BPTP officials, however, say they have no information on the PIL, which has been filed with the Lucknow bench of the High Court.

Bhupesh Pandey, assistant general manager (corporate communications) of BPTP, said, “We have no information on the PIL and it is the concern of the Noida Authority to deal with the matter.”

The petition says the area, in Sector-94, is “very close” to the Yamuna river and the construction of the project on 95 acres “so close to the river can be environmentally disastrous”.

The sector is situated next to the Okhla Barrage on the Yamuna; the petition states that construction could “affect the river”.

Noida Authority officials say they would be present for the next hearing in Lucknow. Yashpal Sharma, in-charge of commercial deals in the Authority, said, “The petition does not dispute the project; they have a problem with the location and that can be changed if the decision goes against us.”

The petition alleges the officials did not consult environmental experts on the matter before auctioning the area.

Authority officials claim they have kept in mind “every possible concern of the environmentalists” regarding the feasibility of the project. Officials say they have presented documents, proving this in the court.

BPTP officials, meanwhile, say they propose to build residential as well as offices and commercial complexes on the area (mixed land-use).

The ground area for commercial land, officials say, has been kept at close to 25 per cent of the allotted land, which is next to Appu Ghar in Noida. Officials say this was done keeping in mind the concerns of the environmentalists.

The bid was clinched by the Faridabad-based Business Park and Town Planners consortium on Tuesday evening at Indira Auditorium in Sector-6 for Rs 1,30,207 per square metre (52.69 crore per acre).

The earlier record was held by DLF, which bid Rs 3,450 crore for 9,000 acres in Bidadi near Bangalore.

The bidders for the Noida project included Ansal API, Omaxe, DLF among others. While the Ansals’ bid was declared “unfit” DLF and Omaxe were placed at second and third positions