Park 75% ready; stalled on original opening date

Around 75 per cent of Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Park is already complete, according to Noida Authority that is executing it, reports Abhishek Sharan.

Around 75 per cent of Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Park is already complete, according to Noida Authority that is executing it.

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This is despite the fact that three months ago, on July 10, a high level inspection team of the central Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had established the project’s violations of key environmental laws as per the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification (EIA) of September 2006 .

The MoEF had, however, refrained from issuing its stop-work notices to the project.

The project, according to the apex court panel’s report of September 4, lacked an EIA certificate from the MoEF owing to its proximity — around 50 metres — to the centrally protected Okhla Bird Park and Wild Life Sanctuary (OBPWS).

According to the 2006 notification, such a project, if within 10 km of such a facility, requires an EIA approval.

According to this notification, it also required to get an EIA approval since it was way over the limit of 20,000 sqm.

“Around three fourths of the work is already over at the Ambedkar project. Had the MoEF really wanted, it could have ensured the construction work had stopped much before,” said petitioner Anand Arya. He said, “The Ministry could have acted when we submitted our petition before the CEC in March, or even when its inspection team established the violations on July 10.”

According to a Noida Authority source, the project’s executors had originally planned to inaugurate it on October 9 (death anniversary of BSP’s founder the late Kanshi Ram), then January 15 next year, which is Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati’s birthday.