Greater Noida: 25 construction projects are illegally extracting groundwater.

A National Green Tribunal (NGT) team discovered that 25 building projects in Greater Noida were extracting groundwater without government permission. The committee, which included the Noida district magistrate and officials from the state and central pollution control boards, was formed in July in response to allegations that 63 projects owned by 40 different builders were illegally extracting groundwater. Prasoon Pant of Ghaziabad and Pradeep Kumar of Greater Noida filed the petitions.

So far, the committee has investigated 33 projects, 25 of which involve groundwater extraction.
The panel recommended that the errant builders pay an environmental penalty and that the illegal borewells be sealed until they obtain permission from the groundwater department in a report submitted on October 7. The report mentions the Gaurs, ATS Group, Supertech, Paramount, and other builders.

Kumar, a resident of Greater Noida’s Sunpura village, said a hearing scheduled in the NGT for Tuesday had been pushed back until next month because the panel had yet to inspect 30 projects. “The pollution control board issued notices to all of the builders who were found to be in violation of the green standards.” The contractors attempted to mislead the inspection team regarding the source of the water.

Water is supplied by the Greater Noida Authority and extracted from the ground in all of these projects. In contrast, developers rarely keep track of water consumption or extraction.
According to the report, only water supplied by the Greater Noida Authority should be used in the projects.”On construction sites, treated water is used,” Kumar notified the TOI. All of the projects mentioned in the report are nearly finished.

“We served notices on the builders and asked them to get a NOC from the relevant department,” said Bhuvan Yadav, a UPPCB regional officer on the inspection team. The interim report is also available on the NGT website. “Moreover, we will keep going with our checking.”

The projects under consideration, according to Ankita Rai, a hydrologist and committee member, fall into the bulk user category. She cited builders’ lack of knowledge about obtaining a NOC for groundwater extraction.”The vast majority of groundwater extraction applications are accounted for by industry.” “We receive a small number of housing society applications.”