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Eco City-3 project runs into rough weather
GMADA is in process of acquiring around 750 acres of land to develop residential, commercial, and institutional properties under the project
Once again the launch of Eco City-3 project at New Chandigarh has been delayed as Punjab government has asked Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) to send the details of Khasra number (revenue number) of the land, which they are acquiring.
The project has been hanging fire since 2016.
GMADA is in process of acquiring around 750 acres of land to develop residential, commercial, and institutional properties under the project.
A senior officer of GMADA said, we had sent a file to the state government for the launch of the project, but they have sent back with the observation asking us to send the details of the revenue numbers and it will take some time. GMADA has already done the social impact assessment of the project. Once the project is launched, a revenue of ₹2000 crore is expected, officer said.
Proposed in 2016
The project was proposed in 2016, but in July 2020, GMADA was forced to scrap the acquisition process owing to a shortage of funds, and poor response to its land pooling scheme. Only 118 of 450 landowners had come forward at the time.
GMADA began the process to acquire the land for the project again in August last year.
Under the project, residential, commercial, and institutional properties are to come up on 750 acres acquired from six villages - Rajgarh, Takipur, Kartarpur, Kansala, and Hoshiarpur.
The land will be acquired on the basis of land pooling policy, as per which, for every acre, landowners will get plots of size of 500,400,100 square yards. In case of commercial land to be allotted no option would be given to the land owner in choosing the size.
After GMADA’s decision to defer the project, some private players had swooped in and bought around 150 acres in the same area, prompting the development authority to take prohibitory measures. The then additional chief secretary, department of housing and urban development, Sarvjit Singh, had ordered that no change-of-land use (CLU) certificate or licence would be issued to any builder in the Eco City-3 or Medicity -- another GMADA project-- areas.
Meanwhile, the ‘Aerotropolis’ scheme of GMADA, which was to be launched in May this year, is set to see a delay of another six months as a case regarding around 250 acres is pending in the court. The development authority had sent the case to the court as the landlords had got their land registered after notification of Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act. The Act pertains to preliminary notification for acquiring land and calling objections from landowners.
