With the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) agreeing to “strictly abide” by the conditions set by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC), the top court on Tuesday allowed the Corporation to go ahead with the construction work for Phase IV of the Delhi Metro. The bench had earlier asked the CEC to examine the DMRC’s request for permission to undertake the work.
Even as it has given a nod to the construction in the ecologically sensitive morphological ridge area, the CEC has set 10 conditions, underlining the need to safeguard trees, a report revealed. The Phase IV of the Delhi Metro construction that will cover 28,685 square metres of protected area, includes parts near Jhandewalan and Pushpa Bhawan, stated the CEC report dated April 25.
The DMRC has to safeguard trees and take prior permission under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act for felling or pruning; deposit 5% of the project cost with the Ridge Management Board for conservation efforts.; plant 1,280 indigenous trees on non-forest land as compensation, and transplant affected trees under expert supervision. These are among the conditions underlined by the panel. (see box)
In Phase IV, two metro corridors — Inderlok to Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block — are set to cut through the land identified as having features similar to the Ridge, a rocky outcrop of the Aravallis that plays a crucial ecological role in Delhi and is protected through court rulings.
While the first corridor affects around 20,915 square metres of ridge-like land and 122 trees, the second corridor, after design revisions, will use 7,770 square metres and avoid felling any trees, requiring only the pruning of six. In its proposal, the DMRC had stated that the corridors were approved by the Union Cabinet in March 2024 and are scheduled to be commissioned by 2029. For this, works for the construction of civil works had to start by April, it said.
The report revealed that the CEC pulled up DMRC for non-compliance in the expansion phases earlier. In one such violation that it flagged, DMRC started construction on forest land in 2020 between Janakpuri and Mukarba Chowk without prior clearance. A notice was issued to then Chief Project Manager C P Singh for violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. However, no reply was received. To this, the CEC in its latest report recommended “legal action” by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India (MoEFCC) against Singh.
Highlighting another instance of non-compliance, the CEC noted that the DMRC failed to complete a Supreme Court-mandated Ridge Interpretation Centre near Patel Chowk Metro Station, which was planned to educate the public on Ridge’s ecology. However, the panel also observed that the status of progress is “satisfactory”, as DMRC has mentioned this would be completed by April 2026.
On Tuesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the DMRC, told a bench of Justices B R Gavai and A G Masih that it will abide by the conditions set by the panel. The bench in its order underlined, “Solicitor General Tushar Mehta says DMRC would strictly abide by the above conditions. In that view of the matter, the application (by DMRC) is allowed. However, it is directed that the DMRC shall scrupulously comply with the conditions as imposed by the CEC.”
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The Ridge Management Board (RMB) was constituted in October 1995 following a Supreme Court order. The Board had become the nodal body for allowing any diversion of land for non-forest use on the Ridge. Its domain was extended to the Morphological Ridge also.
The legal status of morphological ridge was reinforced through various judicial rulings, including a Delhi High Court order in a 2011 case, wherein the court upheld that any construction in such areas requires approval from the Ridge Management Board or the Supreme Court-appointed CEC in 2002.
