As per Ramesh Pokhriyal, the Human Resource Development Minister, the additional campus proposed by the Delhi University, stalled for three decades, will be ready by 2023
When asked about the fate of long-standing proposal for a campus in West Delhi, he said that the university has informed the ministry to construct the campus on 16.79 acres in Village Roshanpura of Najafgarh in southwest Delhi.
He said that the University of Delhi had informed that it has decided to construct a college on a piece of land measuring 83 bighas and 19 biswas (16.70 acres) at Village Roshanpura, Najafgarh. Subsequently, university had initiated the process to appoint CPWD as PMC to construct the college at the proposed land whereby the duration of the construction was four years.
The project, if successfully completes, will bring a significant respite to hundreds of students from southwest Delhi, who at present are forced to undertake a long commute to either the north campus or the south campus, where colleges are scattered over a wide distance in the city.
The project is far from new. It has been in limbo since 1989, due to a tussle between the Delhi Development Authority and Delhi University, ostensibly, over the construction of a road, which each party insists is the responsibility of the other.
The Delhi High Court after hearing the dispute in 2018, upbraided the two parties for shelving the project for so long and expressed its concern over the rise in the cost of construction since 1989, the year when the land was allocated to the university.
“Since 1989 you have the land. It was given free of cost. Do you know what would be its cost now? Do you know how much the cost of construction would have gone up now? But you are not bothered,” the court was quoted as saying in a PTI report at the time
The court said that the land was given free of cost and was in possession since 1989 but no construction was done from that time as the authorities are not bothered. It said that the cost of the production could also been less at that time but the irresponsible attitude of the parties has really made it bad.
~Rakshita Aggarwal
