The High Court has stayed the operation and implementation of the land-acquisition declaration issued for the proposed High-Level New Borim Bridge and its approaches on National Highway 17-B (now NH-566). The petition challenging the acquisition is filed before the High Court by Salvador Alves and 39 other landowners, occupants, and agricultural tenants from Loutolim and Borim. The dispute centres on whether the Central Government can issue a final acquisition declaration under Section 3-D of the National Highways Act, 1956, before obtaining mandatory Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and forest clearances.
The proposed alignment passes through cultivated khazan lands, CRZ areas, and land provisionally identified as private forest (Survey No. 28 of Queula). The Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) placed the CRZ proposal under consideration at its May 2024 meeting, and final clearance remains pending. The High Court emphasized that because the National Highways Act contains no provision to return land to original owners once it vests under Section 3-D, issuing the notification before environmental approval would place landowners at a severe disadvantage if permissions are ultimately refused.
While the Goa government assured the Court that no physical construction or interference with the land would occur before obtaining CRZ permission, the Bench held that this assurance alone did not protect landowners from the legal consequences of vesting. The High Court ruled that, until statutory clearances are fully granted, the authorities cannot take physical possession of the lands, dispossess landowners, or begin construction.
