"DMRC has taken action following the due procedure of law and also to meet the project target date strictly as per the tree cutting permission granted by the forest department," DMRC said in its reply to a petition filed before the NGT against felling of trees.
In its reply filed before a bench headed by Justice P Jyothimani, DMRC said "the Department of Forests and Wildlife had granted it the permission to fell trees in 2013 and the work is being executed as per the sanction."
DMRC said it had carried out detailed environmental impact assessment study along the alignment of Mundka-Bahadurgarh metro corridor on the NH-10 as per which 700 trees are required to be removed between Mundka and Tikri border.
"The flora of the area affected in the project was taken into consideration and provision for compensatory afforestation of 10 trees against each affected tree was kept in the report of EIA study," it said in its reply.
The petition, filed by a resident Vikas, alleged that "Felling of trees continues on the National Highway 10 between Mundka and Tikri Border as part of DMRC's phase III expansion. The extension of this line runs into 11.18 Km; 6 km falls in Delhi and the rest in Haryana. About 1,500 trees have already been felled.
"The rest 500 in Delhi can be saved by shifting the project from the central verge to footpaths, where there are no trees.
"This can be done by readjusting the alignment of the 6-km part of the project where these trees are located. This deviation is very minor and feasible," his counsel Dipesh Kumar had said.