MCD may modify plan to build skyscraper near ITO

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is amending a plan to build Delhi's tallest skyscraper on Indraprastha Marg in central Delhi in view of objections raised by various agencies to the project, senior municipal officials said.

- Paras Singh

A senior municipal official aware of the development said that the civic body has also told Delhi Development Authority, which allocated the land for the project to be implemented by the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), that it intends to keep the land for pursuing the project with suitable amendments.

The South MCD cleared the project to develop 145-metre-high Atal Bihari Civic Centre, near Pragati Maidan in 2017-18, and a memorandum of understanding was signed between south civic body and the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) for developing two towers on a 8.75 acre plot adjacent to the Indraprastha DTC bus depot, near Pragati Maidan. Then, the project's cost was estimated at ₹559 crore, and it was to be finished by 2020. The SDMC planned the building as its headquarters.

Currently, MCD headquarters, Civic Centre, on Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg is the tallest building in the Capital, standing at 101 metres high with 28 stories.

However, the project was mired in controversy with agencies, including the India Trade Promotion Organisation, which was redeveloping Pragati Maidan in close vicinity, raising objections.