NEW DELHI: Following public outcry, the National Buildings Construction Corporation had recently claimed that it was revisiting layouts of its redevelopment projects so to save as many trees as possible, but it now appears that it might go ahead with its plans for commercial development of Naoroji Nagar In an affidavit to NGT, it has sought clarification on whether the former’s July 2 order on maintaining status quo extends to civil construction work. NBCC has claimed that of the 1,465 trees slotted for felling, 1,302 had already been cut. However, only 250 new trees have been planted against the loss so far and 150 transplanted. About 14,650 trees will be planted as compensatory afforestation for the project and NBCC has paid forest department Rs 8.35 crore for the purpose.NBCC has further claimed that besides incurring a financial loss of about Rs 25 lakh per day for putting the Naoroji Nagar project on hold, it might “face practical difficulties of very serious nature at the site”. NBCC said an excavation of about 15m (50ft) deep and 120ft in length had been conducted at the site for making a basement. “In the event of stoppage of work and likely rain, it is most likely that landslides may occur causing casualties to the general public arising out of collapse of 40ft high peripheral steel barricading along the ring road-service road at Naoroji Nagar (sic),” the affidavit said.More than Rs 100 crore had already been spent on the construction so far and if 580 MT of cement that had been put into batching plants went unused, it would result in a loss of about Rs 30 lakh, it claimed.NBCC CMD AK Mittal had earlier said that the need to accommodate 70,000 vehicles had necessitated the felling of trees on such a large scale. RWA and architects, however, wondered why such a massive basement parking was required.“The master plan recommends holistic planning of the area and not a piecemeal approach. You cannot consider Naoroji Nagar, Sarojini Nagar and Netaji Nagar separately because they are all part of the south Delhi general pool residential accommodation complex. Building a commercial area will affect traffic, air quality, connectivity, quality of life and many other factors. Have these been assessed? We are studying the legal aspects,” Asutosh Dikshit, CEO, United Residents Joint Action (URJA), said.

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