NGT suspends environment clearance to housing complex near DU in north Delhi

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal on Thursday suspended the environmental clearance granted to the construction of a housing complex adjacent to the Delhi University campus and constituted a committee to study the viability of the project.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said there was no application of mind by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) while granting the environmental clearance (EC).

Applying the "precautionary principle" of environmental law, the NGT on January 8 had directed Young Builders (P) Ltd in north Delhi that no construction activity should be carried out.

"We find merit in the contention on behalf of the appellant that there was hardly any application of mind by SEIAA to the available data and to the impact of the project on environment, before granting EC. To give effect to Sustainable Development and Precautionary principles, EC cannot be granted without such assessment and evaluation, which is also known as 'Carrying Capacity Assessment'.

"Such assessment becomes all the more necessary when the available data shows that environmental norms are in excess of prescribed parameters," the bench said.

The tribunal formed a committee comprising representative from the environment ministry, senior scientists from the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Central Ground Water Board, Central Pollution Control Board, representatives of National Disaster Management Authority, School of Planning and Architecture and senior scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and G B Pant Institute, Almora and IIT Kanpur.

First meeting of the committee may be held preferably within two weeks from Thursday, the tribunal said.

It also made it clear that its order of status quo on construction of a housing complex will remain in force.

The NGT said it is difficult to uphold sustainability of the project in terms of carrying capacity and permissibility of grant of EC without a proper assessment which has not been done.

"While prima facie the project does not appear to be viable for the reasons already mentioned, we are of the view that

least which ought to be done is to suspend the EC, consequential Consent to Establish and further activities of the project proponent and have an independent evaluation conducted in the interest of environment and public health," it said.

The tribunal said the data furnished by the project proponent itself shows that air quality in the area has no carrying capacity to permit any additive

load in terms ambient air.