Good news for Noida home buyers! Govt issues final notification demarcating ESZ

New Delhi, Aug 19: Government on Wednesday issued the final notification demarcating the Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around Okhla bird sanctuary giving a big relief to thousands of home buyers in Noida and its vicinity as their apartments will now fall out of the new notified area.

"The final notification declaring Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around Okhla bird sanctuary has been issued by Government of India in the Gazette of India vide S/o-2262 (E) dated August 19th, 2015.

The final notification has been issued after following due procedure of law," an official statement said.

Briefing the reporters, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that the notification was issued within 24-hours after the National Board of Wild Life (NBWL) cleared the process of demarcating the ESZ on Tuesday during its meeting.

After the issuance of the notification today, home buyers outside the ESZ will be able to get occupancy certificates of their flats, which had been pending for quite some time as the NGT had passed an order barring development of any infrastructure within 10-km radius from the sanctuary's boundary.

The ESZ in the Okhla Bird Sanctuary will be the area up to 100 metres from the eastern, western and southern boundary and up to 1.27 km from the northern boundary of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, which extends up to DND flyover across the riverbed situated in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar district and southeast district of NCT Delhi.

The NBWL yesterday cleared the draft notification of ESZ which was done (earlier) after due diligence on September 24, 2014. Javadekar said that this will come as a major relief to the people who have booked their flats in the area who were paying both EMI and rent.

"The final notification has been published in the Gazette. From our end the action is over. This was a genuine problem. We have ended the confusion. This is 62nd such notification of ESZ of a protected area," Javadekar said.

Union Minister Mahesh Sharma who hails from the Noida region, also met Javadekar and thanked him on behalf of the 3.50 lakh people who had booked flats there.

PTI