JOIN US Construction of Delhi Metro’s third phase may cost the city ecologically. Nearly 14,300 trees are likely to be felled during the construction.
“The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has submitted a tentative proposal indicating removal of 14,298 trees for construction of metro lines in Phase-III,” Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan said.
This was in a written reply to Lok Sabha on Monday.
The ministry has not yet assesed the effect of this on the environment, she said.
But she added that “the applications for removal of trees are scrutinised in accordance with the provisions made in the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 and the Forest Act, 1980 on case-to-case basis before approval, to reduce the adverse effect on environment”.
Natrajan added, the Department of Forests and Wildlife carries out the compensatory plantation of trees in ratio of 1:10 under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act.
The cost of plantataion is borne by the DMRC.
The Phase-III of the Delhi Metro envisages to connect another 103 km to the network by 2016 at an expected cost of over Rs 30,000 crore.
This phase will see three existing routes extended — Badarpur-Central Secretariat line will go up to Kashmere Gate, HUDA City Centre line to Badli and Dwarka-Noida line to Najafgarh.