The Hindu : New Delhi News : Conservationists refuse to relent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 11, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Conservationists refuse to relent

Staff Reporter

Meeting of DMRC, ASI, Intach officials fails to produce result

NEW DELHI: With conservationists standing their ground on the issue of not allowing the Delhi Metro to travel on elevated tracks near the historic Qutub Minar, a meeting between senior officials of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the Archaeological Survey of India and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) on Friday failed to produce any tangible result and all present concurred to conduct a site inspection next week before meeting again.

At the meeting, DMRC, which was represented by managing director E. Sreedharan, Director (Project and Planning), C.B.K. Rao, and Executive Director (Corporate Planning), Mangu Singh, made a presentation in which it proposed to take the line at least half a kilometre away from the world heritage site of Qutab Minar.

In the presentation, DMRC said that with a large number of trees coming between the monument and the corridor, the elevated section will obstruct the view in any way.

The DMRC had earlier studied four alternatives for arriving at the decision that taking the line 500 metres from Qutab Minar and through Mehrauli Gurgaon Road was the best option for proceeding to Gurgaon.

However, this argument did not go down well with most of the conservationists who insisted that the line travel underground near the historic monument, even if it meant spending an additional Rs 460 crores for the 2.88 km section beyond IIT since the cost of construction of underground line is Rs 270 crores per km as against Rs 110 crores per km for elevated corridors.

The convenor of INTACH, O.P. Jain, said the conservationists and architects are of the firm view that Metro should not be allowed to take the elevated route near Qutub Minar. "We have demanded that either it travel underground or it take a detour via Saket and Lado Sarai for proceeding on its journey to Gurgaon."

He said the area before that is of historic importance and there are various other sites like Mahavir's statue near Qutub which would also be affected by the DMRC plans.

The DMRC is now pinning its hopes on the site visit when its officials would once again try to convince the conservationists and architects.

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