DLF has violated Coastal Regulation Zone regime and illegally reclaimed a portion of the Chilavannoor Lake, the sub-committee of the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority is learnt to have concluded.
The three-member panel consisting of Kamalakshan Kokkal, A. Ramachandran and K. Padmakumar, which inspected the site on Monday, submitted its report to the Authority on Tuesday.
The reports of CRZ violations had created uproar in the State Assembly, and the State government said it was waiting for the panel report to act.
According to the report, the site where the mammoth construction came up was a pokkali field as shown in the timeline images of satellite platform of the region in 2005. Reclamation started in 2005 at the site and continued up to 2006. Satellite images showed that construction began after 2008, sources said.
The area where the project came up was marked as Pokkali fields in the approved Coastal Zone Management Plan of the region in 1996. As the Pokkali fields are impacted by tidal action, they come under the CRZ regime and reclamation of the field is illegal. The original extent of Pokkali field was up to the entrance of the project, authority sources said.
The builder had also attempted to manipulate the set-back prescribed for the property from the backwater by reclaiming lake by dumping debris from the construction site.
Though the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) had directed the Kochi Corporation to act against the reclamation of the water body near the site in 2011, it didn’t act. The builder also failed to restore the area as ordered by the RDO. The panel is understood to have highlighted these violations in its report.
Inspections revealed that 135 metres of backwater was reclaimed near the apartment complex. The width of the water body at near the project site was recorded as 358 metres in the satellite map of 2005. The inspections held on Monday revealed that the width was reduced to 223 metres, which clearly indicated that the water body was encroached upon, sources said.
The panel members are understood to have upheld the findings of the Chief Secretary E.K. Bharat Bhushan, who also concluded that the “reclamation of the backwaters since 2005 is clearly discernable.”
When contacted, Sanjey Roy, Senior vice president, Corporate Communications, DLF Limited, declined to comment on the developments. “The matter is sub judice and hence we cannot comment,” Mr. Roy said.
