Chairman and Managing Director of NBCC Anoop Kumar Mittal said that green cover in the seven colonies is expected to go up by 50 percent from the current 14 percent.
Assuaging concerns of the public over axing of 13,000 trees for redevelopment of seven residential colonies in Delhi, the National Buildings and Construction Corporation (NBCC) said on June 25 that more than 2 lakh trees including saplings will be planted to make up for those that will be chopped for constructing 25,500 flats for government employees.
Chairman and Managing Director of NBCC Anoop Kumar Mittal said that green cover in the seven colonies is expected to go up by 50 percent from the current 14 percent. While the current green coverage of the seven colonies is 14 percent, 86 percent is concrete, he said.
“While redeveloping the colonies, special care and attention is being given to retaining maximum number of existing trees and incorporating them in a larger cluster as an integral part of landscaping design scheme,” he said.
The location for planting the 2,00,000 trees is being identified, he said and added that while 1.5 lakh trees will be planted as per government rules, the remaining 50,000 will be voluntarily planted by NBCC and CPWD.
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“In all the seven colonies trees have to be cut because there is a basement to be constructed. We are constructing a basement parking for 50,000 vehicles,” he said. The New Kidwai Nagar project has a basement parking to accommodate 10,000 cars.
NBCC is redeveloping Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, while Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is managing the remaining four colonies in Kasturba Nagar, Thyagraj Nagar, Srinivaspuri and Mohammadpur. These are being redeveloped at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore.
NBCC has received permission from the Delhi government and other authorities to fell 3,748 trees in Naurojit Nagar and Netaji Nagar, where 10,000 trees will be planted apart from paying for green coverage, he said. In the remaining colonies, around 9,000 trees are estimated to be felled, he added.
“Redevelopment is important. Everybody needs a house but it is equally important that the environment, the rules and regulations are adhered to. In this case too green cover will be protected and sustainability of environment ensured,” he said, adding there is no doubt that cutting of a single tree impacts the environment.
"We have taken permission from the state government to cut trees and not from the union environment ministry," he noted.
The NBCC had deposited Rs 8.25 crore for Nauroji Nagar and Rs 14 crore for Netaji Nagar with the tree authority for permission to fell trees.
The colonies would also have extensive green cover, sewage treatment plants, organised parking and other amenities.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court had ordered an interim stay on the tree chopping process. NBCC also agreed not to cut trees until July 4.
The vacation bench of Justices Vinod Goel and Rekha Palli asked,"Can Delhi today afford cutting down of so many trees for a housing complex? We could understand if it was a road-widening work which is inevitable."
The PIL was filed by an orthopaedic surgeon who had sought setting aside of the terms of reference (ToR) and the environment clearances (EC) granted to the project by the Environment Ministry, saying it would lead to felling of over 16,000 trees.
On Sunday, nearly 2,000 protesters hugged trees in Sarojini Nagar launching their own "Chipko Movement", a forest conservation movement where people embraced trees to prevent them from being cut in Uttarakhand (then Uttar Pradesh) in the 1970s.
The Forest Department recently gave permission to cut over 14,000 full-grown trees to make way for the re-development of residential facilities for central government employees.
According to a government statement, in Sarojini Nagar, 8,322 of the 11,913 trees would be cut while in Nauroji Nagar, 1,465 of the 1,513 trees would be chopped. In Netaji Nagar, 2,315 of the 3,906 trees would be cut, while in Mohammadpur, 562 trees would be felled.
As many as 723 trees in Kasturba Nagar would be cut, 750 trees in Sriniwaspuri and 93 in Tyagraj Nagar.
vandana.ramnani@nw18.com