Delhi govt had granted us permission: NBCC chief

NEW DELHI: A week after the controversy over the proposed felling of at least 14,000 trees in seven south Delhi neighbourhood scame to the fore, NBCC (India) Ltd chairperson said they had done nothing wrong as the Delhi government had granted all the permissions.

Addressing the media, Anoop Kumar Mittal, chairperson of the central government-owned project management company, said they received permissions for felling 1,454 trees in Netaji Nagar and 2,294 trees in Nauroji Nagar. He said they are yet to get permission for the other projects in Sarojini Nagar, Thyagaraj Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Mohammadpur and Sriniwaspuri.

Maintaining that development is essential to a city and cannot be wished away, Mittal said, “Cutting of trees is a subject that is under the purview of the state and the central government has nothing to do with it. We are undertaking projects in other states, too, and the state government department concerned provides required permissions.”

Stating that the NBCC will plant two or three times the number of saplings required under the compensatory plantation rules, he said the plan is to increase the green cover of these areas from 14% to at least 50%.

The agency added that nearly 14,000 trees will have to be axed in the seven neighbourhoods to build 25, 000 new quarters for central government employees. These complexes will have parking spaces that can accommodate around 70,000 vehicles.

Currently, there is a shortage of 20% housing space for central employees, officials said.

“Around 14,000 trees will have to be axed, of which around 3,600 have to be axed right away. We did an environment assessment that calls to plant 10 times the trees cut in the area and thus we will be planting approximately 2 lakh trees,” Mittal said.

According to the approval letters, the Delhi government had, last year, approved axing of trees in Nauroji Nagar. This year, it had approved felling of trees in Netaji Nagar.

“So far, around 1,100 trees have been axed in Nauroji Nagar. In turn, 250 saplings were planted. Very few trees have been chopped in Netaji Nagar. At Sarojini Nagar, we need to axe about 11,000 trees, for which permission was sought,” Mittal said.

Without divulging the exact figures or location, the NBCC official said only a “few big trees” were axed. “Most of the trees that we chopped had a girth of about 20 cm to 150 cm,” he said.

In July 2016, the Union cabinet had approved the redevelopment of seven GPRA colonies, from the existing 12,970 units to 25,667, at a total cost of ₹32,835 crore.

He said the NGT order of September 2017 “does not hold importance” as the agency had sought the forest department’s nod.

Proposal yet to be received