Court clears route for DDA to raze shops to decongest traffic in West Delhi

A Dwarka court on March 14 vacated the permanent injunction it had passed against the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) in December 2016, restraining it from demolishing the three shops, which are situated in the middle of the Dabri Palam Road.

This will come as a huge relief to the residents of Dwarka since the road stretch has become a huge traffic bottleneck.

The owners of the property, Ajay Mittal and Davinder Kumar agreed to handover the property to the DDA by March 28, 2019, on grant of compensation. The additional district judge, Kanwaljeet Arora has directed the DDA to pay them a consolidated amount of around Rs 60 lakh within 30 days of the owners vacating the property. The court further directed the DDA to pay an interest of 18% per annum, if it fails to pay the compensation within the stipulated period.

Even after the construction of a Dabri fly over on Pankha Road, the stretch had been witnessing traffic snarls because of the three shops, which are situated in the middle of the slip road that connects Pankha Road to Dwarka. The 150-feet-wide road shrinks to less than 20 feet at the point where the three shops are located. This had resulted in regular traffic jams and accidents.

In its ruling, the court also observed that due to the three properties, “the public at large was facing trauma of huge traffic jam, due to which large number of commuters are forced to take wrong side of the road which at times resulted in accidents and loss of lives”.

Kapil Narang, a Dwarka resident and a regular commuter on the route, said he was hopeful that he would no longer get stuck in traffic due to the bottleneck near the flyover. “For a Dwarka resident, it will be a blessing because I have spent hours waiting to pass that bottleneck. Because of this bottleneck, the traffic jam extends to Janakpuri,” said Narang.

Sanjey Puri, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and one of the petitioners in the matter, said the removal of the property will help in decongesting the Dabri Palam slip road, which is an important link connecting Dwarka to Pankha Road and Outer Ring Road. “People also use this road to go to Gurugram the airport, so it will be a huge relief,” said Puri.

The municipal corporation had constructed the flyover and the slip road but it had failed to acquire the entire land. So, when the officials tried to demolish the shops, their owners moved the court and got a stay. The DDA had earlier expressed its willingness to pay compensation to the owners, if they agreed to shift.

First Published: Mar 19, 2019 06:01 IST