A full list of violators and violations of the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) 1991 notifications will be put up on the Ministry of Environment and Forests Web site by December, said the Environment Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, on Friday.

Following a meeting with the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, the Environment Minister said that the first notice has already been sent against violators of section 5 of the CRZ 1991 notification.

“This is the first a long list of notices. However, this does not mean that all violations will be demolished. We will take the best possible action but all violators of the law would have to pay,” said Mr Ramesh.

He went on to add that the Maharashtra Chief Minister had been granted most of the demands made by him during the meeting.

“A total of seven issues were discussed and Maharashtra got 95 per cent of them. The metro rail project, a 32-km link between Charkop and Mankhurd, has been approved. On the need to give quicker environmental clearance to housing projects with GRIHA and LEED certification, the State Government gets what it wants,” said the Minister.

He also announced lifting the sand mining ban for two years from the non-CRZ areas in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts subject to environment safeguard measures.

He said the sand mining in the CRZ areas would be possible after Maharashtra Maritime Board makes an application to the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment about need for the same.

Only the coastal road project has been put on hold. “We have not rejected the Coastal Road project. We have not approved it either. We will study it,” said Mr Ramesh.

Mr Chavan said that the Technical Group comprising officials from the Central and the State Governments would study the feasibility of the project from the point of view of cost-benefit and the latest CRZ Amendments 2011.

He added that the State Government has proposed a ring road project of more than 300 km costing nearly Rs 34,000 crore, which will consist of section on stilts, tunnels and coastal road with promenade, which will add to the existing green cover in Mumbai.

Jaitapur project

Commenting on the clearance to Jaitapur, Mr Ramesh said that the clearance given to the power plant in November last year stands valid. However, he said that lessons must be learnt from the recent tragedy in Fukushima, Japan.

“What happened in Fukushima was a wake-up call for all of us and we have to draw the appropriate lessons,” said the Minister.

“We have to improve our safety processes... review all our environmental appraisal procedures for coastal plants, power plants, refineries, oil storage depots and see how equipped we are to deal with emergencies. There are six units in the Jaitapur power plant and all of them require individual safety systems,” he added.