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July 30 - India's Supreme Court has today lifted restrictions on construction work at the site of the Athletes Village being built for next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

 

 

The court overruled a Delhi High Court order that had put the restrictions in place because of environmental worries.

 

 

Officials have warned that the country could miss out on hosting the Games unless construction work gains pace.
 

They argued that a dispute over the building of an athletes' Village in Delhi needed to be speedily resolved.
 

Games organisers are building the Village next to the River Yamuna, which at 851 miles long it is the largest tributary of the historic Ganges.

 

The Delhi High Court last year asked an environmental expert to investigate if the Village that is to house 8,500 athletes and officials from 71 countries for the event, which is due to open on October 3 2010 and last for 11 days, should be built on the site.

 

The £24 million project involves development of 1,168 apartments spread across 34 towers, with almost four million square feet of constructed area.

In March the Indian Government agreed to spend 1 billion rupees (£14 million) buying flats in the Village in New Delhi from cash-strapped developer Emaar-MGF Land Ltd.
 

Now, according to the Supreme Court, there was no evidence to support allegations that the construction activities were being carried out on the river bed and the flood plain of the Yamuna.

 

The Supreme Court ruled that the Government had observed "due process of the law" by issuing notice of its intention to begin construction work as long ago as September 1999, when it invited suggestions and objections from citizens and various organisations.


A petition challenging the construction activities was filed in 2007.

 

The petition alleged that that construction activities were being carried out on the river bed and the flood plain of the Yamuna river.

 

The Supreme Court ruling said: "The High Court should not have entertained the petition at all."