ASI, civic agencies not helping us clean Tughlakabad toxic lake: Jal Board to HC

The DJB told the court that the landowning agencies and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which controls the Tughlakabad fort area, had ignored the queries and representations sent by the board. The board also needed land to set up a sewage treatment plant, which was “not available”, the DJB told the court.

In its affidavit submitted before the bench of Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, the DJB has said that a sewage pumping station (SPS) capable of pumping 4.5 million gallons per day (MGD) was “already proposed” under the Sewage Master Plan 2031 of the DJB for the low-lying area of Tughlakabad.

Under the plan, the SPS would be constructed near Tughlakabad fort and pipelines would take the sewage to the centralised Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at Okhla..

The DJB has claimed that though it made representations to “various departments” for the allotment of 0.5 acres of land for the SPS and “tried to obtain land” in the area to set up the SPS, the block development office has said that no land is available.

Representations sent to the ASI for the detailed layout plan of the fort area “to enable” the DJB “to prepare plans for providing sewerage facilities” were “denied” by the ASI, the DJB told the court.