Draft Master Plan 2031, Metro link put on hold in Ghaziabad to make more changes

The approval of the draft Master Plan 2031 for Ghaziabad has been put on hold by the board of the Ghaziabad Development Authority. The proposal to link Sector 62 Metro to Sahibabad has also been postponed. Changes will be made to the plan in the coming weeks.

The board of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) on Monday put on hold the approval of draft Master Plan (MP) 2031 in a meeting held at the divisional commissioner’s office in Meerut.

The officials said a proposal for linking Sector 62 Metro to Sahibabad was also put on hold as it needed more inputs which will be discussed with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). (Representational Image/Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The officials said a proposal for linking Sector 62 Metro to Sahibabad was also put on hold as it needed more inputs which will be discussed with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

The officials said the draft Master Plan 2031 is ready but was held back by the board to make several changes which will be incorporated in the coming weeks.

A master plan is a blueprint that defines broad or macro level layout of different planned developmental activities in a city.

The draft Master Plan 2031 includes macro plans for Ghaziabad city, Loni and Modinagar/Muradnagar. According to officials, the draft plan involves development activities planned over an area of about 3,473 hectares. An area of 1,389.2 hectares is reserved has been reserved for residential use, 208.38 hectares for commercial use, and 555.68 hectares for recreational use, among others.

“The draft plan incorporates the special development areas (SDAs) and the transit oriented (TOD) zones for the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) project which is being developed by National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC). There are some issues such as development of zonal plans for the TOD zones and conversion of Duhai Depot to a RRTS station which will have provision of mixed land use. So, considering this, the board asked us to hold talks with the NCRTC to discuss the pending issues,” said Rajesh Kumar Singh, secretary, GDA.

The GDA officials said the authority has made provisions for 1060.06 hectares for two SDAs – 510.56 hectares at Guldhar and 549.5 hectares at Duhai. Besides that, the authority has also earmarked 4,044.58 hectares of TOD zone around seven RRTS stations in Ghaziabad.

The Duhai Depot will be the eighth RRTS station if everything goes as planned.

Singh said the state-appointed consultant was also asked to incorporate changes on account of public objections which were invited and these will be fully incorporated soon. GDA sources said there were total of 1,193 public objections/suggestion on the draft Master Plan 2031.

“We are expecting that all the changes required in the draft plan will be incorporated in the month of September and the final draft will again be taken to next board meeting. The board also asked us to discuss with the DMRC the proposal for linking Sector 62 of the Noida Metro to the Delhi Metro in Sahibabad and to see whether any changes were required for the corridor,” Singh said.

In January 2020, the DMRC had submitted plans for this corridor to be built at a cost of ₹1,517 crore and a second line to connect Vaishali with Mohan Nagar at a cost of ₹1,808.22 crore.

The GDA, over the past one and half years, have deliberated on different alternatives such as ropeway, Metro Neo, and Metro Lite in place of the previously proposed Metro extensions. But the authority later dumped these alternatives in favour of Metro.