Breather, at last

The Queen of Hills can heave a sigh of relief at the National Green Tribunal order banning new construction activity in green, forest and core areas. These areas constitute 70 per cent or so of Old Shimla, and thus, this is seen as a victory for a capital city that almost seemed to be crumbling under the weight of “development”. 

The wide-ranging NGT order has sought to plug various loopholes that allowed construction to take place till now, and also laid out plans for comprehensive re-thinking on various urban development parameters. Vehicular pollution, sewage treatment, and solid-waste management solutions, too, will be sought from experts. The setting up of an expert committee with supervisory and implementation panels provides a much-necessary administrative mechanism. Even as old-time residents of Shimla and others welcome the NGT’s order, it will adversely impact the builders’ lobby that had successfully delayed such action for a long time. It had even managed to get the regularisation charges of the Town and Country Planning Department reduced. Now, steeper regularisation charges have been imposed and those who had built without proper authorisation will be made to pay. The NGT’s order banning any commercial and institutional construction within 3 metres of state and national highways in Himachal Pradesh may impact some roadside eateries, etc, but will have a beneficial impact in the long run.  

The NGT order can be challenged, but the state high court is already seized of the matter. The order has given a clear roadmap to sustainable development, even as it has provided relief to the city. It is now for the politicians, who have been sitting on the sidelines, and under whose watch Shimla deteriorated in the manner it has, to heed the NGT’s suggestions and directions in the right earnest. The political class has an opportunity to prove it can prioritise urban renewal over the rapacious builders’ lobby.