TCP notifies 14 proposals for zone change under 39A

Panaji: In the midst of a growing demand for Section 39A of the Town and Country Planning Act to be scrapped, TCP department offered to convert 14 tracts of land across four talukas from green cover and fields into settlement zones.

The proposed conversions covered about 11,908sqm of land spread across villages in Bardez, Ponda, Quepem and Salcete. The land use change proposals, cleared and notified by the TCP board, were placed in the public domain with a 30-day window for objections.

Among the larger proposals were two adjoining applications in Arpora, Bardez. One application by Beyond Villas LLP sought conversion of 5,642sqm of land classified partly as orchard and natural cover, including a section marked as no-development slope, into settlement. Another proposal by Omega Architects Pvt Ltd sought conversion of 4,509sqm of land in the same survey holding, currently classified as natural cover and no-development slope. The department said final approval would be subject to inputs from the forest department.

Viiking Media & Entertainment obtained permission to convert 1,890sqm of orchard land within a larger settlement holding of 10,150sqm at Candolim. The remaining zone change proposals involved smaller plots ranging from 175sqm to 608sqm.

In Ponda taluka, four proposals were recommended for conversion in Usgao village, including two applications by one individual seeking conversion of natural cover plots measuring 225sqm each, and two applications involving orchard land measuring 175sqm and 349sqm. In Quepem, a 608sqm orchard plot requires comments from the forest department and the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority before final approval.

Multiple proposals were also submitted from Sao Jose de Areal where four applicants sought conversion of irrigated agricultural land. within the irrigation command area, requiring nods from the WRD. In Loutolim, a proposal 500sqm of orchard land was also proposed.