Oberoi Realty Cannot Create Third-Party Rights in Worli Project

Oberoi Realty Cannot Create Third-Party Rights in Worli Project

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered a stay on the creation of any further third-party rights by real estate developers Oberoi Realty and Skylark Buildcon in their project Three Sixty West in Mumbai’s Worli locality.

It has ordered the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) Maharashtra and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to hold a joint meeting within a month to ensure compliance with the project.

While the developer built super-luxury apartments and a lot of parking spaces, there hasn’t been a single parking space for the people who live in the slum rehabilitation units, NGT observed.

The NGT has observed the said luxury property project, which is an SRA project, has 1,726 car parks for 260 super-premium apartments, but 2,300 slum rehabilitation flats have not been provided any car parking slots yet. The project is also the site of the upcoming Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel project.

 According to advocate Aditya Pratap, who represented the applicant, as per Environmental Clearance (EC) obtained in 2016, SEIAA had prescribed conditions, including avoiding traffic congestion near the entry and exit points from the roads adjoining the proposed project site.

The applicant, Santosh Patil, is one of the residents of the slum rehab buildings being constructed on the plot. It has also been prescribed that parking needs to be fully internalised and no public space should be utilized, providing 1,726 and 500 parking spaces for sale and rehabilitation building, respectively.

This was needed so that people who live in slum rehabilitation tenements, which often include delivery men and taxi drivers, could park their cars in private spaces and not on public roads and streets, which would make the roads and streets more crowded.

However, Oberoi Realty and Skylark Buildcon have not provided parking for slum rehab tenements. Accordingly, the NGT, in June 2021, constituted a Joint Committee of CPCB, MPCB, and SEIAA Maharashtra to visit the site and look into the violations alleged in the petition. This committee found non-compliance with the EC conditions.

The NGT accepted the Joint Committee’s report and has accordingly directed the developer not to create any further alienations in the project until compliance with the EC condition to provide 500 car parks for slum rehab tenements is achieved.