‘No felling' forces agencies to revamp Delhi building plans

The ban on felling of trees is set to delay the ongoing projects for the development of residential colonies for Government employees in South Delhi.

The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is now in the process of redesigning all the ongoing projects. Other agency, the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) is redeveloping Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, while the CPWD is managing the rest of the four colonies in Kasturba Nagar, Thyagraj Nagar, Srinivaspuri and Mohammadpur.

CPWD director general Prabhakar Singh on Thursday said the number of proposed flats would come down due to the redesigning of plans to avoid felling of tree. For instance, if 1,000 flats were proposed to be constructed in the initial plan, the numbers would come down to about 900 flats owing to the redesigning of the plan.

“It was also decided that no underground/basement parking is to be provided in these projects to avoid tree cutting,” he said. Normally, the CPWD provides basement parking or underground parking in its constructions. Officials said now the agency will try to provide parking space on the surface.

With this new decision, there would be no basement or underground parking in Mohammedpur, Srinivaspuri, Thyagraj Nagar and Kasturba Nagar colonies.

Nearly 10,000 to 15,000 flats would be built in these colonies. Assuming that each of the occupants would have at least one car, these colonies would require massive parking space. In the absence of underground space, parking could be a major issue in these colonies.

In Delhi, there are 1.45 crore registered vehicles. Interestingly, of the 41 multi-level parking projects conceived by the municipal bodies between 2007 and 2010, just three are operational and close to 10 have been scrapped.

Officials said the Government projects going on in North Avenue and Sunehri Masjid would not be affected.

Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had last month announced that no trees would be cut for the redevelopment of seven south Delhi colonies.

He had also directed the CPWD and the NBCC to rework the plan to avoid cutting of trees. The Government had announced that it would be cutting over 14,000 trees for building over 25,000 flats for Government employees in seven colonies of south Delhi. The proposal had attracted heavy criticism from green activists, politicians and citizens.

According to officials in the CPWD, as many as 1,900 construction works worth Rs 31,500 crores and 1,450 maintenance works worth Rs 600 crores are in progress. “The works are being awarded for newly sanctioned construction works worth Rs 10,000 crores,” Singh said.