How Media quotes Makarand Wadekar 3

Centre may declare Sahyadri a red zone

The decision may adversely affect development projects.

Mamta Chitnis Sen  Mumbai | 23rd Aug 2014

he Central government may declare the Sahyadri hills a "red zone" where construction activities are banned, say officials in Maharashtra's environment department. If implemented, this could affect the future of over 36 townships that are coming up in western Maharashtra. "The Sahyadris are ecologically sensitive. After the landslide in Malin, which led to the death of 160 people, the Ministry of Environment may declare the entire area as a no-development zone. The declaration may come after October," said the Mantralaya official. "As of now, over 700 builders, big and small, are involved in different construction projects in the belt. After the Malin tragedy, those promoting the concept of second country homes are desperately trying to dispose of these plots," he said. The source added that if the area is declared a "red zone", builders and developers will face huge losses. Credit policy analyst Makarand Wadekar agrees that in case the Sahyadri belt is declared a red zone, builders who have invested heavily in the construction of new projects will suffer and the value of the land will go down. "I believe that most plots that are located in the Sahyadris, especially within a 100 kilometre radius of Mumbai (stretching from Panvel to the outskirts of Pune), are being developed violating all ecological norms. Huge amounts are being invested to cut the mountains but no attempt is being made to rehabilitate the ecosystem. The builder lobby purchases land along these hills either from local villagers, through questionable means or encroaches upon the forestland. Usually, these lands are acquired for throwaway prices like Rs 10 lakh per acre and sold off at escalated costs. After digging deep at 10 metres in these areas, you tend to hit water which rusts the steel plinths that are made to stand in this soil. This causes the houses to fall after a few years. With trees being uprooted, the soil, which becomes loose tends to flow downhill causing landslides," he said. Ashutosh Limaye, head, Research & Real Estate Intelligence Survey, Jones Lang LaSalle India, points out that once the area is declared a red zone, not only will there be restriction on development in various gradations but the projects currently under construction will also suffer. "I believe that in critical areas, development would come to a stop. While in partially critical areas, it would continue. A majority of projects are being promoted as second homes in these hills and we have seen that their appreciation value tends to go down irrespective of the fact whether it is a no-development zone or not. Most buyers enjoy the property initially but tend to neglect it over the years. Also builders, once they hand over these projects to their owners, back out completely from the maintenance of these projects, causing the selling rates to plummet," he says.

http://www.sunday-guardian.com/investigation/centre-may-declare-sahyadri-a-red-zone