MCG awards 1,500 sq m Aravallis land to petrol pump, residents erupt in protest

Gurugram: Hundreds of citizens in Gurugram on Monday united in protest against the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram's decision to award a 1,500 sqm plot of land in the Aravallis for building a petrol pump.

The proposed petrol pump is to come up at Chakkarpur Aravalli forest area that is situated alongside Golf Course Road which is one the prime areas of National Capital Region. Providing clarification, officials from MCG stated that land does not come under the Aravallis preservation area and therefore the decision to give this land to the petrol pump was taken.

However, officials from the South Haryana Forest Department have stated categorically that the land at Chakkarpur where the petrol pump is to come up, comes under the Aravallis preservation area and that no approval has been given to the MCG to give it away for a petrol pump.

Significantly, just a few metres from the proposed site of the petrol pump, there is an operation Hindustan Petroleum petrol pump, where a large number of vehicles refuel.

"We are giving the MCG 15 days to take back this decision and we will take a judicial route to ensure that there is no petrol pump that is built on Aravalli preservation area," said RS Rathee, Councillor for Ward-34.

This is not the first time residents have united in protest against state authorities to preserve the Aravallis. In 2017, there was a plan to build a petrol pump in the Aravallis forest area along DLF Phase-1. This project again was not allowed to go through after massive protests.

Maintaining a fine balance between environment and development seems to have always been a major challenge in Gurugram. Nowhere is this more pronounced than the city's plans to expand its road networks.

The already existing Mehrauli-Gurugram Road (MG Road) and National Highway (NH)-48 to Delhi are regularly clogged and district authorities came up with a Comprehensive Mobility Plan to explore alternate routes to and from the Capital.

These routes include developing connectivity to Delhi through Dwarka Expressway via Sector-115 and Sector-109, building a road that links NH-48 to Old Delhi-Gurugram road, linking Northern Periphery Road and Connecting Nelson Mandela Road with NH-48 and MG road.

One of these routes connecting Delhi to Nelson Mandela Road is set to cut through 400 acres of the Aravallis Biodiversity Park.

As Aravallis Biodiversity Park has not been delineated under forest category by Haryana Government, the District Authorities were all set to acquire substantial areas of Biodiversity park in 2019 to build the road.

The project was however stalled as hundreds of residents came on city streets to protest against this road's construction. The pressure exerted by protestors ultimately led the State Government to backtrack and defer this project.