http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Oct242007/national2007102432059.asp
Deccan Herald > National> Detailed Story
Goa out of reach to Goans, say builders
>From Devika Sequeira, DH News Service, Panaji:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you are in the middle income bracket and living in Goa,
chances are you will not be able to afford a reasonable
two-bedroom apartment in any of the towns or the tourist coast.
The May 2005 freeze on Goa's Regional Plan 2011 and the
frenetic speculation by Delhi-based property brokers has
pushed land costs to all-time highs in Goa. Real estate
prices have gone up between 33 per cent to 50 per cent in
less than 18 months, said Datta Naik, president Goa Chamber
of Housing Industry (GCHI).
Take for instance the 200 square metre sea-front
apartment which the local builder Dinar Tarcar was
selling in Dona Paula for Rs 35 lakh two years ago.
The flat is now worth Rs 2 crore. "The appreciation
is both unbelievable and absurd, but the fact is I
cannot afford to buy a flat in my own building,"
Tarcar said.
Even a regular 100 square metre flat in the suburbs around
Panjim costs over Rs 35 lakh today, say builders. Though
prices around Margao, south Goa are marginally lower at Rs
20,000 per square metre built-up, this represents an
appreciation of 33 per cent from prices that prevailed last
year, Naik said.
Closer to the coast, land prices have scaled even higher
peaks as more and more North Indian speculators and big
realtors are muscling in into the hotel industry in Goa.
"The problem is that Goa is a small state which has been
turned into a big brand, and everyone from rich businessmen
to NRIs want to own property here. Throw a stone anywhere in
Goa and it's bound to hit a broker these days," said Naik.
The freeze on the Regional Plan, the frenzied buying and the
scarcity of land in the market has put housing beyond the
reach of the local population.
"Goans can no longer afford to buy property in their own
state, and unless the government puts a cap on buying by
outsiders there will be serious issues over the changing
demographic composition," Tarcar said.
The GCHI wants the state government to create land estates on
the lines of the industrial ones, to provide "affordable"
housing to locals and those living here for a minimum 15 years.
* * * * *
Sea level rise along India coast is a reality, scientists say
>From Pamela D'Mello [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Panaji, Oct 22: Mean sea level rise along the north Indian
ocean coasts has rise at an average of 1.30 mm per year,
slightly less than a global average of 1.7 mm per year, says
national institute of oceanography scientist and IPCC team
member A S Unnikrishnan.
Dr Unnikrishnan's study published in Global Planet Change
this year, quantifies an average rise for the region, using
tide gauge data from several Indian ports, including Mumbai
port's longest 113 years data.
The relatively recent presence of tide gauges (most under
forty years old) in the Indian ocean regions made if
difficult for scientists to calculate mean sea level rise in
the area.
Data for the region is therefore not included in calcualtions
for the global average. The same holds true for other
southern hemisphere countries as well, says Dr Unnikrishnan.
His joint study this year has however concluded that the
regional rise was consistent with global average rise.
There is incontrovertible evidence, he told a media workshop
on rising seas -- that mean sea level has been rising along
with global atmospheric temerperatures. "As the atmosphere
heats, oceans warm and expand, and this with glacier melts,
cause a rise in mean sea levels," he stated.
While the nature of India's west coast, especially along
Karnataka, made it less vulnerable, mean sea rise at Diamond
Harbour, West Bengal was calculated at 5.74 mm per year.
This above average rise is due to its location on the Ganges
delta where land is subsiding at upto 4 mm per year, he said.
Kandla port and the Gujarat coast also showed higher than
average mean sea level rise.
Though global mean sea level rise averages out to a 17 cm
rise in a hundred years, Dr Unnikrishnan pointed out that
scientific models forecast a speedier rate of rise if green
house gas emissions increase. Reversing any changes though
would take hundreds of years, as seas are sluggish and don't
easily change.
In February 2007, IPCC fouth assesment report linked rising
global mean sea level to human induced climate change.
Scientists and environmentalists at the workshop
though were appalled at attempts by policy makers
to amend coastal regulation zoning laws to open
coastlines to building activity. Aleady far too
many cities and human settlements located too close
to the seas were creating potential human disasters
out of otherwise normal natural phenomena, said Dr
Antonio Mascarenhas.
Coastal forests and natural sand dunes had prevented water
ingress limiting human damage in select areas where they were
present, during the 2005 tsumami, he said, quoting his recent
research. Where these are absent, extreme storms become
avoidable disasters, he said. ENDS
