Wall in SWD buffer zone must go: NGT

The buffer zone of a stormwater drain (SWD) is inviolate, the National Green Tribunal ruled, rejecting a lawyer’s plea against razing a compound wall that might jeopardise the safety of an apartment building.

The NGT Southern Zone bench heard a petition from V Parmesh regarding S V Elegant, a 108-apartment building in Kumbena Agrahara that had violated buffer zone rules. The BBMP demolished the swimming pool and other facilities after the NGT intervened last year. The builder, Venkateshwara Builders, admitted to the violation.

“The counsel (for the builder) would plead that without the compound wall, the safety of the apartment owners will be at stake,” the court noted, but added that such a concession cannot be extended.

During the hearing on February 3, the counsel appearing for the builder urged the bench against the demolition. “The counsel (for the builder) would plead that without the compound wall, the safety of the apartment owners will be at stake,” the court noted, but refused to grant the concession.

Citing the Supreme Court ruling that no activity can occur in the buffer zone, the bench ordered the builder to tear down the wall and plant vegetation for the benefit of the apartment residents.

BBMP pulled up

The bench chastised the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for allowing the violation, asking the civic body to explain “how it had permitted” the builder to construct a swimming pool and the wall in the buffer zone. “If the rectification is not done, it can cause another deluge, as was the case in 2022,” it added.

The tribunal also observed that the sewage treatment plant is also within the buffer zone.

“If that is so, we are forced to say that the same has to be removed,” the bench said.

The bench emphasised that the BBMP could not use “rapid growth” of the city’s infrastructure as a justification for its failure to fulfill its obligations.