CRZ-II, CRZ-III A and CRZ-III B, and the No Development Zone

In one line

CRZ-II is the city waterfront and CRZ-III is everything else, and the No Development Zone is the whole difference between them.

In the wording a student can write in an examination: CRZ-II under paragraph 2.2 of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2019 constitutes the developed land areas up to or close to the shoreline within the existing municipal limits or in other existing legally designated urban areas which are substantially built up with a ratio of built up plots to total plots of more than fifty per cent and have been provided with drainage and approach roads and other infrastructural facilities; CRZ-III constitutes the land areas that are relatively undisturbed and do not fall under CRZ-II, and is divided into CRZ-III A, where the population density is more than 2,161 per square kilometre as per the 2011 census base and in which the area up to fifty metres from the High Tide Line is earmarked as the No Development Zone provided a Coastal Zone Management Plan framed with a due consultative process has been approved, failing which a No Development Zone of two hundred metres continues to apply, and CRZ-III B, where the density is less and the No Development Zone is two hundred metres.

The No Development Zone

What it is. A belt measured landward from the High Tide Line inside which no new construction is permitted, subject to the exceptions the notification itself makes.

Where it applies. In CRZ-III only. There is no No Development Zone in CRZ-II, and that is the single most important consequence of the classification.

How wide. Fifty metres in CRZ-III A, two hundred metres in CRZ-III B.

Along creeks. Land area up to fifty metres from the High Tide Line, or the width of the creek whichever is less, along tidal influenced water bodies in CRZ-III is also earmarked as No Development Zone.

Where it does not apply at all. The notification adds a note: the No Development Zone shall not be applicable in the areas falling within notified port limits. That is a substantial exclusion and it is easy to miss.

The proviso that matters most

Paragraph 2.3.1 makes the fifty metre No Development Zone in CRZ-III A conditional. The words are: provided the Coastal Zone Management Plan as per this notification, framed with due consultative process, has been approved, failing which a No Development Zone of two hundred metres shall continue to apply.

Three things follow.

The relaxation is not automatic. Until the State has prepared and had approved a management plan under the 2019 notification, framed with a due consultative process, the old two hundred metres applies.

It is an incentive to plan. A State that wants the relaxation for its villages must complete the consultative planning exercise.