The Centre’s directive to redesign the redevelopment of south Delhi colonies to avoid any tree-cutting will result in a 10% decrease in flats, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) said on Thursday.
Public outrage over the felling of trees in the process of redevelopment had forced the Ministry for Housing and Urban Affairs to rework the design of the colonies, four of which are being redeveloped by the CPWD, with three others being redeveloped by the NBCC. The colonies house Central government employees.
“We may have to reduce the number of units after the redesign,” CPWD Director General Prabhakar Singh told reporters on the occasion of the organisation’s 164th annual day.
“It is likely to be a 10% reduction. The original plan was to have 15,000 units,” said Special Director General S.K. Garg, who was till recently in charge of the redevelopment project. He added that the redesign would then have to be given an environment clearance by the government. “We hope the clearance will come through in about six months. The projects will take two years to complete after that,” he said.
So far, tree-cutting has only taken place in the NBCC projects. At the CPWD sites, while demolition of the old buildings has been done, no construction or tree-cutting has yet taken place, said Mr. Garg.
The original plan called for the felling of almost 17,000 trees.
The CPWD is responsible for the colonies at Kasturba Nagar, Thyagaraj Nagar, Srinivaspuri and Mohammadpur, while the NBCC is redeveloping Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar and Nauroji Nagar.