NBCC starts tree plantation drive in Delhi

Public construction firm NBCC, which drew flak for large-scale felling of trees for a housing project in south Delhi, today said it has started a plantation drive in New Moti Bagh area of the national capital.

Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Office P K Mishra and other senior government functionaries joined National Buildings Construction Corporation's plantation drive for enhancing green cover at New Moti Bagh (NMB) residential colony.

"With this drive today, we have achieved our target of planting 3,200 trees this monsoon at NMB. All these trees are upwards of 5 feet each," NBCC Chairman-cum-Managing Director Anoop Kumar Mittal said in a statement.

NBCC said that till date, a total of almost 12,500 trees have been planted in the 113-acre campus which has a green cover of upwards of 70 per cent where the firm was initially given a permit to cut 181 trees for redevelopment of the colony.

"We have developed the New Moti Bagh complex, which is among one of the green spaces in the city. Similarly, in Kidwai Nagar, where we have almost completed the project, we have planted over 10 times of what had to be cut," Mittal said.

At the East Kidwai Nagar colony 7,647 trees have already been planted as part of the replantation drive post completion of construction and another 2,000 shall be planted this monsoon season, the statement said.

Mittal said that redevelopment activities have to be undertaken in Delhi to ensure that the city is ready for the next 100-200 years.

As part of ongoing green initiative, NBCC has conducted plantation drives across its project sites throughout the country where it has planted 23,865 trees till date.

A medical practitioner at Primus Hospital, Kaushal Kant Mishra, who has challenged permit given to NBCC, said it is a good initiative of NBCC if it not only on papers.

"We should watch their (plants) growth for one year to assess the success, then calling it tree plantation, but what about CAG reports which say Delhi lacks 9 lakh trees," Mishra said.

Courts have granted stay on permit given to NBCC for cutting trees.

Mishra said that besides development of colonies NBCC should also look at addressing problem of water and waste management in the national capital region which is at an alarming state.