4-km tunnel under Ridge in Delhi gets Board nod; SC committee to consider next

The project will also include a six-lane surface road.

According to documents submitted by the NHAI for environment clearance, the project is expected to decongest NH-48 near Mahipalpur and Rangpuri, since NH-48 carries traffic to Chattarpur and Vasant Kunj from Gurgaon. No trees are proposed to be cut within the ridge or morphological ridge, but around 1286 trees have been counted at the proposed approaches to the tunnel and at Nelson Mandela Marg, with these areas being out of the boundary of the ridge, going by the NHAI’s documents.

The minutes of the meeting of the Ridge Management Board say that the tunnel will not involve “breaking of forest land”. Around 5.82 hectares of the project will fall under the southern ridge that has been marked as a ‘reserved forest’ and 1 hectare will fall under the part that is considered ‘deemed forest’.

“As the construction of the tunnel involves no breaking of land on the surface, no damage to flora, and shall run below the ground in the Forest areas, the Board decided to recommend the proposal for consideration of the Central Empowered Committee…,” the minutes of the meeting stated.

While the meeting was held at the end of November, the minutes were approved on December 23 and recently made public.

The project will now need the Central Empowered Committee’s nod and will also need permission to divert forest area under the Forest (Conservation) Act.