If you haven't seen city's Master Plan (MP) 2001 better avoid going through. It is alarming. For, if the powers-that-be really go ahead to implement it they will have to bulldoze nearly two-thirds of the city, displacing several lakh people in one go.
A closer look would force you to think that probably the architects of the ambitious MP preferred to sit in AC room and carried out paper work without any physical verification.
Insiders say, MP reflects the total infrastructure of a city because it is drawn after keeping in mind the needs of the people which includes proper water supply, drainage, sewerage with unhindered flow including free traffic movement.
It also keeps in mind the population and requirements of the people. ADA's town planning department and assistant town planner UP government are solely responsible for drafting the MP. During the process of making the MP these people are also required to take the help and opinion of different departments.
But it appears that during the making of MP-2001 no such pains were taken and those at the helm of affairs were only targetting at making money at the cost of citizens. Master Plan-2001 is also full of glaring errors, In reality all roads in Chowk area are buzzing with commercial activities but the master planners have preferred to show only 20-25 percent commercial activity on these roads.
Similarly commercial activities abound almost on all the Katra and Colonelganj roads. But the MP gives misleading picture.
{{/usCountry}}Similarly commercial activities abound almost on all the Katra and Colonelganj roads. But the MP gives misleading picture.
{{/usCountry}}Kydganj Road has been shown as residential. In reality a lot of business activities are taking place on this road. The planners, it appears, were joking among themselves while dealing with Leader Road. From Johnstonganj crossing upto the railway station this road has been shown as commercial. The real width of the road in the MP is shown as 24 metres. But if one goes to get his map passed he will have to abide by the yardstick of 40 metre road width as per the MP. Is it that some officials in the ADA had been allowing constructions on this road after taking bribe or merely overlooking the same?
A lane from Chameli Bai Dharmshala side going through a residential area in between and meeting the road which goes to Ghantaghar from Johnstonganj has hectic commercial activity on both its side selling machinery and paint but the planners, it appears, preferred to turn a blind eye. Another glaring example of the flip-flop ways adopted in the making of the MP are several city roads. Width of MG Marg in the MP-1967 was 45 metres. In MP-1989 it was shown as 45-60 metres. Now in the latest MP the width has again been shown as 45 metres.
This means ADA allowed illegal constructions unmindful of the consequences.
When contacted ADA's town planner Swaraj Ganguli shifted the responsibility on the shoulders of Town and Country Planning Department. However, he confessed the job of implementing the MP lies in their hands. He said MP is made after proper survey of the area. On being asked as to why the width of some roads have been shown less in the latest MP even when the same width was more in the earlier MP, he replied, it was probably because of realisation later that widening the road further was not possible.