E-Paper
IT Park Housing Scheme: ₹15 cr down the drain, Purohit questions CHB on spendings sans green clearances
The CHB had spent the money on construction of roads, underground cable trench (service duct), sewer lines and water lines, besides paying ₹5 crore to the UT estate office for getting the project drawings approved. Moreover, tenders for certain consultancy works were also awarded.
UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit has sought an explanation from the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) for spending ₹15 crore on the IT Park Housing scheme without first ensuring that the requisite approvals were in place.
The CHB had spent the money on construction of roads, underground cable trench (service duct), sewer lines and water lines, besides paying ₹5 crore to the UT estate office for getting the project drawings approved. Moreover, tenders for certain consultancy works were also awarded.
However, in October last year, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) had refused to accord approval for the housing scheme, stating that the project site falls within the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary and the development of high-rise buildings here will disrupt the paths of migratory birds.
Sources in the UT administration said that Purohit questioned the CHB authorities on why such a huge amount was spent on construction works before taking the clearance of the
Sukhna ESZ monitory committee, Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee, environment and wildlife clearance. A senior officer of the UT administrator said that all the approvals had been taken from the authorities concerned.
CHB chief executive officer Ajay Chagti could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.
In April this year, the then CHB CEO Yashpal Garg had also written to the UT administration to take back the land allotted for the IT Park project and return ₹1,000 crore that the board had spent on it since 2005. Around 123 acres of prime land at Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park has been stuck in unending environmental and wildlife wrangles, leaving its ambitious housing scheme hanging.
BOX:
Ambitious project that was stalled
The housing scheme, proposed to have 728 flats in three categories, was first approved by the CHB board of directors in December 2020.
Classified into 28 four-bedroom, 448 three-bedroom and 252 two-bedroom flats, which was to come up in seven-storey towers, the scheme had been planned on two IT Park plots, measuring 10.51 and 6.43 acres.
The towers were to have two basements with the provision of parking of two cars for each flat in addition to surface parking for visitors.
Though the exact rates of flats were yet to be decided, the cost of a four-bedroom flat is expected to be ₹2.75 crore, ₹1.9 crore for the three-bedroom flat and ₹1.3 crore for the two-bedroom flat – all steeper than the last general housing scheme in Sector 53 that had to be scrapped due to poor public response.
The 16-acre land for the IT Park project is part of the 123 acres that CHB retrieved from Parsvnath Developers in 2015 after a long-drawn legal battle.
