HC tells Centre to list steps to protect project-hit fishermen

The Bombay High Court Friday asked the Centre to inform the court of the steps it was taking to ensure that the fishermen affected by the coastal road project were not robbed of their source of livelihood.

A bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice N M Jamdar directed the Union government counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, to file an affidavit.

The affidavit should state whether the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was required to have had experts conduct a specific study on the effect of the reclamation and construction work for the project on the fisherfolk in the city and their source of livelihood, the bench said.

Such study was a condition imposed by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest on the BMC at the time of granting clearances for the project, which envisages building a 29.2-km long road along Mumbai's west coast, connecting Marine Drive in South Mumbai to Kandivali, a western suburb.

The court directed the Union government to file the affidavit clarifying if such a condition still existed, and if so, then "whether the study was to be conducted simultaneously with the reclamation work, as it progressed along the proposed stretch of the road, or, if the study should have been done before the work began"?