LDA caught between ?masters? and the plan!

WHO SAYS the LDA disposes what the Master Plan-2021 proposes? In fact, the arrangement seems to be the other way round if the outcome of Monday?s Board meeting, the apex governing body of the LDA, is anything to go by. In an hour-long meeting, which was presided over by Commissioner RK Mittal, the bosses took several important decisions related to city?s over-all development .

WHO SAYS the LDA disposes what the Master Plan-2021 proposes? In fact, the arrangement seems to be the other way round if the outcome of Monday’s Board meeting, the apex governing body of the LDA, is anything to go by. In an hour-long meeting, which was presided over by Commissioner RK Mittal, the bosses took several important decisions related to city’s over-all development. Foremost among the proposals that were cleared by the Board members in this connection included a plan to change the site of the proposed construction of a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in Gomti Nagar Extension (as depicted in the Master Plan-2021) to another location on East side of outer Ring Road.

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The proposal presented by Chief Town Planner CP Sharma states that the construction of an STP at the site would not be feasible from the environment point of view as well as its proximity to housing schemes proposed in the region.

In any case, the Jal Nigam has already selected another location for an STP that it plans to build with financial assistance from Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA). Consequently, the panel has recommended to the State Government that the land use of 650 hectare stretch earmarked for the purpose should be converted into residential thereby paving way for city’s expansion by private real estate developers. Likewise, the Board also cleared the proposal for construction of two high-end 12-storey Awadh Apartments near Sahara Shaher in Gomti Nagar and conservation and beautification of a lake-cum forestland on Kanpur Road. A proposal seeking government’s sanction to allot alternative land in Gomti Nagar Extension for the shifting of the present 132 KV power sub-station from adjacent Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Park was also mooted.

No decision, however, could be taken on the issue of allotment of 1784 acre of land for hi-tech township to Messers Sahara India Commercial Corporation Limited (SICCL) on Sultanpur Road. According to LDA officials, SICCL had initially submitted its detailed project report for developing a hi-tech township on the Sitapur-Hardoi Road. They said Sahara now wants to develop this township on the Sultanpur Road where because of the existence of a similar project on 1765 acre of land by Messer’s Ansal Properties and Industries Limited, they were unable to take a decision on the issue. The proposal has been recommended for consideration to the State Government. The Board rejected the proposal for regularization of shops built on residential plots opposite Badshah Nagar Railway Station on the report of an experts’ panel that was constituted for the purpose.

Similarly, another proposal seeking to legalise houses built on green belt land in Sector-D of LDA’s Kanpur Road Housing Scheme too was turned down.