June 25: The Bombay High Court has formed a six-member expert committee to probe into the illegal construction of hotels in Mahabaleshwar. The committee has been asked to submit its report within eight weeks.

The expert committee includes Pune divisional commissioner Arun Bhatia, Satara collector Vandana Khullar, Officer on Special Duty with Bombay Metropolitan Regional Development Authority G S Pantbalekundri, Deputy Director Town Planning, Pune division, Asha Jawdekar, retired state director of town planning J G Keskar and an environmentalist-resident of Mahabaleshwar and retired colonel S A Mohite.

The Bombay Environmental Action Group and its honorary secretary Shyam Chainani moved the HC against 10-odd hoteliers and private developers challenging illegal construction and deforestation in the Mahabaleshwar-Panchgani hilly region. As per the petition, developers have built three to four-storeyed buildings in blatant violation of environmental guidelines. Buildings with floor space index as high as 2.25 or 3 have been permitted by the Mahabaleshwar Municipal Council. The rapid growth of buildings has endangered the flora and fauna of the hill station, which has not been compensated by planting a few saplings here and there, the petition claims.

The petition has named `erring' hotels like Hotel Surya Inn Retreat, Brightlands Holiday Resort, Hill View Cottages, Hotel Madhuban, Hotel Lake View, Hotel Sunny International, Hotel Sai Veer and Hotel Mount Manor. The petition has listed the various town planning rules violated by the hotels. The demand of BEAG is a ban on granting additional FSI to builders and refusal of permission for ``ostensible farm houses on uncultivated agricultural land.''

The petition was admitted by Chief Justice M B Shah and Justice Ranjana Desai. Interestingly, the Satara collector Vandana Khullar, is also a respondent in the petition.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.