HC gives green signal to Gurgaon metro project

The Tribune , Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Correspondent : Saurabh Malik / Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 31

The Rail Metro Rapid Gurgaon (RMRG) project, which is to connect Gurgaon residents with the Delhi metro, is back on track. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a petition against the use of a green belt for the project. It has held that larger public interest has to outweigh interests of a building society.The judgment is significant as it defines the use of green belts and holds that the government has the power to transfer land to itself.

The High Court has upheld the action of HUDA in taking over and developing green belts and roads from various licencees. The 6.1 km-long metro project had hit a roadblock on November 1 last year after the High Court directed the State of Haryana and other parties to maintain the status quo, while issuing notice of motion on the petition filed by some members of the National Media Centre Cooperative Building Society, comprising “mostly journalist and academicians”.

The petitioners had challenged “the use of green belt for any other purpose except the green belt” on several grounds, including the plea that the maintenance is to be done by the local authority and the Director, Town and Country Planning was “not the competent authority” to “permit the use of the area in the manner it is being done”.

After hearing the arguments on the petition, Justice Ranjit Singh has held: “To urge that this land or part of the same could not be transferred to the government would be totally misconceived and misplaced”.

Justice Ranjit Singh referred to the undertaking, “whereby the society had undertaken to transfer this land free of cost to the government or the local authority” and added if the society had any grievance, “it should have been done at the time of grant of licence or at the time when the society was required to give this undertaking”. In his detailed order, Justice Ranjit Singh took note of the final development plan of Gurgaon-Manesar, which says: “The green belt shown along sector/arterial roads shall be primarily meant for the widening of the sector/arterial road in future. However, till such time the widening of road does not take place, the said area may be utilised for nursery/plantations, fuel filling stations, communication lines, utility services etc with the prior approval of the Director.”

Justice Ranjit Singh added: “This rail system is meant for the entire town and would advance the interest of public at large. The society apparently is thinking in a self-centered manner, which is rightly termed as myopic.

“The petitioner-society is raising all such frivolous objections and the issue, when viewed in the proper perspective, would show that only a strip of 2.5 metres in width, out of 50 metres of the green space, is going to be utilised and that too not in entirety but of a diameter of the size of a pillar meant to have an RMRG on an elevated platform”.

Referring to some photographs “indicating the present state of this green belt”, Justice Ranjit Singh observed: “If this is the state of the green belt, which is in a shambles, then it cannot be termed green, in any manner.

“It is full of dirt, where cars are seen parked. Heavy transmission lines are shown erected in the space, which is being referred as green belt. A pillar to construct to elevate metro rail system is not going to make any difference to the use of this negligible area of the green belt.

“The interest of some members of the society, even if any, must yield before the larger public interest…. The other societies, which were having a green belt along this route, have not raised any objection.

“It is only the petitioner-society, which is having interest in an area of 130 metres in length that it has come forward to raise this challenge. The non-serious nature of this challenge can be made out from the fact that counsel appearing for the society had submitted in the course of his argument that the land, if so needed, should be acquired and compensation paid to the society. Obviously, the society is not having any serious intention to preserve this area as a green belt.

“There is no merit found in the petition. The larger public interest has to outweigh the minor and negligible non-existent interest of society, which clearly has come to an end and, thus, must yield before larger public interest. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed”.

The metro will reduce air pollution by reducing traffic on arterial routes and sector roads, leading to an estimated reduction of 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The project is to be completed within two-and-a-half years.

 
SOURCE : http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110201/haryana.htm#1
 


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