Supreme Court quashed NGT's order on environmental clearance issue of Noida Metro

MRT Online Desk Posted on: 2023-01-24 09:00:00 Viewer: 2,980 Comments: 0 Country: India City: Noida

Supreme Court quashed NGT's order on environmental clearance issue of Noida Metro (Noida Metro File Photo © Metro Rail Today)

New Delhi, India (Metro Rail Today): The construction of 29.7 km Noida-Greater Noida Aqua Line was challenged before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by an environmentalist Vikrant Tongade and the green panel ordered that the project comes under Schedule 8(b) of the 2006 Environment Impact Assessment Notification, which requires green clearance. The Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) was also directed to get environmental clearance from competent authorities by passing an order on May 31, 2016.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (DMRC) and Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd (DFCCIL) approached the apex court in 2016 against the order passed by the NGT which directed that all metro rail projects need an environmental clearance after conducting a proper environmental impact assessment.

While hearing the appeal filed by DMRC and DFCCIL against NGT's order directing that all metro rail projects need an environmental clearance after conducting a proper environment impact assessment, a division bench in the Supreme Court of India comprising Justice MR Shah and Justice CT Ravikumar observed that the matter no longer needs to be adjudicated since "the entire Metro Rail Project in Delhi and Noida has been completed and the metro rail is running."

"It is reported and it is not in dispute that thereafter, the entire Metro Rail Project in Delhi and Noida has been completed and the metro rail is running and being used by the public at large. In that view of the matter when the entire metro rail project is complete and the metro rail is running, the clock cannot be put back and the same shall not be even in the larger public interest," the court said in its order.

The court proposed to dispose of the appeals by observing that the impugned directions reproduced hereinabove are not to be acted upon in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case it is "keeping the questions of law open."

"However, the questions of law, if any, more particularly, whether with respect to the rail project or metro rail project, the environmental clearance is required or not and other questions of law, if any, are kept open to be considered in appropriate proceedings and the present order shall not be cited as a precedent in any other matters or cases," the bench said.