Creation of new urban spaces needs to be green and resilient: Hardeep S Puri

New Delhi: Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State (I/C), Puri inaugurated the ‘Van Mahotsav’ celebrated by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) by plantation of around 20,000 trees across Delhi yesterday. Hardeep S Puri said that creation of new urban spaces needs to be green and resilient and stated that development process in Delhi is now being given a green and sustainable direction by the Ministry.

Lt. Governor of Delhi, Sh. Anil Baijal and Sh. Parvesh Sahib Singh, Member of Parliament were also present on the occasion along with senior officers of MoHUA and DDA. Puri reiterated the decision to redevelop the seven GPRA colonies without cutting of trees and assured full commitment and support of the centre for timely completion development projects in Delhi, including  Delhi Metro phase 4.

Acknowledging DDA’s significant role in building, restoring, maintaining and preserving the natural heritage of the city, Puri said that with 783 parks & 6 biodiversity parks covering an extent of 11,000 acres approximately of land under their jurisdiction, DDA is a major owner of green area in Delhi and has been actively promoting the development of regional parks, city park, district parks, community parks & neighborhood parks as per norms of Master-Plan.

He also appreciated DDA’s initiative of taking up large scale plantation. This year, DDA has proposed to plant 10 lakh trees throughout Delhi in DDA Parks, Biodiversity Parks, Yamuna Flood Plain, vacant spaces, along roadside and on land proposed for Compensatory Afforestation.  Local/indigenous species like Neem, Jamun, Arjun, Peepal, Gulmohar, Amaltash, Kadamb, Sheesham etc. are proposed to be planted.  So far DDA has planted 1.70 lakh trees and likely to achieve the target by 30th September 2018.

Puri participated in the tree plantation drive in Dwarka where around 10,000 trees were planted yesterday. Dwarka is a sub-city planned, developed by DDA having an area around 5648 hectares with recreational land use of 19.94%.  In Dwarka, there are 94 parks.  So far 50,000 trees of various indigenous tree/shrub species have been planted in Dwarka and around two lakh additional trees will be planted this year.