News: Land for substation, environmental clearances must for project registration under new policy-06-10-2020

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/land-for-substation-environmental-clearances-must-for-project-registration-under-new-policy/articleshow/78502100.cms

GURUGRAM: To bring in a permanent solution for air and noise pollution caused by genset dependency of the city’s residential societies and commercial buildings which are still not connected to the power grid, Haryana government is going to make changes to its existing rules by November wherein department of town and country planning (DTCP) will issue occupation certificates to real-estate projects only after getting NOC from electricity department.

Along with this, the government will ensure that layouts of real-estate projects are approved only if they earmark land for construction of power sub-station. In many areas, the electricity department is unable to contruct substation for power supply due to unavailability of land.

Moreover, according to the new norms, HRERA will register a real-estate project only if it has provisions for greenbelts, conservation of water, ambient air quality monitoring facilities and waste recycling mechanisms, among others for pollution control and waste management.

Chief secretary of Haryana, Keshni Anand Arora, in the Praveen Kakkar and others vs MoEF and others case, had submitted a report before NGT on September 30 with a draft policy incorporating the changes to the existing rules governing real-estate projects.

“This mechanism or draft policy will be finalised by the department of environment and climate change and will be adopted by the state government after due approval of the competent authority including MoEF & CC by November,” said Arora.

At present, most societies in the new sectors and some other parts of Gurugram rely completely on diesel-powered gensets for power supply, aggravating the poor air quality of the region.

The changes in the policy was set in motion after NGT in February had found serious violations related to discharge of untreated sewage, illegal extraction of ground water among others in the above mention case and directed chief secretary of Haryana to suggest the mechanism for enforcement of rules of law and also to prevent such illegalities in the state.

“The registration of real-estate projects with HRERA will be subject to submission of arrangements and facilities to be provided to control environmental pollution and waste management,” said Arora in her report submitted before NGT.

It further elaborated that the department of town and country planning will seek NOC from the power department before granting occupation certificates to developers and the department will also earmark requisite land for substations at the time of approving the layout plan for the project.

As per the existing policy, it is not mandatory for the developers to have proper water or power connection for getting an occupation certificate from the department of town and country planning as long as the developer provides for these services one way or the other. Consequently, many developers have handed over flats to buyers without waiting for the government to develop civic infrastructure. Such societies run on diesel generators through the day and water is supplied through tankers.

The excessive use of diesel generators in Gurugram has multiple consequences including the impact on the environment, higher tariffs for the consumers and noise pollution. “Due to the non-availability of HVPNL power connectivity, the power supply is only through DG sets. This creates a financial problem for residents as a major chunk of the common fund is spent on diesel, and very little is left for other facilities like lifts, and general welfare of the residents. The diesel generators running all day also has an adverse effect on the environment,” said Samrat Kumar, resident of Sector 95.

Besides, the state government is also planning to set up a monitoring cell soon to ensure implementation of various environmental regulations. The committee will have a joint director of environmental and technical executive officers supported by three technical officers in the rank of scientists or engineers in the respective fields of expertise.