NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday declined to interfere with the East Kidwai Nagar redevelopment project saying it was in tune with the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) approved by various statutory authorities. It also said that “exponential” and “alarming” rise in traffic in the national capital, while a problem, cannot be a reason for laying waste the redevelopment project.
The court made these observations while declining to interfere with the redevelopment project which has been opposed by some residents of the nearby South Extension-II colony. The residents had contended that the project was approved without a proper traffic assessment. They had argued that since the project was in proximity of AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital and situated on the Ring road, which is already saturated with vehicular movement, “efforts should have been made to answer the traffic issues before sanctioning the redevelopment.”
Justice Navin Chawla said that the “ever-growing problem” of vehicular congestion required authorities to be “proactive” and “vigilant” to find solutions to the same. The court said that the “exponential increase in the traffic within the city being almost at an alarming rate, is a matter of general knowledge. The concerned authorities have to be proactive in answering the same.
This would require a constant vigil by them”. The high court also said that it cannot reassess the project in the absence of any specific challenge to the permissions for it. The petitioners had contended that the redevelopment would have “a devastating impact” on the lives of the residents of the South Extension-II colony as the project does not provide for adequate infrastructure in the form of roads, open spaces, water supply, green belt etc.
The court, however, said that the respondent authorities have given details of the permissions granted by them to the project. The high court directed NBCC, which is carrying out the work, not to handover possession of the commercial/office block in the project to the allottees without first ensuring that the compensatory plantation was completed. The court further said that it has to be ensured that for lack of parking space in the colony, vehicles are not parked outside on the main or the arterial roads.