MCD to raze school, build it again

Friday , Dec 04, 2009

A primary school building of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in Rajouri Garden Extension will be razed to give way to a parking site. And then the building will be re-constructed while students attend classes elsewhere. The project will cost Rs 35 crore and if MCD is to be believed, there will be more such exercises in future to tide over the parking space shortage in the city.

Students from this school are being shifted to another school in the vicinity till MCD finishes construction of the multi-level parking lot, even as officials within the civic agency are raising questions about how the security of so many children will be ensured if outsiders keep entering the premises to park their cars.

Interestingly, in January this year, reacting to a TOI story, MCD had denied plans of using vacant school grounds for commercial purposes even as sources had told this newspaper back then that the civic agency had already identified 60 such schools. In a startling proof of the agency's double-speak, tenders were issued on Thursday for demolishing a functional school in Rajouri Garden Extension. The Delhi High Court, incidentally, had expressed its displeasure over the plan to put vacant school grounds to commercial use in no uncertain terms earlier this year.

The civic agency meanwhile claims that academic activities will not be disrupted and the parking lot will not pose a security threat to children studying in the school as the entry and exit to the lot will be different from that of the school.

Said press and information director, MCD, Deep Mathur: "This school was started a decade ago and is a semi-pucca structure. We will demolish the school building, make an underground parking and construct a multi-storeyed school over it. The students will be sent to another MCD primary school in the area while the construction is going on. We will ensure that the parking lot does not disturb the functioning of the school and does not pose a security problem.'' Many MCD schools are still functioning from tents even though MCD allocates a budget for building permanent structures every year.

A community hall in Subhash Nagar will also be demolished to give way to a parking site and a new hall will be made over it. The project will cost Rs 31 crore. Both the projects will take 18 months to be completed.

The civic agency is now planning to take up similar parking projects in other areas. Said leader of the House Subhash Arya: "We will look into making similar parking sites in other areas if it is required. In Rajouri Garden Extension, there is absolutely no other space where parking provisions can be made. And the situation is really bad. One obviously cannot park on the road and too many times there are fights over parking space.'' According to MCD officials, area councillors have been one of the strongest forces behind pushing through the plan of constructing a parking lot below the school building.

Original news source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/MCD-to-raze-school-build-it-again/articleshow/5297610.cms