Green norms relaxed to build beach resorts

NEW DELHI: Hotels and resorts in coastal areas that are not demarcated as ecologically sensitive can now set up operations right up to the shoreline, increase the number of rooms and create private beaches. The environment ministry has eased restrictions on developing beach resorts and also lifted curbs on construction styles, material and height of buildings and groundwater use.

The ministry has amended the 2011 Coastal Regulation Zone Notification to scrap restrictions on building hotels and beach resorts in areas demarcated as CRZ II.

These are urban areas that have already been developed close to the shoreline, have drainage, approach roads and other infrastructural facilities, with more than half the total plots built up, according to a government notification.

The 2011 notification had created a 200-metre zone between the high tide line and area where construction would be permitted. It had banned construction in the area falling between the high tide line and low tide line.

High tide line refers to point on the land up to which water reaches during the spring tide, while low tide line is the point to which water recedes. The ministry’s amendment does away with this “no-construction” zone.