New Delhi: Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has informed National Green Tribunal (NGT) that sewer work was completed in 11 colonies in south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar to the extent permitted outside forest land, while work in two colonies remains stalled due to public resistance and another set of projects has been delayed because of pending road-cutting permissions and monsoon.DJB has also written to Ridge Management Board seeking permission to lay sewer lines in the forest areas of Sangam Vihar, which is considered one of the largest unauthorised colonies in the country. TOI earlier reported that the area comprises 44 unauthorised colonies, of which 33 are on forest land, according to a DJB report.NGT took suo motu cognisance of a TOI report in 2024, titled ‘A Sangam of Filth And Apathy: This Wasteland Actually Exists In Delhi’, which highlighted that in Sangam Vihar, the internal lanes were broken, garbage was strewn nonchalantly on every available vacant land, there was a pervasive foul smell in the air, and the roads were unusable.In a report dated July 28, DJB said that under Delhi Sewage Master Plan 2031, the sewerage work in Sangam Vihar Govt of India Colony had been divided into phases I and II. The report stated that phase II primarily covered colonies in Sangam Vihar and had been executed in a staggered manner due to site conditions and other impediments. It said sewer lines were laid in eight colonies unaffected by forest encroachment, while work in 14 colonies was taken up despite 11 of them being partially affected by forest land.According to DJB, the sewer line work in these 11 colonies was completed in the non-forest portions and, of the remaining three, the work in one colony was completed, while public hindrance and local resistance have delayed work in two colonies.
