After a long hearing and a heated debate, The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered to stop the construction of the 38-storey building being built near the Vishwavidyalaya metro station. NGT has assessed the environmental impact of the construction and therefore has ordered to cease the construction.
The project came under scrutiny after several students and the teaching staff of the Delhi University approached the Delhi High Court, NGT and the Supreme Court. The students of Delhi University have demanded that out of the area which was to be used for the residential building, 20,000 square meters of land must be given to DU to build hostels for around 4000 students, which is a huge and necessary requirement.
But the National Green Tribunal, after applying the precautionary principle of environment law considered to evaluate the necessary data again and ignore the old database.
According to a report, the project of the residential building takes up an area of about 2.05 hectares. A total of 3.05 hectares of land was given to DMRC by the Defence Ministry in 2001, out of which the metro station was built on one hectare and the remaining portion was to be used by a private company for building residential flats.
The Tribunal also found that the environmental clearance was granted to the project 8 years ago, in 2012. The clearance has now lapsed and a fresh application has to be submitted again by the company. The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has also declared the Environmental Clearance to be null and void.
