DDA violated environmental norms while constructing Games Village on Yamuna banks: CAG report

NEW DELHI: The CAG’s report on the CWG that is likely to be tabled in Parliament on Friday, has blamed the DDA for not abiding with the conditions set forth by the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) before granting conditional clearance for constructing the Games Village on the banks of Yamuna.

The MoEF found that the series of constructions to be undertaken in the area were fraught with environmental consequences. It directed the DDA in November, 2006, to commission a study to examine certain critical issues.

* The magnitude of additional efflux in the river during high-flow conditions in the stretch upstream of the Nizamuddin Bridge and the bund between NH 24 and the railway bridge upstream.

* Assess the possibility of reducing the efflux by various measures.

* Estimate the increment in traffic due to the project.

* Estimate the extent of loss of recharge of groundwater. The ministry cleared the project in December, 2006, on the condition that the work to be undertaken in the Village, to the extent possible, will not be of a permanent nature and unless the detailed studies gave a different picture, the river bed would have to be restored to the river.

The DDA responded in January, 2007, by asking the Pune-based Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) to undertake a study on the “Hydraulic Model Studies for assessing the effect of Akshardham bund on the flow conditions in Yamuna at Delhi”.

Its report was submitted on March 6, 2007, to the MoEF, which cleared the project on April 2 after progressively relaxing the conditions. The same day, DDA was allowed to begin works at the site, with the rider that it would have to first complete the mitigating and abatement measures identified by the CWPRS.

These included raising and strengthening the embankment along the river in Delhi to ensure safe discharge and overtopping, strengthening the existing embankments and guide bund to check flood discharge, putting in place one layer of stone crates on the sloping portion and an apron over the geo-fabric filter to be laid to protect bunds & bridges, protection of the existing bridge piers and strengthening of guide bunds of the other structures existing between the Indraprastha Barrage & Nizamuddin road bridge, etc.

The audit report, however, found that the DDA had taken action only on one point — strengthening the Akshardham bund, and, on other aspects, it passed the buck on to the Delhi government and the Northern Railway. It failed to back up its contention with concrete documents.