Shimla to have more no-construction zones

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 10

More than 240 hectares of forest area, both government and private, falling in the Tara Devi and Totu area is likely to be declared as a green zone where no construction activity would be allowed. This will enhance the green cover of the town.

The Town and Country Planning Department has identified more than 240 hectares falling in the Parav forest near Tara Devi and Gadyog in Totu to be declared as the green zone. These two areas have a thick green cover. A proposal to declare these areas as no-construction zones has been sent to the government.

There are 17 no-construction green belts in the town spread over an area of 414 hectares. The government proposes to raise the number of green belts in and around the town to over 100 so the forests in the green areas remain protected.

The 240 hectares of forest land, which is to be declared as the green belt, has both government and private land and there could be some resistance from the land owners. “About 240 hectares of forest area in Tara Devi and Totu has been identified to be declared as a no-construction zone and a proposal has been submitted to the state government,” said Sandeep Kumar, Director, Town and Country Planning.

A proposal to grant partial relaxation by allowing construction on the sandwiched plots where building have come up on all sides has been pending before the government for the past many years. Owners of these plots have time and again been pleading before the government to allow them to undertake need-based construction for self use.

“The enhancement in the area under green belts in the town could help in seeking a nod of the National Green Tribunal in making partial relaxation on construction in the existing 17 green belts of the town,” said an official.

On May 30 last year, the National Green Tribunal had restrained the state government from lifting the construction ban imposed in 2000 in green belts, considered to be the lungs of the town.

It has been proposed in the Shimla Development Plan, which is still awaiting approval, that the number of green belts should be enhanced from the present 17 to 105. Environmentalists and a majority of locals also are of the opinion that declaring more areas as green belts was the only way to ban construction in the town which had already turned into a concrete jungle.