Protests against move to build bridge over Yamuna (The Hindu 12 August 2011)

Activists campaigning to save the Yamuna are up in arms against the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's announcement to construct another bridge across the river.
Non-government organisation, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan, has shot off a letter to Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna complaining that the DMRC has been violating rules and has not sought mandatory clearances for the new project.
The YJA is protesting against the construction of the “pseudo bridge” that is part of the Mukandpur-Yamuna Vihar corridor under the Phase-III expansion plans of the metro.
The DMRC issued a notice inviting tender on July 4 for a new pseudo bridge-cum-road over the river Yamuna, according to YJA convenor Manoj Misra.
The proposed bridge is 83 m downstream of the existing Hazrat Nizamuddin bridge-cum-road.
YJA claims that the proposed bridge is in violation of the Delhi Development Authority Act and has no approval from the Delhi Urban Arts Commission as well. “The reason why we say so is because we are aware that such a bridge is not provided for in the approved zonal plan for zone O (it violates the DDA Act), there has been no approval for such a bridge by the DUAC,” the YJA has written to the Lieutenant-Governor.
The NGO has alleged that there has been no prior environmental impact assessment of the construction of such a bridge on the river system in the only remaining relatively secure zone of the river. “The proposal has to our best knowledge not yet been assessed by the Yamuna Standing Committee and no prior permission has been taken from the Yamuna River Development Authority.”
Seeking a ban on the construction of the pseudo bridge at the designated spot, YJA has claimed that sub zone 7 of the river, is the only secure flood plain in the 22 km of the river, where flood waters spread from end to end and recharge the city's aquifers.