Gurugram municipality to start survey for taking over several private colonies

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is likely to conduct a civic deficiency assessment survey in August in several privately developed colonies that it intends

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is likely to conduct a civic deficiency assessment survey in August in several privately developed colonies that it intends to take over from private developers, officials said on Wednesday.

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MCG officials said that they held a meeting in this regard with the department of town and country planning (DTCP) at the civic body’s sector 34 office on Tuesday. The DTCP has been asked to submit building plans for six privately developed colonies— Ardee City, Malibu Towne, Vipul World, Uppal Southend, Rosewood City, Mayfield Gardens- within the next 15 days — which the developers had submitted in the 1990s and early 2000s to establish these colonies.

“We will be using the building plans as a reference to assess if the builders have completed all the civic amenities mentioned in the plans during the civic deficiency assessment survey. In addition, the survey will also be assessing the existing infrastructure flaws in these colonies. Based on the deficiency survey report, the MCG will prepare estimates needed to add or fix amenities for each colony,” said a senior MCG official in the planning branch of the MCG who attended Tuesday’s meeting.

All six colonies are situated in close proximity to Sohna Road. “The MCG took over six privately developed colonies last year. This time too, the process followed will be similar. Based on the service estimates in the deficiency assessment survey, the MCG will ask the developer to either pay the amount to us for getting the amenities fixed and hand over their respective colonies or they can finish the work themselves and then hand it over to us,” said Vinay Pratap Singh, commissioner, MCG.

MCG officials said that with the developer of Ardee City not obtaining a completion certificate, the colony is likely to be removed from the final list of colonies that MCG wants to take over. A point also supported by the developer.

“Ardee City does not have a completion certificate which is a mandatory clause for initiating the taking over process,” said Anil Haseeja, vice president, Ardee Infrastructure Private Limited.

The MCG had taken over Sushant Lok 1, Palam Vihar, Suncity, Nirvana, South City 1 and 2 in March last year. The takeover of DLF Phases 1-2-3 is still in process as the developer there had decided to fix the existing civic deficiencies themselves. Barring Suncity, the developers of the remaining colonies had paid the MCG to fix deficiencies and handed over their respective colonies.

Last year in September, MCG had sent a recommendation to the state government for allowing them to take over Ardee City and Malibu Towne. Two months later, the MCG wrote to the directorate of town and country planning in Chandigarh seeking details such as building plans, the total number of plots, status of completion certificate, year of construction, layout of stormwater, water and sewerage lines, parks, and community centres for all the six colonies.

An agenda for taking over- Malibu Towne, Vipul World, Uppal Southend, Rosewood City, Mayfield Gardens- was also approved during a MCG house meeting in February. The agenda though did not include Ardee City but mentioned Sushant Lok 2-3 instead.

At that time, the town planning branch of MCG had informed its councillors and officials that they will be approaching DTCP for procuring building plans for all seven colonies. Officials said due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the matter was pushed back by another four months.

MCG officials said that they are still exploring the possibility of taking over of Sushant Lok 2-3. However, officials privy to the matter said that they will initiate its formalities only after the process for taking over these five or six colonies is over.

RS Batth, district town planner did not respond for comment.