Environmental requirements ‘in place’ but 10 infra projects pending with Delhi government

New Delhi [India], November 17 (ANI): Ten projects aimed at improving city’s infrastructure including construction of roads, road overbridge and redevelopment plans for residential accommodation are pending with the Environment Department of the Delhi Government, some of them since 2019, official sources on Thursday.
They said that the projects are pending despite the fact that Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena took up the matter in various discussions with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in their weekly meetings and wrote to him on two different occasions on August 17 and September 30 this and repeated flagging on files that come to Lieutenant Governor for approval.
“Ten projects of critical importance to the city that include construction of roads aimed at easing traffic and facilitating public transport, arterial roads, road under/over bridges, National Highway and ambitious redevelopment plans for residential accommodations, are yet pending with the Environment Department of Delhi Government,” a source said.
The official sources said that “inordinate delay and inaction on part of the Delhi Government and its Environment Minister Gopal Rai to give permission for tree translocation or felling subject to afforestation, is indeed baffling”, especially in light of the fact that all pre-requisites including money as compensation and land for compensatory afforestation by DDA, have already been put in place.
They said that in an approval accorded recently, with regards to construction of new Engineering Block and mini Academic Block at IIT-Delhi, the LG had come down heavily on the Environment Department for such unjustified and inordinate delays.
He had specifically pointed out the delay of two years and four months in granting approval to the extant project and asked the CM to fix responsibility at the highest level, they added.
The sources said that the pending projects include the redevelopment of general pool residential colony at Sriniwaspuri, which is pending since December 10, 2019; phase-III GPRA Colony at Sarojini Nagar, New Delhi, which is pending since March 8, 2021; residential quarters for Central Industrial Security Force at Saket, New Delhi, pending since March 24, 2021.
The projects also include redevelopment of GPRA Colony at Sarojini Nagar, Phase-IV pending since August 16, 2021; redevelopment of GPRA Colony at Sarojini Nagar, Phase-V pending since April 10, 2022; construction of road over bridge/road under bridge at Sultanpuri near Nangloi pending since April 25, 2022 and construction of Dwarka Expressway Package-II, New Delhi Airport, which is pending since April 29, 2022.
The other pending projects include construction and development of UER-II, NH-344 Delhi is pending since September 14, 2021; corridor No.19-Ring Road (Vijay Nagar to Burari Chowk) is pending since February 16, 2021 and corridor No.15 – Burari Road (from Burari Chowk near State Transport Authority to Burari Village) is pending since March 1, 2021. (ANI)