Panaji: The town and country planning (TCP) board approved 12 private applications under Section 39A of the TCP Act to convert green cover into settlement zones, totalling 2.1 hectares across Bardez, Salcete, Ponda, Tiswadi, and Sattari.The approvals include applications from Chicalim sarpanch Kamla Prasad Yadav and his son, cricketer Veer. Their applications involve conversion of orchard land at Verna and together account for about 34% of the total 21,085sqm converted through Thursday’s TCP notification. Both are publicly associated with the 1919 Sportz cricket project at Verna.At Candolim, 1,890sqm of orchard land belonging to Viiking Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd (survey number 112/19) was approved for conversion to settlement. The plot is the site of the former Kingfisher Villa built by Vijay Mallya, is seafacing, and falls in CRZ I-A.The largest single conversion approved is for Ramapati Keshav Pitre at Podocem, Sattari: 8,523sqm to settlement, comprising 4,175sqm previously designated orchard and 4,348sqm cultivable land within the irrigation command area. The approval requires prior NOCs from the forest department and water resources department before any secondary development.Two institutional plots of 460sqm each at Carambolim were also converted to settlement zone.The approvals come about a week after the TCP approved 16 private proposals covering 8.9 hectares for conversion. This week’s batch is dominated by relatively small individual holdings.Several approvals include environmental safeguards, with projects involving natural cover, no-development Slope, and irrigation command areas conditional on clearances from other agencies.Govt stated the Regional Plan alterations remain subject to the outcome of PIL writ petitions 53 and 54 of 2024, pending before the Bombay high court, which challenge the legality of the Section 39A mechanism.
