MCD demolishes slums to make way for parking lot

Monday, January 12, 2009
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

In preparation for a Commonwealth Games-related parking project, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi carried out demolitions of slum
clusters along a drain behind J N Stadium on Saturday. The project costs an estimated Rs 325 crore.

The drain and the land around it will be used for a parking site, an MCD official informed. "The drain is 1km in length by 65 metres in width. This will be covered and cleared land along it will also be used for parking,'' said an official.

The demolition began at 11.30am and continued till 5pm. Officials said around 500-600 slums were cleared and 200-300 more would be demolished on Monday. "Many of the slum units were pucca structures and hence it took us time to pull them down,'' an official from MCD's south zone said.

Another MCD official said there was no resistance from the slum dwellers and it was not the responsibility of the civic agency to relocate the encroachers.