NEW DELHI: Delhi's bid to replicate the Sabarmati riverfront development project for Yamuna has taken a controversial turn. C R Babu, DU professor emeritus and chairman of the state-level expert appraisal committee, has advised the lieutenant governor and the capital's bureaucrats against replicating the Sabarmati project.

In a report addressed to Najeeb Jung and environment secretary Sanjiv Kumar, Babu has said that the Sabarmati is not a river rejuvenation project but an urban development one. Kumar had told TOI earlier that Sabarmati riverfront is "like an international destination" and cited the fact that there are many riverfronts globally which have come up by developing a river's floodplains. It was even suggested that a different hydrological model be used to ensure that Yamuna doesn't overflow its banks if its floodplains are reclaimed like in case of Sabarmati.

"There is no Sabarmati river. It's stagnant water with concrete walls on two sides. The floodplains have been concretized to make pathways and real estate projects. It cannot be replicated for our Yamuna," Babu told TOI. In his report, he has said that water for Sabarmati has been channelized from Narmada which has left the area upstream completely dry. Downstream, after Vasna barrage, the water is highly polluted and contains toxic effluents, the report informs. 
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Earlier, a committee appointed by National Green Tribunal and headed by Babu had advised that the Yamuna River-Front Development (YRFD) plan—which includes a promenade, parking lots, pavements and other constrictions and was developed by Delhi Development Authority—be scrapped. It also recommended a ban on development activity in the river's zone 'O' in Delhi and its active floodplains on Uttar Pradesh side.

Other problems include displacement of communities. A Harvard researcher, Vineet Diwadkar said in a 2013 study, "Projects such as the Sabarmati Riverfront rely upon policing and narratives of the 'sanitary city' to socially discipline the urban poor into accepting hydrological landscapes as territories for leisure and Ahmedabad's ruling and middle classes."