High court asks NBCC to seek fresh green nod for south Delhi projects

The Delhi high court on Wednesday allowed the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) to seek fresh environmental clearance for redevelopment of six out of the seven residential projects in south Delhi.

Construction work in these neighbourhoods had been temporarily stopped by the courts following a series of citizen protests and litigations against the proposal to cut 14,000 trees for the redevelopment projects.

Apart from facing flak for cutting thousands of trees in the green belt of the city, the NBCC had come under the scanner for plagiarising the environment impact report sent to the ministry of housing and urban affairs, based on which they had received clearances.

The bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice V Kameswar Rao on Wednesday asked NBCC to apply for environment clearance and other permission for the redevelopment of Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagaraja Nagar, Mohammadpur, Kasturba Nagar and Srinivaspuri, based on the new building plan submitted by the construction agency.

The court, however, is yet to grant permission to carry out construction work in Nauroji Nagar, which is a part of the seven general pool residential accommodation colonies.

Hearing a petition filed by Kaushal Kant Mishra, challenging the cutting of at least 14,000 trees in these neighbourhood, the bench said since the design has been altered, the agency can go ahead with fulfilling fresh permission formalities.

These neighbourhoods in south Delhi, which came into the limelight because of the mass felling of trees, largely comprises houses for government employees. The NBCC was on its way to pull down the old residential complexes — built in the 1950s — to replace them with high-rise residential buildings, commercial space and a World Trade Centre. The Delhi government’s forest department had withdrawn all permissions of tree cutting in this project after public intervention.

First Published: Oct 04, 2018 08:14 IST