Hasten preparation of 2019 coastal plan, Centre tells Goa government

Panaji: Centre has directed state govt to expedite the preparation of the draft Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) 2019 in line with the CRZ Notification 2019.

State govt had earlier sought time until May 2024 from Centre to complete the plan. It had also sought permission to issue approvals to projects based on the CZMP 2011 in the interim.

“Goa has been asked to expedite the finalisation of the CZMP 2019 for consideration at the upcoming National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) meeting,” a senior official said. The Union environment ministry recently met to review the status of CZMPs, island coastal regulation zone plans, and integrated island management plans as per the CRZ Notification 2019.

The state had finally approved corrections to its CZMP 2011, after the Chennai-based National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) provided maps on a larger scale of 1:40,000 following a request by state govt.

Finalised plans with corrections were sent to the Union environment ministry for approval, and were subsequently referred to the scrutiny committee. A senior official said the scrutiny committee raised some concerns, and the plan was reverted seeking clarity on certain points. “This has put a roadblock for the completion of the next CZMP for 2019,” the official said.

Once the corrected plans in the 1:40,000 scale are approved by the Union environment ministry, the CZMP 2011 will be sent to the Kerala-based National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) to complete the CZMP 2019 for Goa.

After conducting public hearings and after the environment ministry’s approval, the CZMP 2011 was notified by Goa in Sep 2022. However, the NCSCM first prepared the CZMP 2011 on a 1:25,000 scale. Following complaints from citizens stating that structures and villages were not clearly visible on the map, state govt asked the Chennai-based agency to prepare it on a 1:40,000 scale.

In Sep 2023, the NCSCM accordingly provided the maps to Goa on a larger scale. However, some discrepancies were observed on verification of the larger scale maps of the CZMP 2011, “which required updating because bunds as displayed on the CZMP and bunds depicted on the notified survey plans prepared by the state, as per the provision of the Land Revenue Code, were seen to have a mismatch”.