The 23.62-kilometer-long corridor will pass through the ridge or morphological ridge areas at four locations –Mahipalpur, Kishangarh, IGNOU and Maa Anandmayee Marg.

A total of 1,072 trees will be felled during the construction of the 5.5-km section passing through the forest area.

According to the proposal, 45,096 square meters area will be required for the metro tunnel, while permanent land area measuring 14,865 sqm will be required to construct the stations.

Besides, 69,793 sqm will be needed as a “temporary land area” for the corridor which will have a total of 15 stations, including 11 underground stations.

A senior DMRC official said, “A portion of the alignment, about 5.2 km, was falling in the ridge area. And, the Ridge Management Board (RMB) today approved the alignment on the Aerocity-Tughlakabad corridor of Ph-IV. This will help us in taking the project forward.”

Delhi Metro’s Aerocity-Tughlakabad corridor being built as part of the Ph-IV project has been christened as ‘Silver Line’ by the DMRC.

This will be the 10th corridor of the network, so it will also be called Line 10.

The corridor will come up with 15 stations.

“The DMRC has taken a lot of efforts to minimise the impact of the construction of Aerocity-Tughlakabad line on the Ridge areas,” he said.

At a meeting held last month, the RMB had asked the forest department and the DMRC to explore other alternatives so that minimum ridge area is affected, a source said.

At the meeting held on Wednesday, two more alternatives were suggested to the RMB – one where 9,136 trees were proposed to be cut and the other which required felling of 9,831 trees.

Besides, the two options required 4,63,740 sqm and 5,04,988 sqm of the ridge area for the corridor, respectively.

“Considering all these factors, the RMB found that the earlier proposal was suitable,” the source said.

The RMB is a high-powered body formed on the directions of the Supreme Court in 1995 to protect the ridge – the green lungs of the city — spread across 7,784 hectares.

Its clearance is required before taking up any development activity in the ridge area.

Morphological ridge is that part of the ridge area “which has ridge-like features but is not part of notified forests”.

It forms part of the extension of the Aravallis

Source: PTI

(The story has been published from a wire feed without modifications to the text. Only the heading has been changed)

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