MAPUSA
A brazen wave of illegal construction is sweeping across the State’s coastal belt, with several owners allegedly exploiting temporary permissions from the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) to erect full-fledged permanent structures right under the noses of authorities.
What begins as an approval for seasonal wooden setups is increasingly transforming into concrete-and-steel establishments that defy coastal regulations and drastically alter the shoreline.
Local residents across the Anjuna–Vagator–Candolim belt say the pattern has become disturbingly common.
“They get approval for a beach shack made of wood, but within weeks you see cement mixers, steel rods and full-scale construction. Everyone knows what’s going on,” said Premanand Diukar, Founder President of Calangute Constituency Forum.
The violations are becoming more audacious, with owners allegedly laying cement foundations and using heavy construction materials explicitly prohibited for temporary structures.
Adding to the frustration, locals claim that violators frequently change the names of clubs or entities once caught, making accountability harder.
“If authorities question them, they simply rebrand and continue operations. It’s a cat-and-mouse game where the mouse always wins,” remarked an Anjuna-based activist.
One of the most alarming examples is a massive structure rising on an elevated slope barely 100 metres from Ozrant beach, sparking anxiety among residents who fear irreversible environmental damage.
“A construction of this scale doesn’t just appear. Someone has looked away –and for a long time,” Jawish Moniz, a local resident alleged.
Amid this growing outrage, the High Court of Bombay at Goa has stepped in, pulling up the GCZMA and the Candolim panchayat for failing to curb these violations in time.
In a recent order issued while hearing a PIL filed by the Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF), the court directed both authorities to submit affidavits detailing a robust plan to stop illegal structures at their inception.
Importantly, the court insisted that the mechanism must identify specific officers who will be held personally accountable for lapses.
In a separate directive, the High Court has issued notices to 13 government bodies — including the Town and Country Planning Department, the Tourism Department, the GCZMA and the concerned panchayats — for their failure to remove illegal constructions along the Baga–Sinquerim stretch and for neglecting to restore the beaches to their original, natural state.
A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded that the system has loopholes.
“Monitoring needs to improve. Temporary licences are misused and by the time violations come to our attention, the structures are already in place. The court’s directive will hopefully force better enforcement,” the official said.
The PIL highlighted how multiple licences granted in Candolim for temporary wooden shacks were blatantly violated, with owners converting them into permanent structures using concrete, steel and other banned materials – effectively circumventing the ban on permanent construction in the No Development Zone.
Residents say the problem has reached a tipping point.
“If this continues, we will lose our coastline to illegal resorts and clubs. This isn’t development – it’s organised encroachment,” said Pradeep Harmalkar, a resident of Anjuna.
As the authorities prepare their action plans for the High Court, coastal communities wait to see whether this intervention will finally halt the unchecked expansion – or whether violators will continue shaping the shoreline in defiance of the law.
