Mohta’s Barisha project under PIL cloud
The Statesman | 28 September 2025The government authorities have been asked to file their responses on affidavit within four weeks. The notices were issued on Wednesday after the petitioners – local residents of the area – made serious allegations about the project, including that it had covered up water bodies, and that it had been granted sanction for construction of seven towers when it had obtained clearance from the Airports Authority of India for only four towers.
The petitioners alleged they had recently come to know that Merlin, which had entered into a Joint Development Agreement in 2021 for a project coming up on 22 bighas of land with multiple land-owners, had covered up several ponds.
They stated that Kolkata Municipal Corporation had sanctioned a building plan for the project in July 2022, whereby seven towers were proposed.
The PIL said: “The petitioners state that the respondent no. 14 (Merlin) herein is trying to make the construction on the abovementioned plots of land…relying on a no-objection certificate for revised height clearance dated 18-1-2023 by the Airports Authority of India.” It was alleged that while the NOC was issued in respect of 58 Motilal Gupta Road, it was being used for 260 Motilal Gupta Road.
It was further alleged that while the NOC had been issued in respect of four towers, Merlin planned to construct seven towers. The petitioners have relied on land records to state that most of the plots within the land in question were classified as “pukur, pukur dar, danga
and Sali” and as such KMC could not have sanctioned a building plan without conversion of the land. The petitioners have stated that the ponds on the plot had historically been an important source of groundwater, and a natural buffer against urban flooding.
Accusing the KMC of having sanctioned the building plans without proper verification of land records, the petitioners alleged that the sanction would lead to permanent ecological damage and that it violates municipal and environmental laws.
It will be recalled that just last month, another Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court had ordered the demolition of a 26-storeyed tower comprising 233 apartments, 269 car parking spaces and a commercial plaza in a residential housing project in New Town promoted by Mohta and two others.
The court had further directed that officials of the promoter and engineers/officials of the New Kolkata Development Authority who connived in the fraud be proceeded against, both departmentally and under criminal laws.
