Delhi Metro’s Tughlakabad-Aerocity line gets Ridge board approval

On February 19, HT reported that a section of the Phase-4 corridor will pass through the Ridge, a protected green area.

Delhi Metro’s Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor got the green signal from the Ridge Management Board (RMB) on Wednesday, senior officials aware of the matter said. At least 1,000 trees will have to be cut in the Ridge, considered the green lung of the Capital, for the construction of the section.

The Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor of Delhi Metro came under the environmental scanner early this year when permission documents submitted before the forest department revealed the Metro’s plan to take this section from within the Ridge. (PTI file photo)

HT first reported in February that the Metro line would traverse the Ridge, and flagged its environmental impact.

A senior government official, who attended the RMB meeting confirmed that the Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor -- a 5.2-km portion of which will pass through the Ridge -- was cleared after “considering alternative alignments”. The total length of the Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor is 23.6km. Of the 5.2km corridor in the Ridge, 1.739 km will be in the Southern Ridge, 1.182 km in South Central Ridge, and 2.373 km in Morphological Ridge (a part of the Ridge that has ridge-like features, but is not part of the notified forests).

“The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) presented three alignments before the RMB today (Wednesday), and after deliberations it was decided that the original alignment presented by the DMRC will cause the least damage to trees. The project has been given a go-ahead,” said an official who asked not to be named. In a meeting in June, RMB asked DMRC to explore all alternative alignments for the section.

Permission letters exchanged between DMRC and the Delhi forest department showed that 1,072 trees will be cut, of which 466 are in the Southern Ridge, 455 in the South Central Ridge, and 151 in the Morphological Ridge.

Anuj Dayal, executive director (corporate communications), DMRC said the agency made a lot of effort to minimise the impact of construction on the Ridge.

“An area of 31 hectares with approximately 8,000 trees was earmarked in the Ridge at Rangpuri Pahadi for the train depot on this line. But now, the plan for the depot has been dropped, and the DMRC is augmenting capacities in the Sarita Vihar and Ajronda depots and extending this line beyond Tughlakabad up to Sarita Vihar Depot to cater to this new line,” Dayal said.

He added, “In addition to this, DMRC has saved over 350 trees during station construction. We appreciate the decision by the Ridge Management Board to approve the alignment of the Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor. This will help us in taking the project forward.”

The Tughlakabad-Aerocity corridor of Delhi Metro came under the environmental scanner early this year when permission documents submitted before the forest department revealed the Metro’s plan to take this section from within the Ridge. In March, the proposal was first presented before the RMB, where a decision on its clearance was deferred.

All construction in the Ridge have to be cleared by both the city forest department as well as RMB.

Later, activists filed a petition in the Delhi high court, where the matter was referred to the central empowered committee (CEC) for a thorough inspection of the Metro route to see if there was a possibility of saving trees or re-routing the section from outside the green space.