RASHME SEHGAL The recent Supreme Court judgment giving a go ahead to the construction of the Games Village has opened the doors for further construction along the Yamuna bank. The Delhi Master Plan already spells out new land uses along the banks which is expected to lead to eventual canalisation of the river fear environmentalists. The proposals for developing the Yamuna zone, which is called O Zone in the 2021 version of the master plan, spells out several land uses for this area. Tis Grandiose Riverbed Development has set aside 500 hectares for commercial purposes and 645 hectares for government, institutional, public and semi-public use. Proposed building include a Delhi government Assembly, a financial district along the pattern of Manhattan in New York and Raffles in Singapore. Emphasis is also being laid on the development of "recreational" and building of transport facilities, all of which will also fall under the "green" category. Recreational facilities will include the setting up of two large cricket and football stadia as well as an LPG bottling plant. Under the category of semi-public facilities, the DDA is also planning to set up a fly ash brick plant ,a 400 KB electricity sub-station and a sewage treatment plant. Already, Delhi's thermal power stations contribute 5,600 metric tones of fly ash which is being dumped directly on the riverbed. The zonal plan has yet to be notified but senior DDA officials admit that they see little likelihood of any organisation taking them to task on any of these schemes. Vinod Jain, chairman of NGO Tapas, points out that already the Yamuna flood plains which used to extend from 9,700 hectares has shrunk to 7,362 hectares. "The implementation of this Zonal Plan 2021 will see this water body shrink to half which will mean even less land for the underground aquifers to get regenerated.' "Given the record of the last 50 years of planned development, it is clear that all that separates one type of land use from a radically different use is a `notified amendment' that can be passed by the DDA at any time," Mr Jain warned. The Zonal Plan 2021 clearly spells out that it will not limit "the variety of possible uses". Development, the plan document points out, is a continuous process and has to appropriately respond to the needs and aspirations of its beneficiaries. It therefore states that a "restricted three dimensional development" is envisaged in central areas which have good locational potential and are either comparatively free from inundation or can be made free from inundation expeditiously and/or at low cost. The plan to locate the Games Village on the Yamuna flood plain was done against the advice of reputed expert institutions such as the Intach and the National Institute for Environmental Engineering.