MCG gets nod to launch work in Nirvana Country

On January 14, the MCG had finalised a contractor to carry out the work, and sent a file to the ULB for approval.

The Urban Local Bodies (ULB) on Monday approved the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) tender to fix civic deficiencies in Nirvana Country, making it the first private colony where work has been allocated. MCG officials said work is expected to start within the next two weeks.

A view of Nirvana Country. According to MCG officials, they are looking at the possibility of taking over both Nirvana Country and Suncity by mid-february.(Parveen Kumar / HT Photo)

On January 14, the MCG had finalised a contractor to carry out the work, and sent a file to the ULB for approval.

According to MCG officials, they are looking at the possibility of taking over both Nirvana Country and Suncity by mid-february. They said tenders above ₹3 crore need to sent to the ULB for approval—and work in Nirvana Country is projected to cost above ₹9.80 crore. MCG chief engineer ND Vashist said all requisite steps before the implementation of work have now been taken.

“The ULB has approved the contractor finalised by the MCG and now all formalities prior to implementation of work are completed. Work in the colony should start within the next two weeks,” Vashist said.

According to MCG officials, a majority of the ₹9.80 crore will be spent on fixing and laying new roads, as well as repairing and linking drains in Nirvana Country, where more than 15,000 people reside in sectors 50 and 51.

Besides Nirvana Country, Vashisht said tenders for Sushant Lok Phase 1, South City 1 and 2, and Palam Vihar are yet to be finalised due to lack of bidders, and hence will be floated again this week.

The ULB’S approval of the work tender comes two days after chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, during a high-level meeting in Chandigarh on Saturday, cleared the MCG to take over private colonies.

During the meeting, it was also decided that the town and country planning department will work towards recovering the amount to fix deficiencies in these five colonies from private developers, and the MCG will work on attaching their immovable assets.

Prior to the transfer, developers were given the option of fixing civic deficiencies such as broken roads, drains, community centres, green belts, parks and waste collection points themselves or hand over their colonies to the MCG and pay the money for carrying out these repairs.

The developers of Suncity and DLF phases 1, 2 and 3 opted to fix the deficiencies themselves, the developers of Sushant Lok 1, South City 1-2, Palam Vihar and Nirvana Country opted to pay for the infrastructure upgrade.

As per an MCG estimate, ₹41.28 crore is required to take over Sushant Lok Phase 1, ₹19.32 crore for Palam Vihar, ₹17.95 crore for South City 1 ₹23.52 crore for South City 2 and ₹9.80 crore for Nirvana Country. On January 9, the Essel group had submitted a document to the MCG stating that they had carried out the necessary upgrade in Suncity, and the colony was in a position to be taken over by the civic body. However, an MCG survey as well as feedback from the Suncity RWA had brought some deficiencies to light, which needed to be fixed.