Gurgaon to cut red tape with a new development authority

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced on Monday the formation of a Gurgaon development authority (GDA), admitting that infrastructural planning in the Millennium City had fallen behind.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced on Monday the formation of a Gurgaon development authority (GDA), admitting that infrastructural planning in the Millennium City had fallen behind.

The process to set up the Gurgaon development authority will start on November 1. (Parveen Kumar/HT File Photo)

The GDA will be different from the Noida authority, where no civic body exists. It will be along the lines of Jaipur where both a development authority and a municipal corporation exist. The process to set up the authority will start on November 1 when Haryana celebrates the golden jubilee of its formation.

“We cannot change the entire planning but now the government has prepared a comprehensive plan for overall development of Gurgaon,” Khattar said.

Ending the suspense over the future of the Gurgaon municipal corporation, Khattar said corporation elections would be held after the GDA’s formation.

Union minister of state for urban development and housing Rao Inderjit Singh, a long-time proponent of the move, said the Gurgaon authority would be refined and all the shortcomings of the Jaipur model would be removed.

“Powers will be distributed between the GDA and the municipal corporation. Several development works are stuck in Gurgaon due to the multiplicity of agencies. With the formation of this authority, the development process will be simplified,” Singh said.

The contours of the new authority were yet to be finalised but all development-related decisions would be taken in Gurgaon without delays caused by sending files to state capital Chandigarh, officials said.