Order of the Bombay High Court regarding construction of a jetty project by Adani Cementation Limited in Raigad district, Maharashtra, 05/03/2025
Order of the Bombay High Court in the matter of Adani Cementation Limited Vs Union of India & Others dated 05/03/2025.
Adani Cementation Limited approached the Bombay High Court seeking issuance of an order directing the respondents/ authorities to permit the petitioner to carry out the work of construction of a berthing/ captive jetty to facilitate transportation of cement, clinker and other raw material through waterways. Also, permission for construction of a conveyor corridor and an approach road to the proposed cement grinding and fly ash/slag processing unit, a back up storage unit in Shahapur and Shahabaz in Raigad district. The aim being meeting the increasing need for cement of Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Adani Cementation Limited has prayed for an approval from the HC by considering the public importance of the project. The project covers a total of 6000 hectares. For giving effect to the project, it is said that a total number of 158 mangrove trees and shrubs will be affected and the estimated total cost of the project is around Rs 172 crore.
The project proponent had acquired clearances and permissions from the Maharashtra Maritime Board, Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA), permission from forest department as well as permission from MoEFCC.
The Bombay High Court gave the go ahead to the project since the "requisite statutory permissions are granted in favour of the Project Proponent subject to strict compliance of the conditions ensuring protection of ecology and environment".
The bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Bharati Dangre observed that "any activity though aimed as a commercial activity do not deplete the available natural resources and even if it does so, in any minimised way, by ensuring that its loss is compensated, by considering that all the statutory permissions have been secured by the Petitioner and with the requisite compliances to be ensured at every level, when the necessary permissions were granted".
The HC directed the project proponent to ensure compliance of the conditions imposed upon it by the authorities - including MOEFCC as well as MCZMA.