Vasant Kunj residents protest approval for 10-storey towers on South Central Ridge

On a cold Sunday morning residents of B-1 Vasant Kunj arrived at Jantar Mantar, carrying placards, ridge maps and copies of old DDA brochures. They demanded the authorities concerned to prove that the land at the centre of their colony was meant for high-rise construction.

The crowd swelled into a cross-section of the neighbourhood, including senior citizens, parents with schoolchildren and RWA members, demanding that Delhi’s South Central Ridge be protected, not built over. Their protest was against the approval given for three 10-storey residential towers with three basement levels on a 5,353 sq metre plot inside the colony, on the land that the Department of Forests and Wildlife has certified as part of the South Central Morphological Ridge.

“Construction of three multi-storey residential towers has been sanctioned with three-level basement right in the middle of the colony. It doesn’t have any entry or exit, they have to come through the internal roads,” said Rajeev Ranjan, president of the RWA. “Since we know this is the ridge, why are we not developing it as reserve forest? Most of the ridge today is encroached. We want this construction to be stopped.”

Residents said the project stands in violation of planning regulations and the original DDA Self-Financing Scheme (SFS) layout, which, they said, showed 48 flats and community facilities on the plot, not a private housing project.

The site is surrounded by 1,021 DDA flats and a cluster of schools, including Masonic Public School, Shemrock Kindergarten and Vasant Valley School. With nearly 5,000 residents and around 2,500 students using the same narrow lanes, residents said the colony’s internal roads, which were eight-nine metres wide, could not support a project that, under Master Plan Delhi 2021, required an 18-metre approach road.

RWA general secretary Aby Johnson said, “The morphological ridge is the green lungs of Delhi and today when we see the AQI status, it is disappointing to see how they let it pass. How can this public land be given to a private builder just like that?”

Residents also questioned the ownership claims on the land, stating that it was originally Gaon Sabha land vested in the Central Government after Mehrauli was urbanised in 1966.

In 1974, the Centre placed such lands under DDA for the development of Specialised Fixed Subsidy (SFS) colonies. They said later private claims on the land were invalid.

“There are almost four–five thousand people living in this colony of ours… almost 900 flats,” said Joseph, a retired government employee. “We have filed appeals in courts. We have flagged this forgery being carried out by the builder mafia.”

Environmental concerns formed the core of Sunday’s protest. Residents said no scientific evaluation has been done on traffic impact, water demand, the ridge terrain’s geotechnical stability or additional load on civic infrastructure. They alleged that the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) report contained plagiarised sections and failed to assess the impact of excavation for triple basements in the rocky Aravalli stretch.

“Sanctions look dubious, don’t know who approved it,” said Rashmi, an architect and resident. “There is no water supply and road network planned… There is not enough groundwater. They have displayed a road in the map but it doesn’t exist. The construction waste is going to cause a lot of pollution in the area.”

The RWA also pointed to an FIR filed by the Forest Department against the alleged owner for submitting a forged tree-permission letter. Cases challenging the project are pending before the Delhi High Court, National Green Tribunal and Supreme Court.

Residents said they want the project cancelled and the land restored as ridge forest. “We want this area to be developed as a reserve forest… to improve Delhi’s environment because that is the only way we can do it,” Ranjan said. “These are our prayers to public authorities.”

Residents also said that as construction continued in the past six months, all the biodiversity in the forested land had almost disappeared. "We used to spot peacocks, sparrows and other beautiful animals, but they can't be found anymore because of the noise of the construction," a resident added.