We got approval to go ahead with landscaping and underground parking works. BMC will complete this project in November 2023 as scheduled."
The development comes as the top court modified its two-year-old order to allow the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to commence partial development work on the ongoing Mumbai Coastal Road Project.
What the SC order says?
A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli allowed the municipal corporation's application to amend the apex court's order in October 2020 that permitted the civic body to reclaim sea land strictly for the purpose of road construction.
The apex court was hearing on a pending appeal filed by the civic body against the Bombay High Court's July 2019 judgement that had stalled the coastal road project due to lack of adequate environmental clearances.
Despite the court in December 2019 had stayed the HC verdict, it refused to allow the corporation to move on with the massive project in totality and restricted it only to the road construction part.
In October 2020, this was reiterated by the bench led by then Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. However, since then, the matter has not been heard.
Speaking about the development with The Print, one of the lawyers said that the road construction work has been in full swing since the SC's order. However, the corporation felt that other development work should be taken up to save time and escalation of costs.
