Chennai, Jul 24 (IANS): Tamil Nadu State Coastal Zonal Management Authority (TNCZMA) on Monday announced to establish five regional coordination units.

TNCZMA said that this is to identify the violations in Coastal Regulation Zones (CRZ) areas and to take appropriate action on the violations, if any.

The decision to establish the regional units comes after following the observations made in a Performance Audit by the Accountant General on ‘Conservation of Coastal Marine Eco System’.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has also in its report, ‘Conservation of Coastal Ecosystems’, said that SCZMA’s did not take proactive actions against the CRZ violations.

The five regional units will be located at Chennai, Chengalpattu, Nagapattinam, Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi. TNCZMA has forwarded the proposal for the same to the state government.

TNCZMA is also proposing to increase the scrutiny fee from those seeking CRZ clearance and this is for funding the human resources required for the five new regional units. The proposal is for doubling the scrutiny fee in projects whose estimated cost is above Rs 50 crore.

According to the proposal, the scrutiny fee will be Rs 40 lakh for projects above Rs 500 crore. The scrutiny fee for these projects was earlier Rs 20 lakhs. Projects whose estimated cost is between Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore will have a new scrutiny fee of Rs 20 lakhs which was earlier Rs 20 lakhs.

These new regional units will assist the district administration in implementing CRZ regulations. These units will also assist the TNCZMA as also respective District Coastal Zone Management Authority (DCZMA) in enquiring into alleged violations of the provisions of the Environment Protection Act, 1986.