Issuing notice to the Centre and the Delhi Government, the National Green Tribunal on Wednesday sought response from them over the issue of the redevelopment of East Kidwai Nagar in South-West Delhi after a plea alleged that requisite permissions have not been taken. Seeking reply by July 9, a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notices to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the Delhi Government and National Buildings Construction Corporation ltd (NBCC). The directions came while hearing a plea by South Delhi resident KS Gahunia, who had alleged that in the garb of redevelopment, NBCC, the project proponent, is destroying public roads and “illegally” erecting barricades on the roads.
Gahunia has also sought directions to restrain NBCC from operating the concrete mixing plants on roads without obtaining the required permission from regulatory authorities. “NBCC has started reducing the width of the road from 90 feet to 30-40 feet with the malafide intentions causing utmost inconvenience to public,” the plea claimed and urged the Tribunal to pass an ad-interim injunction thereby restraining NBCC, their agents, representatives, employees etc from encroaching the public roads.
Earlier, in a separate plea, the Tribunal had given a go-ahead to the Rs4,264-crore redevelopment project, where residential and commercial space is to be developed for Government employees, saying, “There is no reason to believe that the precautionary principle and the principle of sustainable development would be violated or compromised, if the said project is implemented.”