SC Hearing on Land Use Change in Central Vista Project

The Supreme Court began hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the Central Vista project, which involves building a new Parliament and integrating all Central government offices into one complex, being developed by the Central government. The lead petitioner, Rajeev Suri, informed the court that the alteration carried out by the DDA was shown as modification to the Master Plan of Delhi 2021 but in essence it altered the very character of the master plan. He further submitted to the court that the National Capital Region plan envisaged decentralisation and by this logic too, the Centre’s decision to integrate all 51 Central government offices in the heart of the city could not be sustained. While, the idea behind the project is to have an integrated office complex instead of having it dispersed. Does the layout plan or building bye-laws permit such classification where one class of activity can be integrated at a common place? Further, the Court wished to know if the DDA should be faulted on the change of land use or the extent of this change in land use. The Court pointed out that though the notification of change of land use was issued by the DDA in exercise of its power under Section 11A of Delhi Development Act, such power can even be derived from other sections of the same Act. The hearing continued on Wednesday. The Central Vista project envisages a new Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and common Central Secretariat housing 51 Ministries in 10 buildings. At present, these offices are housed in 47 buildings spread over different locations. An underground shuttle of 3 kilometre length is also being planned for providing connectivity with nearest metro stations of Udyog Bhawan and Central Secretariat stations. The proposed Lok Sabha chamber is expected to accommodate 876 seats and the Rajya Sabha chamber 400 seats. At present, the Central Hall has 440 seats and during the joint session of Parliament, temporary seats have to be arranged in the aisle. The new complex will provide for 1224 seats in the Central Hall, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and seamless movement between the two Houses. Petitioners have approached the apex court faulting the project on various grounds – manner of conducting public hearing, issue of public notice, grant of environmental impact assessment, clearance of project plan by Central Vista Committee, and unplanned destruction of heritage buildings in Central Vista as part of the project plan.