Metro crosses last hurdle to Faridabad

The special forest bench of Supreme Court has cleared the decks to construct a carriageway and overhead Metro Line by the National Highways Authority of India near Badarpur.

The completion of two projects on Mathura Road will benefit thousands of motorists who travel daily from Faridabad to Delhi.

The bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balkrishnan dismissed an application that claimed the carriageway and Metro line on NH-2 would destroy the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex and result in large-scale destruction of trees.

The SC’s nod to the project is subsequent to the Central Empowered Committee’s report that had earlier given a green signal to the two projects.

In its report to the forest bench, the committee said both projects were in the public interest and would to clear the bottleneck on Mathura Road.

“The decongestion of this bottleneck was long overdue and now requires to be completed at the earliest. The CEC, after taking into account all the relevant factors, is of the considered view that both the projects, being site-specific activities, should be allowed to proceed without any interruption or hindrance,” the report read.

Both NHAI and DMRC rebutted the applicant’s arguments, stating that the projects were planned after getting approval from various authorities, including the DDA, Delhi Government, DUAC and ASI.

The NHAI said it has undertaken to plant 10 times the number of trees that would be cut to accommodate the carriageway. About 395 trees are likely to be axed.

The DMRC also claimed it had maintained a safe distance of 13 metres from the archaeological monuments.