Shimla, Sep 5 National Green Tribunal (NGT) has refused to entertain an application for permission to construct multi-level parking as well as commercial structure in the railway warehouse below Winter Field, Shimla.
The NGT rejected the plea of RLDA ( Rail Land Development Authority) to develop a project was necessary to control traffic congestion. The NGT order of August 31 was delivered by the Principal Bench of the NGT, under Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justices Sudhir Agarwal and Brijesh Sethi.
NGT rejected the petitioners’ submission that the supervisory committee formed to evaluate construction of exceptional nature, had given the go-ahead for the proposal. RLDA said the project was partly for public utility and partly for commercial purposes.
The order passed by the NGT said that though a part of the project was of public utility, the main project was of a commercial nature and proposed constructing structures up to three storeys above the hill level.
“The project was not permissible according to the directions of the NGT dated November 16, 2017,” said the order. However in this order of the NGT also said the construction of public utilities like hospitals, schools and offices of essential services could be allowed.
The NGT, on November 16, 2017, had prohibited new constructions of any kind residential, institutional and commercial in any part of the core, green and forest areas defined under the various notifications issued under the Interim Development Plan, Shimla, as well as by the Himachal Pradesh government.
