No trees would be cut for redevelopment of seven colonies in South Delhi: Puri

NEW DELHI: No trees would be cut in the process of redevelopment of seven colonies in South Delhi, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday, as he also assured that the national capital’s green cover would not be damaged and steps would be taken to enhance it.

The housing and urban affairs minister said the agencies — the NBCC and the CPWD — entrusted to executing the redevelopment project had been asked to rework and redesign the plans to avoid cutting of trees.

However, some trees may be transplanted at some other location, and the NBCC has floated an Expression of Interest for the acquisition of tree re-location/ transplantation equipment and engaging services of trained professional entities in this respect, an official release said.

Puri’s comment came after he held a meeting on the proposed cutting of trees with Delhi LG Anil Baijal, DDA vice-chairman Udai Pratap Singh, NBCC CMD Anoop Kumar Mittal, CPWD DG Abhai Sinha and HUA secretary D S Mishra, among others.

I chaired a meeting of all stakeholders where NBCC/ CPWD have been asked to rework & redesign the plans. We will also go ahead with a compensatory plan of planting 1 million trees within the next three months. Citizen groups will be invited to suggest locations for transplantation, he said in another tweet.

Amid a blame game over environment nod for the project, Puri said all the permissions were earlier granted by the Forest Department of the Delhi government on the recommendation of Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain.

The government had announced that it would be cutting over 14,000 trees for building over 25,000 flats for government employees in seven colonies of south Delhi. The proposal attracted heavy criticism from green activists, politicians and citizens.

During the meeting, a decision was taken to plant more than one million trees, ranging from 8-12 feet height, in different parts of Delhi with NBCC planting 25,000; CPWD - 50,000; DDA- 10 lakh and DMRC20,000, an official release said.