The groundwater department has issued notices to 13 builders and given them a seven-day deadline to stop illegal groundwater extraction and deposit Rs 5 lakh fine each.
The move comes after the 13 builders failed to respond to the department’s earlier notices, directing them to pay up for exploting groundwater without required approvals, and instead continued to extract water for construction purposes using their illegal borewells.
Officials said that if the builders do not pay up within the deadline this time, the department will double the fine, followed by the sealing of illegal borewells and the disconnection of power supply to the builder societies concerned.
In June this year, the groundwater department investigated several under-construction projects in Noida and Greater Noida and found at least 13 projects extracting groundwater despite its rules requiring them to use treated sewage water.
“The department had fined the builders Rs 5 lakh each and asked them to deposit the same within 15 days and close the borewells. However, none of them deposited the fines. This time, it is their last chance to deposit the fines . If they do not deposit the fines within seven days, the department will double the amount. They also have to bear other consequences, including the disconnection of their power supply,” said Ankita Rai, a hydrologist with the district groundwater department.
According to the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA), there will be no grant of no-objection certificates for groundwater extraction for construction activities at builder project sites in critical or over-exploited areas.
According to the district groundwater department, Noida falls under the ‘notified’ to ‘over-exploited’ zone. Bisrakh and Jewar are over-exploited, while Dadri is semi-critical. In Greater Noida, the water table fell from 13.6m in 2021 to 13.8 in 2022.
