Are You Aware Of These Recent NGT Rulings in Delhi-NCR?

In the wake of developers asking for single-window clearances, a new initiative has been introduced to resolve a part of this big problem. Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu was quoted saying that the environmental clearance for building and construction projects in Delhi up to 1.5 lakh sq mt of built-up area stand integrated with the building permissions. This move revives the sector on two fronts — brings down the wait time along with bringing ease of doing business. For smaller projects with a built-up area of 20,000 sq mt, the developers would need to come up with a self-declaration clause and permissions would have to be sought by Delhi Development Authority as well as the three municipal corporations.

In December 2016, the Environment Ministry had relieved projects over 1,50,000 sq mt from seeking clearances from Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act to ease business and to provide low-cost housing in urban areas. Some clearances delay projects by as much as two years.

What's more, the environment ministry has also mentioned that it would appraise projects and grant post facto clearance to infrastructure, real estate and industrial projects. Many projects were in a limbo because previously the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had been doing away with reflective approvals. Now, a three-year window will help the ministry to take effective decisions on those projects which have been stalled for environmental reasons.

Here are some recent developments in Delhi NCR for which the NGT is in news:

• Various state governments have been sent notices saying that the NGT's order would be binding on all real estate projects that have been processed by notifying their amended building bye-laws. Previously, NGT had refused to put a stay on the ministry's notice that building and construction projects of all sizes from were exempted from the process of environment impact assessment (EIA) and prior environmental clearance before beginning construction.

• The Noida authority waived off interest to 20 housing projects whose work had been affected for 77 days due to NGT's ban on construction in August 2013 as these were located within 10 km of the Okhla bird sanctuary. The amount is estimated to be Rs 200 crore.

• The NGT is also considering the plight of apartments in Aravallis constructed on gair mumkin pahar or land unfit for construction/cultivation and a property of Haryana government on which a developer came up with a project.

• NGT is not easy on those going easy on pollution. The state pollution control board recently asked the Haryana Urban Development Authority to submit a compliance report with regard to directives issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the ongoing development projects in HUDA sectors. The 'polluter pays' rule is also prevalent in Delhi NCR and any developer found to be violating construction norms thereby affecting ambient air quality will need to dole out penalty.

• Illegal industrial units in residential areas have also been asked to shut shop and the NGT has asked the BSES and Delhi Jal Board to cut supplies to such units.

• NGT also directed the AAP government to introduce 'destination buses' to ply along Dwarka, Rohini, Janakpuri, CGO complex and Badarpur border on an experimental basis. This would help residents use public transport more than rely on personal vehicles which often leads to road congestion. 

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