GDA plans ‘Naya Ghaziabad’ township near RRTS corridor
The new township, ”Naya Ghaziabad (new Ghaziabad)”, will extend the spread of Ghaziabad city and will accommodate about 5,000 residences
The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has started the process to develop an altogether new township alongside the corridor of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project in Ghaziabad, said authority officials on Thursday.
Officials said the new township, ”Naya Ghaziabad (new Ghaziabad)”, will extend the spread of Ghaziabad city and will accommodate about 5,000 residences.
The under construction 82km long RRTS project aims to connect Delhi, Ghaziabad and Meerut with the help of high-speed trains.
The authority has already defined an influence zone of 1.5km radius from each of the eight RRTS stations for transit oriented development (TOD) where mixed land use will be made available along with extra floor area ratio for more development.
Also, the authority has defined two special development areas (SDAs) of 510.56 hectares in Guldhar and 549.5 hectares in Duhai. These two areas will have provisions for a higher floor area ratio and mixed land use similar to the TOD zones.
“Our proposed township is expected to come up on an area of about 1,000 hectares where we will provide plots, group housing land, commercial and recreational facilities. It will altogether be a new township and will be called “Naya Ghaziabad”. For this, we will purchase land directly from farmers and not through land acquisition. Fifty percent of the land cost will be borne by the state government and the rest by GDA. A project proposal has been sent to state government,” said Atul Vats, vice-chairperson, GDA.
GDA officials said that the new township will be provided with RRTS connectivity so that residents can commute easily to various cities in the National Capital Region (NCR), including Delhi.
The township will have road connectivity to the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, which passes through Duhai, said officials.
Naya Ghaziabad is expected to be a township planned in accordance with draft Master Plan 2031 and is expected to be bigger than Indirapuram. GDA officials said a proposal for Naya Ghaziabad will be placed before the GDA board for approval in the next meeting.
The authority will also hire a consultant for preparing a detailed project report, officials said.
The GDA officials, however, did not disclose the proposed location of the new township.
“The new township will not be in the TOD zones or the influence areas of the RRTS. The proposal should have been sent to the state government in 2023-24. Though delayed, we have now initiated the process. It has been a long time since the GDA developed a new township,” Vats said.
The RRTS corridor passes primarily above the Delhi-Meerut Road towards Meerut and has eight functional stations at Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai, Duhai Depot, Muradnagar, Modinagar (south) and Modinagar (north).
The TOD zones and SDAs have already been incorporated under the draft Master Plan of 2031 which is expected to be finalised and approved in the next three months. Under the draft plan, GDA has proposed a unified plan for Ghaziabad, Loni and Modinagar/Muradnagar, said officials.