GHAZIABAD: Development along major transport corridors in the city remains stalled as UP govt is yet to approve the unified Master Plan 2031. The plan, submitted to the state committee in Nov last year, aims to regulate development around rapid rail, metro, and expressway corridors.
Before this, the draft plan was rejected by the GDA board at least four times.
In March 2023, it was delayed so that the state’s transit-oriented development (TOD) zone could be incorporated into the draft.
In Aug that year, the Meerut divisional commissioner had put it on hold as the Duhai Namo Bharat station-cum-depot was kept out of the TOD zone. The plan was sent back by the board for the third time in Sept 2022 for not inviting feedback and objections from the public.
A revised draft, incorporating feedback and a TOD plan, was approved by the GDA board in Nov 2023. UP govt, however, sent it back to the development authority in March 2024 seeking a response over a few clauses in the draft, including green zone and ‘record of right’.
‘Record of right’ is 100-metre-wide green belts earmarked along two sides of expressways and 60-metre-wide zones on both sides of state highways.
The draft plan, which is awaiting UP approval, incorporates TOD zones along a 1.5km-long rapid rail (4,261.43 hectares) and 500m along the Red Line and Blue Line metro corridors (616.61 hectares).
A Special Development Area (909.82 hectares) has also been proposed around the Duhai rapid rail depot.
SAD and TOD zones will be developed as mixed-used land with higher floor area ratio to allow residential and commercial growth.
“For now, we are waiting for the state govt to approve the master plan. Once that comes through, a gazette notification will be issued before the new plan can be implemented. Pending approval, NCRTC is yet to go ahead with the zonal development plan,” a GDA official said.
Last July, GDA proposed to develop a new township–Naya Ghaziabad–alongside the rapid rail corridor that would spread across Ghaziabad city and accommodate about 5,000 residences
The unified master plan covers an overall developed area of 33,543.1 hectares—18,687.8 hectares in Ghaziabad, 6,874.9 hectares in Modinagar and 7,980.4 hectares in Loni.
