Unauthorised colonies on radar of new town planner

Curbing the spread of unauthorised colonies in the city and preventing commercial activities in residential areas will be the top priorities for Amit Madholia, the newly appointed district town planner who assumed charge of the department of town and country planning’s enforcement wing on Tuesday

Curbing the spread of unauthorised colonies in the city and preventing commercial activities in residential areas will be the top priorities for Amit Madholia, the newly appointed district town planner who assumed charge of the department of town and country planning’s enforcement wing on Tuesday.

New district town planner Amit Madholia. (Sourced)

Madholia, who has worked earlier as assistant town planner in the city, said he understands the issues plaguing urban planning in Gurugram and that he will try to resolve them by taking the citizens and the residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) into confidence.

“The first priority will be to take the residents, homebuyers and RWAs into confidence and work with them. I plan to create a separate RWA cell, which will handle the issues and problems raised by RWAs in the city. Every week, I will visit two housing societies and meet the RWAs to understand their issues and resolve them,” said Madholia.

A key agenda will also be to curb commercial activities in residential colonies as they lead to traffic snarls and put a burden on infrastructure. “The focus will be to first make people understand that violations need to go. It will be better if property owners take voluntary steps and stop these activities, else action will be taken,” he said.

The enforcement department will also take stringent action against development of illegal colonies in the city and on the outskirts. “We will take action in the initial phases of development of the colonies so that gullible homebuyers don’t get stuck. We will work with village sarpanchs and elders to prevent such constructions,” he said.

Madholia also said structural audit of 60 condominiums-- a process that has already been initiated by the department and the district administration--will be taken to its conclusion. “All the complaints received from the condominiums regarding structural issues will be probed by experts and corrective action will be taken,” he said.