New bench to hear Nauroji Nagar revamp, deliver verdict in Jan ’19

NEWDELHI: The Delhi high court on Tuesday fixed two days in January to hear the matter relating to the redevelopment of Nauroji Nagar and decide if the redevelopment of this south Delhi colony could be taken forward or not.

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice AJ Bhambhani said deliberations are required and hence it would hear the matter in detail. Following this, it fixed January 23 and January 24 next year to hear the matter in length and give its verdict.

The matter was listed before a new bench after Justice V Kameswar Rao had recused from hearing the matter on November 28.

The court’s order came while hearing a bunch of pleas challenging the felling of over 16,000 trees in Delhi on account of redevelopment of seven colonies. The petitions had sought the setting aside of the terms of reference and environment clearances granted for the redevelopment of these colonies by the Centre.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Gopal Shankarnarayan informed the court the projects should have an integrated environmental clearance as they are all interlinked. He said the projects were initiated without considering traffic assessment.

The court asked the Centre to address these issues. It sought to know if a traffic plan was a prerequisite for seeking a green clearance and if such an exercise was carried out before sanctioning the revamp of these colonies.

On October 3, the Centre told the court it would get fresh environmental clearance for the six projects—sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Thyagaraj Nagar, Kasturba Nagar,mohammadpur and Srinivaspuri.