Over 6,000 trees, including 1,072 in the ecologically-sensitive Ridge area are set to be axed for the construction of the Delhi Metro corridor between Aerocity and Tughlaqabad. The move comes after a Supreme Court appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) approved the proposal on August 11, 2021. The CEC told the apex court that the Delhi Metro corridor project be approved in the “public interest”. The CEC also informed the Court that of the 6,961 trees, 4,766 would be cut while the rest of them would be transplanted. Around 921 trees fall in the ecologically-sensitive Ridge area and 121 in the extended Ridge. These areas are considered the lungs of Delhi.
As per the CEC report, 2,536 trees come under deemed forest, while 3,353 fall in non-forest land. To compensate for the loss of trees in the Ridge area, the government has identified a 25-hectare patch of land that will be developed as a protected forest in Dhusiras village in Dwarka under the Indian Forest Act 1927. Other than this, 34,000 saplings of local species will be planted for trees chopped outside the Ridge area under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994. “The corridor proposed has been found to be the most feasible route economically, environmentally and technically for the purpose of daily ridership and will be covering a sizable population… No viable alternative is feasible and the use of the ridge area has been restricted to the minimum,” the report said.
The 23.62-kilometre long corridor will pass through the Ridge or morphological Ridge areas at four locations—Mahipalpur, Kishangarh, IGNOU and Maa Anandmayee Marg. According to the proposal, an area of 45,096 sqm 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 sq mt will be needed as a “temporary land area” for the corridor which will have a total of 15 stations, including 11 underground stations.
According to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the daily ridership on the route is estimated at 1.66 lakh trips a day. A senior DMRC official said: “A portion of the alignment, about 5.2 km,is falling in the Ridge area. And, the Ridge Management Board (RMB) has approved the alignment on the Aerocity Tughlakabad corridor of Phase-IV. This will help us in taking the project forward.” He added that “the DMRC has taken a lot of efforts to minimise the impact of the construction of Aerocity Tughlakabad line on the Ridge areas”. The corridor being built as part of the Phase-IV project has been christened as “Silver Line” by the DMRC. This will be the 10th corridor of the network, and therefore it will also be called Line 10.
In February this year, the Delhi High Court had asked the CEC to look into the issues raised in a petition regarding the effect of felling of over 11,000 trees for the construction of overground Metro Line Phase-IV project in New Delhi. A single-judge bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh had disposed of the petition while granting liberty to the petitioners to approach the Court in case their grievances were not looked into by the CEC.
The Court passed its direction in a writ petition filed by Advocate Aditya N Prasad and Dr PC Prasad, a surgeon, regarding the effect of felling of over 11,000 trees for the construction of the overground Metro rail line (construction of Phase-IV expansion project) in New Delhi and its direct and proportional effect on the ambient air quality. The petitioners also sought directions to change the nature of the project from overground to underground.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted in Court that the construction of three corridors of Phase-IV—Delhi Aero city Tughlakabad, RK Ashram Janakpuri(W), Maujpur-Mukundpur—were being majorly constructed overground which would lead to the felling of thousands of trees, and cause irreparable damage and harm to the environment as well as the health of the residents of New Delhi. It was also submitted by the petitioners that some of the sections where the Metro was being built were also specifically identified as “deemed forests” as per the affidavit submitted by the Conservator of Forest, Government of NCT of Delhi, before the Supreme Court in TN Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India and Ors. However, no forest clearance had been obtained for the construction of the Metro in these deemed forest areas. The counsel for the petitioner also submitted that despite sending representation, the DMRC had gone ahead and started the work on the project and cut the roots of a number of trees. The petitioners also informed that a restraining order was issued by the Tree Officer to the DMRC to cease all digging work near the trees and stop all activity in the Najafgarh drain area.
The counsel for the DMRC submitted that the CEC had already fixed a meeting and the petitioners could join the meeting and make submissions. He submitted that the matter was taken up by the Supreme Court on February 2 and the CEC was formed and a time of four weeks was given. The concerned Bench had perused the order of the CEC on earlier dates and the entire issue had been looked into by the CEC and the apex court and the application was disposed and directions issued to the DMRC to allow the petitioners to make a similar submission at the meeting.
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The Metro projects are part of a loan agreements signed between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Indian government in March this year. Japan provided loans worth ¥229.5 billion (Rs 16,186 crore) for executing four projects, including Delhi Metro’s Phase-IV and Bengaluru Metro’s Phase-II expansion plans.
The Rs 8,390-crore loan for Delhi Metro’s Phase-IV would help build three priority corridors—the extension of Line 7 (Mukundpur-Maujpur/12.56 km), Line 8 (Janakpuri West-RK Ashram/28.92 km) and a new corridor spanning Aerocity Tughlakabad (23.62 km), an official statement said. Following the completion of this phase, according to officials, the Delhi Metro’s rail network will span over 400 km, more than twice the Tokyo Metro.
— By Abhilash Kumar Singh and India Legal News Service