RMB approves five ridge projects in Delhi with riders
The Delhi’s Ridge Management Board (RMB) has cleared five development projects in areas falling in ridge including the construction of a new lab complex by the Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC) near Jawaharlal Nehru University and a Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS) in Maidangarhi spanning 16.34 hectares. The projects are now pending further clearance from the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC). Thirty-nine trees will be transplanted or felled for the new lab complex by IUAC, which will be built over 0.29 hectares of geo-morphological Ridge. Meanwhile, seven trees will be felled to build a new office building for Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Rizal Marg in Chanakyapuri, for which only 0.08 hectares of land was required. In totality, seven hectares of ridge area will be cleared for the CAPFIMS in Maidan Garhi but an assessment of the trees that will be impacted is yet to be carried out. However, citing “irreparable damage” to flora and fauna, the body has put a proposal by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on hold which sought to divert traffic through the forest land for two years near IGNOU in Maidan Garhi for the construction of Neb Sarai Metro station on the upcoming Silver Line (Tughlakabad to Aerocity).