Last Updated: 01.08.24

The 2003 ESZ notification mandated the preparation of a Zonal Master Plan for the ESZ within a period of two years. The Zonal Master Plan was to be comprised of five separate plans:

In fact, it was only due to BEAG’s petition before the National Green Tribunal that the Government of Maharashtra initiated the process for preparing these plans in 2016 and submitted them for approval to the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change between 2016 and 2018.

The other components of the Zonal Master Plan, such as the Heritage plan and its regulations for the ESZ area outside the town of Matheran (which were to be included in the Regional Plan),the Forest Master Plan, and the Forest Management Plan have yet to be submitted by the Government of Maharashtra to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

BEAG continues its battle for the preparation of the Zonal Master Plan in its entirety, as mandated by the ESZ notification of 2003.

Slow Climb – The Sub Zonal Master Plan for Matheran Municipal Council area

Two of the most important components of the Zonal Master Plan mandated by the 2003 ESZ notification are the Sub Zonal Master Plan for the area managed by the Matheran Municipal Council (this plan is also referred to as the Developmental Plan) and the Sub Zonal Master Plan for the rest of the ESZ (this plan is often referred to as the Regional Plan).

The February 2003 ESZ notification had given the Government of Maharashtra two years to prepare the Zonal Master Plan, but it was only in 2010, seven years later, that the Government of Maharashtra published one component of it, namely the Draft Development Plan, report, and DCR for the areas managed by the Matheran Municipal Council. Draft plans must be published in the state’s official gazette and at least two local newspapers to invite suggestions and objections from the public, as per the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act of 1966.

BEAG, being a member of the Monitoring Committee, continued to be involved in the entire process of promoting sustainable development in the region, and filed suggestions and objections to the draft Development Plan published in 2010.

Three years later, on October 14, 2013, the Government of Maharashtra published a revised draft Development Plan, which contained major modifications, to elicit public suggestions and objections for the modifications. Major modifications to a plan are called Excluded Part under Section 31 of the MRTP Act.

Among the minor modifications in the revised draft Development Plan—minor modifications are automatically sanctioned by the state government—BEAG was heartened to see included a set of regulations that had been carefully drafted by BEAG under the advice of heritage architects and submitted as part of its suggestions and objections. The regulations drafted by BEAG had been published as DCR 82. The official title of DCR 82 is ‘Design Control and Regulations for the Preservation of Existing Townscape Character in Matheran’.

After a detailed study of the major modifications (termed Excluded Part) in the revised draft Development Plan, BEAG sent its suggestions and objections to the Government of Maharashtra.

It took another three years for the Government of Maharashtra to approve the major modifications. On January 21, 2016, the Excluded Part of the Development Plan was sanctioned by the state government.

Much to BEAG’s consternation, however, the sanctioned Development Plan had various provisions that were contrary to the letter and spirit of the ESZ notification—provisions such as deemed forests being demarcated as a Residential Zone, increase in FSI, and widening of roads and reservations for affordable housing. In fact, the provisions were also in contradiction of the Government of Maharashtra’s own circular disallowing such schemes in Matheran. The Development Plan also included specific projects that the state government had itself decided not to proceed with, such as the funicular railway project, shelved due to unfeasibility, Moreover, the heritage regulations that had been notified in the plan were also incomplete, lacking the provisions for appeal, penalty and criteria for listing.

Only a few months later, on August 6, 2016, the Government of Maharashtra forwarded the Development Plan to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for approval.

However, the Ministry returned the Development Plan to the Government of Maharashtra on April 10, 2017, stating that it was a “report”, not a Sub Zonal Master Plan and asked it to submit a consolidated Zonal Master Plan as envisaged by the 2003 ESZ notification.

BEAG continues its effort to be involved with the Zonal Plan through litigation in NGT.