Tree cutting nod from Delhi govt delays Dwarka eway
The NHAI has requested to cut 13,690 trees to build an underground tunnel
GURUGRAM: Though the land earmarked for the construction of the Dwarka Expressway in Gurugram is ready to be transferred to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the fate of the expressway’s 11km Delhi segment is still not clear. A group of Dwarka expressway residents, who called upon the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejrwal and transport minister Satyender Jain earlier this week, said they did not get any assurances from them that the land will be made available at the earliest, though they did agree to look into the issue.
The NHAI said it had been trying to get permission from Delhi government for the felling of trees, needed to build the road, but there has been little progress in the project, despite several high level meetings and discussions over the past year.
To build the underground tunnel from Sector 21 underpass in Dwarka to Shiv Murti on the Delhi-gurugram expressway, the highway authority has sought permission to cut 13,690 trees, without removing which, as per NHAI officials, it is not possible to build the underground tunnel.
In June 2016, it was decided that the Haryana government’s 18km Dwarka expressway project would be handed over to the NHAI. The authority decided to convert it into a national highway comprising of an elevated road connecting Shiv Murti on the Delhi-gurugram expressway to a point near Kherki Daula, extending the length by almost 11km.
The residents who met Kejriwal and Jain, on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, to press for the early start of work on this section, said the Delhi government was not in favour of cutting trees. “While the Chief Minister wanted a change in the layout, the transport minister questioned the very purpose of building the elevated road. It is unlikely that the government will give permission for cutting or transplanting the trees, as it does not seem convinced with the project,” Prakhar Sahay, a member of the Dwarka expressway welfare association, which called upon the two in Delhi, said.
The project, which was to be completed in 2010 in Gurugram, has missed several deadlines because of pending court petitions from landowners who sought compensation from the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), earlier known as HUDA. It was only after a Punjab and Haryana high court order, in early 2018, that HSVP agreed to settle the claims, and the land is now ready to be transferred to NHAI.
THE PROJECT IN DELHI
As per the detailed project report made by NHAI, there are two packages of the Dwarka expressway that fall within Delhi.
Package 1 includes a tunneled stretch from the Sector 21 underpass at Dwarka to Shiv Murti, near Mahipalpur. It will be an eight-lane tunnel and the six lane surface road will be built on it, after its completion .
Package 2 is an elevated stretch with a large interchange to provide connectivity to Najafgarh, it will have eight elevated lanes, and six lanes on the surface with multiple entry and exit points.
BOTTLENECKS
Officials in the highway authority privy to the matter say there is a difference in rules prescribing the definition of trees, between the Delhi and central governments.
As per Forest Survey of India (FSI), any plant with a height of 4.5 feet and diameter of 10 centimetres is a tree. However, as per Delhi Tree Act, any plant which is more than one feet tall and has a diameter of five centimetres is a tree.
If the central government’s rules are considered, then only 7,500 trees with 30cm girth need to be felled. But if the Delhi government rules are considered, the authority will have to cut 13,690 trees with girths more than 15cm.
Additionally, the Delhi government, in its communications with NHAI, has said the area is a deemed forest, as it has a large number of trees.this would necessitate the drafting of fresh applications, because the Forest Conservation Act would then come into play, an NHAI official said. However, the patch has not been notified as a deemed forest as yet.
NHAI officials say that cutting and transplanting trees for the elevated Dwarka expressway was necessary as the road would stand on multiple pillars.
“The tunnel which will be built in this segment would be constructed by heavy-duty machinery using the cut-andcover mode as the diameter (OF) is at least 16 metre. There are four separate tunnels running parallel, and manoeuvring such a large machine is not possible in such a small space,” Udeep Singhal, project director, NHAI (Dwarka expressway), said.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Singhal says that, as per the rules, the NHAI has agreed to bear the cost of transplantation and cutting of trees, and land has been allocated on which afforestation is to take place.
“There is a ₹57,000 fee per tree for cutting it, which will be used for afforestation and related activities. We are making all efforts to get the issues resolved, but since the matter concerns the environment, it needs to be handled very sensitively,” he said.
If the plan gets the Delhi government’s approval, work on the project could start soon.
However, if the patch is declared a deemed forest by the Delhi government, then the NHAI would have to seek permission from the forest ministry, which could delay the project by a year or more, NHAI officials say.
Repeated attempts to contact the Delhi government for a comment on the issue failed.