Central Vista project: Green nod to 'Executive Enclave' which will house new PMO

The Delhi State Environment Impact Assessment Authority SEIAA has granted environmental clearance to the proposal for the construction of the Executive Enclave which will house the new Prime Ministers Office and Cabinet SecretariatThe Delhi State Expert Appraisal Committee SEAC had last week recommended the SEIAA to give green nod to the projectThe SEIAA discussed the project at a meeting on Wednesday and approved itThe Forest Department had on August 23 granted permission to the Central Public Works Department the user agency to transplant 487 of the 807 trees at the site under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act 1994CPWD officials said the proposal had been submitted for environmental clearance in December last yearThe SEAC which vets the proposals before they are sent to SEIAA for clearance had earlier this month set up a subcommittee to examine the implementation of the Delhi governments policy for tree transplantation and review the site plan in order to retain treesUnder the policy notified by the government in December 2020 agencies concerned are required to transplant a minimum of 80 per cent of the trees affected by their development worksAlso Read Central Vista Executive Enclave that will house new PMO awaits green nod from Delhi panelThe benchmark tree survival rate at the end of one year of tree transplantation is 80 per centThe subcommittee in its report said the tree survey was not carried out at the time of project feasibility assessment and site identificationThe SEAC which first examined the proposal in a meeting on January 31 had raised concern over the CPWDs plan to remove an excessively high proportion of trees from the siteThe CPWD later revised the proposal decreasing the number of trees to be transplanted from 630 to 487 and increasing the number of trees to be retained at the site from 154 to 320In a meeting held on April 9 the SEAC decided to recommend the revised proposal to the SEIAA for grant of environmental clearanceThe SEIAA however referred the matter back to the SEAC to ensure provisions of the tree transplantation policy are complied withAccording to the revised proposal for the Rs 1381crore project the CPWD will maintain 1022 trees at the site so as to have a tree per 80 square metre of plot area as per the guidelines of the Union environment ministryA total of five buildings with a builtup area of 90000 square metres will be constructed at the site after demolishing the builtup area of 47000 sqmThe redevelopment of the Central Vista the nations power corridor envisages a new parliament building common central secretariat revamping of the 3km Rajpath from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate a new office and residence for the prime minister and a new vice president enclaveThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever