The Noida Authority on Tuesday wrote to the district administration to initiate action against the developers who are extracting groundwater for construction purposes at several sites across the city.
In the letter, Authority CEO Lokesh M noted that they have been receiving frequent complaints from the public about various developers engaging in illegal dewatering during construction work, especially in sectors 153, 154, and 156.
The Authority urged the DM to stop water exploitation and take necessary action at the district level against such developers. The CEO also apprised the administration that the Authority has been taking action against erring developers at its level.
“In June this year, the Authority lodged a complaint against six projects: Uniexcel Developers, Montree Attire, Jam Vision Tech, King Pace Information, Vextec Condominium, and Motherson Sumi Infotech & Design Ltd for illegally dewatering the plots allotted by the Noida Authority to them in Sector 153, 154, and 156, and imposed a fine. The Authority staff deployed at the site from time to time are also directing the concerned allottees to stop the same,” read the CEO’s letter.
In May this year, the Authority’s water department had also sent a letter to groundwater department for the redressal of the complaints received and to stop water exploitation by ACE Group in Sector 153 and Uniexcel in Sector 154. A fine of Rs 5 lakh was imposed on each project for illegal exploitation of groundwater.
Ankita Rai, hydrologist, groundwater department of the district administration, said, “Even after the action, the Uniexcel project was still found to be extracting groundwater, so we went on the spot again with the chief development officer.”
The water department is also going to send an official letter through the SDM to the concerned police stations to keep an eye on the projects to check on irregular periods in case they start dewatering again on their sites.
DM Manish Kumar Verma told that they will initiate action against erring developers. “In such scenarios, we will seal the borewells and if in case they install the borewells again then an FIR will be registered against the builder along with a penalty. The penalty amount is calculated based on the quantity of water extracted from the site,” he said.
In June 2022, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) took up a petition by environmentalists Prasoon Pant and Pradeep Kumar, alleging that groundwater was being extracted without permission at 63 residential projects in Greater Noida.
The Tribunal formed a district-level panel that included the DM and officials of state and central pollution control boards to investigate the allegations. By 2023, the panel concluded that at least 38 developers of 41 projects were flouting the norms.
