MUMBAI: A golf course and a residential project are set to come up on a large water body surrounded by mangroves next to the NRI Seawoods Complex in Nerul , sparking outrage among residents and environmentalists.The City and Industrial Development Corporation’s (Cidco) controversial plan to award the 35.5-hectare project—the size of four Oval Maidans—to a builder has been challenged in the Bombay high court. Cidco is the planning authority for Navi Mumbai.Sunil Agarwal, a Navi Mumbai resident, says the place is a feeding ground for flamingos, which are already losing part of their habitat because of the upcoming airport and the proposed Sewri-Nhava bridge.Apart from environmental concerns, Cidco has tweaked its original 2002 plan for the golf course. The earlier proposal was to utilise about 34 hectares for an 18-hole course and another 1.5 hectares for residential buildings to make the project financially viable. But documents procured through the RTI Act reveal that in 2016, Cidco changed the agreement with builder Mistry Construction to increase the housing area to over 15 hectares while reducing the golf course to 20 hectares.Bureaucrat Bhushan Gagrani, who was Cidco VC & MD when the modified agreement to lease was signed with the builder in 2016, told TOI: “Cidco had taken a stand that technically, there are no wetlands in Navi Mumbai. These plots look like wetlands but are artificially created because of non-use of land. Local fishermen created bunds, but they are not natural wetlands... if technical experts declare them as wetlands and the court accepts it, the golf project will have to go.”