NGT halts concretisation of roadsides and road berms in Noida, Greater Noida 

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) halted all concretisation of roadsides and road berms in Noida and Greater Noida in an order issued on Thursday. The Tribunal also issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary, ministry of environment and forests, Noida and Greater Noida Authorities, district magistrate, District Ground Water Management Council, and the resident welfare associations (RWAs).   

A bench of Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and Expert Member, Dr. Afroz Ahmad, passed the Order, on the petition of environment activist Vikrant Tongad and Consultant Dermatologist, Dr. Supriya Mahajan, stating that the Noida and Greater Noida Authorities were concretising the entire roadsides and green/vegetated road berms in the two cities, in flagrant violation of the Orders of the Tribunal, the Government Orders issued by the state government and the Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Urban Development.  

Concretisation of ground obstructs groundwater recharge, causes urban heat islands, loss of biodiversity, urban flooding/waterlogging, loss of carbon sequestration, and prevention of mitigation efforts towards curbing air pollution, the petition said. Akash Vashishtha, Advocate and Counsel for the Petitioners, told the court that soft, vegetated roadsides and road berms in the two cities were being concretized in defiance of the repeated Orders of the Tribunal.  

"Such sudden, alarming increase in the ambient temperatures in last few years is not because of seasonal and meteorological factors alone but because of these entirely concretised ground surfaces. In the absence of harvesting systems, these roadsides serve as the only medium of natural groundwater recharge and those, too, are usurped for concretization," Vashishtha said.  

"They can easily vegetate these surfaces with grass or other pollution absorbing plants. Grass releases Oxygen. The budgets are also comparably much lesser than these ecologically disastrous, unsustainable indiscriminate concretisation works. There is adequate scientific material, including a US Department of Energy study that recommends shunning of this practice," Vashishtha told the court.   

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