The Supreme Court on Friday allowed a plea by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) to use one acre of Millennium Park to build pillars for the Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat and Delhi-Gurugram-Rewari-Alwar Regional Rapid Transit System corridors.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde used the court’s extraordinary powers to do “complete justice” under Article 142 to modify a 1996 judgment in B.L. Wadehra case that former sanitary landfills like the Millennium Park should not be used for any other purpose than to develop forests.
The Millennium Park was one of the 12 sanitary landfills (SLFs) in Delhi. The 1996 judgment had ordered that “the MCD shall not use the filled-up SLFs for any other purpose except forestry. There are twelve such sites, including Rajiv Gandhi Smriti Van. We direct the MCD to develop forests and gardens on these 12 sites. The work of afforestation shall be undertaken by the MCD with effect from April 1, 1996”.
The two corridors are part of the eight evolved by a central policy to reduce the traffic congestion in Delhi-NCR. A Memorandum of Understanding to build the transit corridors or as it is more technically called — Regional Repeat Transit System (RRTS) — was signed by the Centre, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments. The work is expected to be completed by 2025.
The NCRTC, represented by senior advocates A.N.S. Nadkarni, Siddharth Dave and advocate Devendra Kumar Singh, had approached the Supreme Court contending that the corporation’s work was held up because of the 1996 judgment.
They argued that work coming to a complete halt would cost the public exchequer a whopping ₹5 crore a day. They said the two corridors converge at the Millennium Park site. They said the overhead system needs space for installing pillars.
