The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of NHAI on a petition filed by residents of Dwarka, seeking a halt on the construction of a new national highway close to residential buildings without obtaining a green clearance or permission for removal of trees.
The residents of two group housing societies — New Millennium and Sadbhavna Apartments— along with six individuals residing in sectors 22 and 23 of Dwarka approached the top court to stall the ongoing construction of the highway project by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Earlier, the petitioners had approached the Delhi high court, which on July 30 allowed NHAI to carry on with the construction work.
With the matter still pending before the Delhi high court, the bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and MR Shah of the Supreme Court agreed to examine whether the project fell short of green clearances and required to be stopped on this count.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Dwarka residents, and the two group housing societies (comprising 280 families) informed the court that NHAI had told the Delhi high court that the road which they sought to rename as a National Highway was an existing road and not a “new highway”.
Bhushan said that was not true and submitted a notification of the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) which notified the current road (DDA Road no 226) as a new national highway (NH-248BB or Dwarka Expressway).He submitted that once it was accepted that the said project was a new national highway, the environment impact assessment (EIA) notification of September 4, 2006, became applicable, thereby requiring a green nod from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
So far, this clearance was not obtained by NHAI, Bhushan argued.
The bench noted, “The feasibility report also clearly indicates that the project in question is a greenfield project,” as it agreed to issue notice to the Centre, NHAI, the Delhi government and the Delhi Pollution Control Board. Posting the matter to August 27, the bench further said, “The application for interim relief (to stay the project) will be considered after notice is served on the respondents.”
The petition filed through advocate Anand Varma stated that the project will result in air and noise pollution, besides leading to increased traffic in the area. The petitioners said residents will be deprived of vital green cover as the project required the felling of a large number of trees.
They pointed to a Delhi high court order of December 18, 2020, which said no removal of trees can take place without the approval of the competent authority under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994. The permission under this Act has lapsed and despite that fact, the high court declined to grant interim relief against NHAI, the petitioners said.
Declaration of a residential road as a National Highway takes place under Section 2(2) of the National Highways Act, 1956. The petition pointed out an instance in the past, wherein an existing highway in the Capital was made a National Highway (NH-344M) in April 2018 and where NHAI had to obtain environment clearance. Despite submitting this example, the high court exempted NHAI from obtaining a green nod for Dwarka Expressway.
