Land procurement recommendation to Govt Curtorim project road
MARGAO: Two years after the government had revoked technical clearance to the project for want of the eight metre road width, the controversial Curtorim hotel project promoted by Ms Ira Exotica has returned to haunt the government with the Town and Country Planning department recommending that the PWD could explore the possibility of procuring land for widening of the road leading to the hotel project site.
TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai, however, told The Goan that he has decided to recuse himself from taking a decision on the TCP recommendation, saying the file will be sent to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for appropriate action. "When the file containing the TCP recommendation is marked to me, I will not take a call since I may be accused of having vested interest in the project. Instead, the file will be forwarded to the Chief Minister for necessary action," Sardesai told The Goan.
The fate of the hotel project would now depend on the decision of the coalition government, whether to direct the PWD to go for procurement of land for road widening since the existing right of way falls short of the eight-metre wide road requirement.
The TCP recommendation to the government to explore the possibility of procuring the land for road widening comes exactly two years after Senior Town Planner, RM Borkar in September 2015 had revoked the conditional technical clearance granted to Ms Ira Exotica on grounds that the road serving the plot is not having the required width of eight metres for construction of the hotel as required under the regulations and since the road widening proposed by the PWD is not practical in the near future.
In its recommendation, the TCP stated "in case, if the government intends to widen the road, the PWD could explore to restart procurement of land as per the policy of procurement of land under the Right to Fair compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 by adequately compensating the affected land owners as per the rates prescribed under the Act if feasible in larger public interest. The petitioner Ms Ira Exotica has also undertaken to bear the cost involved in reconstruction of walls and also for acquisition of land."
The TCP recommendation to the government to explore the possibility of procuring the land comes in the wake of the finding that though construction of the walls lining along the road to the hotel project site are either unauthorized without any permissions or are in violation of approved plans, the existing walls are more or less located within the private properties.
The TCP recommendation in favour of procurement of land for the road widening assumes significance since officials fear that taking action against the compound walls at this stage will lead to protests from the villagers.
In the past, villagers under the banner of Curtorkarancho Ekvott had vehemently opposed the hotel project at Vetnem by taking out a silent candle light rally demanding revocation of the technical clearance issued by the TCP. Representatives of the Curtokarancho Ekvott has already stressed during the hearing before the Senior Town Planner, Margao that the compound walls are constructed well within the private properties and as such they cannot be termed as illegal.
------------------------------------------------------------------
