Central Vista redevelopment plan will reduce green cover, cause traffic congestion, air pollution: Experts

The Centre's grandiose plan to redevelop the Central Vista has come in for severe criticism from environmental experts, who contended that it was the government's way of "pampering itself" without considering that the project is going to sacrifice huge green cover and make the air toxic with its construction and demolition dust.

The experts on Monday questioned the rationale of the project which, they claimed, would involve chopping at least 2,000 trees considering that Delhi tops the list of most polluted capital cities in the world.

The plan proposes to construct a new Parliament building with the existing one converted into a museum.

The prime minister's residence and office are likely to be shifted near the South Block and the vice-president's new house will be in the vicinity of the North Block as per a blueprint prepared by the government.

It envisages a triangular Parliament building next to the existing one, a common Central Secretariat and the revamping of the three-km-long Rajpath -- from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate.

"Each day for the next four years we will have close to 500 trucks of debris, steel, cement et al running from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate. How healthy is that for the most polluted capital of the world? And not to forget we are cutting hundreds of fully grown beautiful trees.

"Government, instead of being a role model, is demonstrating the opposite. Pampering itself instead of taking care of its people and their health," said Bhavreen Kandhari, an environmentalist with Clean Air Collective.

Her view was shared by environmentalist and advocate Gaurav Bansal, who said that this project will have a negative impact on environment as it aims construct buildings on the green patches of the national capital.

"The land in Delhi is already overloaded with concrete structures. We need to preserve the green cover. Delhi is already reeling under toxic smog and traffic congestion. It is time to decongest the city but such measures will cause more congestion," Bansal said.

The Central Vista project is now sub-judice with the Supreme Court transferring to itself all the petitions related to it.

The apex court is now dealing with two petitions -- one assailed the public notice inviting objections against the change of land use of several plots of land in Central Vista while the other petition had asserted that the public hearing was conducted in a mechanical manner which demonstrated complete non-application of mind.

Opposing the government's proposal to revamp the Central Vista, experts and environment activists argued that this work would create massive demolition waste.

"To transport demolition waste and construction materials thousands of trucks will need to go through Delhi. Why do we need to line our lungs with more dust?