PANAJI
Racing against the October-end deadline to complete the Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) 2019, the State government was stunned to see that several survey number are missing from the 1:40,000 scale maps of CZMP 2011 -- provided by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) -- a crucial document required for drafting of the new plan.
However, based on the existing scale maps, provided by NCSCM, the Kerala based National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) -- appointed for drafting CZMP 2019 -- has completed the ground truthing of the high tide line in the coastal belt. The NCESS officials had visited the State in the last week of the September to complete the exercise through satellite.
Sources informed that the NCSCM, who had prepared CZMP 2011, finally submitted the 1:40,000 scale maps to the State government; however several survey numbers were missing from the maps.
“We have started the process to correct the maps by adding the missing survey numbers. Once that is complete, we will submit the maps back to NCSCM to finalize them and incorporate it with CZMP 2011,” sources said.
Sources also said that once NCSCM finalizes the maps, the same would be made available to NCESS to complete the CZMP 2019.
The NCSCM had earlier prepared the coastal map on a 1:25,000 scale, but following several complaints from citizens stating that structures and villages were not clearly visible, the state had asked the Chennai-based agency to prepare it on a 1:4,000 scale.
The National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) recently granted two-month time to all Coastal states to finalize CZMP 2019 failing which it has informed that it won't grant any CRZ clearance to the developmental projects including that of the government along the coastal areas under CRZ 2011 notification from November.
Goa has decided to approach NCZMA for relaxation and grant of time till January 2024.
Goa is the only State amongst 11 coastal States which is yet to kick- start the process to prepare the CZMP based on 2019 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification. And such, pending drafting and finalisation of CZMP 2019, the CRZ notification 2019 and its rules and procedures are currently not applicable to the State.
