Mumbai: The Bombay high court Tuesday reprimanded government authorities for their lack of coordination. The court was hearing a petition on the issue of the coastal road, where the fisheries department said it had started surveys to find data on the effect of reclamation and construction on fishing while the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said fishing activities and fish breeding stations would not be affected.
While hearing a petition filed by members of two fishing societies, Worli Koliwada Nakhwa and Worli Machimmar Sarvodaya Sahakari Society, opposing the coastal road project which proposes to connect the Marine Drive area in the city to Kandivali, a division bench of Chief Justice N.H. Patil and Justice N.M. Jamdar asked the state authorities how could they begin work on the coastal road project without finding out if it was going to adversely affect fishing communities and breeding ground for fish along the proposed roads or not.
“This shows the lack of coordination between our agencies, representing an extremely sorry state of affairs,” said CJ Patil when the commissioner of fisheries who was present in court told the court that his department had asked its officials to conduct a survey of the area where fishing took place and whether reclamation and construction of the road would affect fishermen.
On the other hand, the BMC’s counsel Anil Sakhre had already told the court that neither fishing activities nor breeding stations of fish would be affected by the construction work.
The court has now directed the civic body to submit details of the fishing areas and breeding grounds that fall along the proposed stretch, and the number of people likely to be affected by the project.
