Ghaziabad: Corporation initiates civic works after Indirapuram’s handover

Officials of the corporation said that the entire services of the township will be taken over in six months from the date of signing of the MoU

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has started taking over services in the Ghaziabad Development Authority’s Indirapuram Township, after both agencies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect on September 6. The authority, as mentioned in the MoU agreed to pay ₹185 crore to the municipal corporation for the upgrade of civic infrastructure, officials said.

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has started taking over services in the Ghaziabad Development Authority’s Indirapuram Township. (Sakib Ali)

Officials of the corporation said that the entire services of the township will be taken over in six months from the date of signing of the MoU.

GDA had agreed to pay the corporation in four installments: ₹70 crore initially, ₹40 crore by December 31, 2024, ₹40 crore by March 31, 2025, and a balance of ₹35 crore by July 1, 2025. The date of the first installment was deemed as the handover date.

On their part, the corporation officials said that they had already started work in Indirapuram.

“We have floated tenders for maintenance of all parks, about 70, and central verges in Indirapuram. The tenders have also been finalised. Further, the tenders for maintenance and upkeep of water-related infrastructure have also been floated. Besides, we have also deployed 200 cleaning staff at Indirapuram to take up daily cleaning activities,” said Vikramaditya Malik, municipal commissioner.

The officials said that they have planned to rope in about 45 door-to-door waste-collection vehicles in Indirapuram by January and these vehicles will be tasked to collect daily solid waste.

“Since Indirapuram is a big township, we have plans to make a proposal in the next board meeting to declare it as a separate zone. Presently, the locality falls under the corporation’s Vasundhara zone,” Malik added.

With the handover in place, the corporation gets advertising rights and also revenue from community services in Indirapuram. Further, the corporation also gets rights for the levy of property tax—house tax, water tax, and sewage/drainage tax.

Malik added that the corporation has initiated the process to levy property tax components. Before the handover, the corporation was only charging the house tax component while the GDA charged residents for the provision of services.

The township is spread over an area of about 1,222 acres and comprises about 52,572 households, which shell out about ₹30 crore as house tax annually, officials said.

They added that they expect an increase of about ₹35 crore annually from the incoming revenues from the two remaining tax components.

The residents said that the corporation should speedily take over services in Indirapuram. “This will give residents clarity about the work, and they can approach respective departments of the corporation in case of grievances. Further, the work to upgrade infrastructure should also be expedited. These have been pending for long,” said Mohan Sangwan, a resident of Shakti Khand, Indirapuram.