Now, TCP opens green areas in Calangute, Anjuna for settlement

Panaji: Less than a week after the town and country planning department revoked the conversion of 3 lakh sqm in Arambol, the department approved the conversion of eco sensitive land under Section 39A of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, this time in Calangute, Para, Anjuna and Aldona.

The department cleared 15 proposals that together convert 35,685 sqm of orchards and natural tree cover into settlement zones, with a dominant share coming from ecologically sensitive zones which are in demand from real estate developers.


The proposals were cleared by the TCP board in its 225th meeting, after which the TCP department issued a gazette notification. The bulk of the land proposed for conversion lies in Calangute, Anjuna, Parra and Aldona, villages already under sustained pressure from real estate expansion.

Across the 15 proposals, more than 70% of the land originates from orchard, natural cover, irrigation command area or no development slope classifications.

Most approvals carry conditional clauses from line departments, yet critics note that the TCP continues to clear such applications in fragments without a cumulative environmental impact study.

The department gave 30 days for stakeholders to file objections. Once this window closes, the TCP Board is expected to forward its final recommendations to state govt.

In Anjuna, a single proposal by ELParaiso Ventures LLP accounts for 11,082sqm of newly opened settlement land. The plot includes areas classified as natural cover, natural cover with irrigation command area, and land with no development slope. The conversion was recommended subject to inputs from the water resources department, underscoring the presence of sensitive water-linked zones.

Among the applications is a proposal by Ashvagandha Betelnuts Pvt Ltd in Calangute, where 6,525sqm of land categorised as natural cover, natural cover with no development slope, and part of a heritage landscape was recommended for conversion to settlement. The plot is also located within 500m of the high tide line, and the clearance is subject to comments from the forest department and the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA).

Another large clearance in Calangute went to Morpheus Hospitality Pvt Ltd, which secured conversion of 3,862sqm from natural cover with no development slope to Settlement, again subject to forest department scrutiny.

The Bardez taluka alone accounts for nearly two-thirds of the total area cleared, with 7 proposals covering about 23,500sqm. These include smaller orchard-to-settlement conversions in Aldona and a mixed natural-cover conversion in Parra, where 1,171sqm was cleared despite being part of a no-development slope.

In Khola, Canacona, luxury developer Vianaar and Megrez Estates secured conversion of 4,500sqm of orchard land.

Outside Bardez, the notification records a 4,000sqm conversion of natural cover in Usgao, Ponda, and the release of land from the institutional zone in Carambolim, Tiswadi, where two separate plots were cleared for residential use.