GHAZIABAD: UP govt will build a new township as part of its plan to expand the city — the first such project in a decade and a half.
With some parts of the township off the Hindon, ‘Harnandipuram’ (Harnandi is another name for the river) will come up on around 1,300 acres — almost the size of Indirapuram.
Earlier too, Harnandi became the basis of a proposal sent by the municipal corporation to the state govt to change the city’s name to Harnandi Nagar. While a decision is awaited on that, Harnandipuram’s contours have been drawn.
“The map of the new township was vetted at the GDA Board’s meeting on Monday. It will span from Pipeline Road in the north of the city to Northern Peripheral Road in the east and Morti in the south. The Hindon river will flow by certain parts of the township,” said Rajesh Kumar Singh, the GDA secretary. If approved by the govt, this is the first township that GDA will build since Madhuban Bapudham around 15 years ago.
“Land will have to be acquired from farmers first. According to our plan, we have to undertake the acquisition process in villages such as Nagla Ferozepur, Mohanpur, Morta, Bhowpur, Atour, Champat Nagar, Shamsher, Bhenda Khurd, Mathurapur and Shapur Morta,” Singh said.
The state govt had last year come out with a CM Urban Expansion New City Promotion Scheme to expand cities to cater to the growing population. For the city — which saw connectivity receive a boost with metro and rapid rail corridors and expressways — it announced a ‘Naya Ghaziabad’ plan. ‘Harnandipuram’ is part of that.
The land acquisition process is likely to cost around Rs 5,000 crore. The state govt and GDA will share the cost equally.
Among GDA’s other townships, Vasundhara is the biggest, with an area of 3,200 acres. Madhuban Bapudham comes next at almost 3,000 acres.
Among other proposals that were approved by the GDA Board was a plan to extend the Indirapuram township as well.
Developed across 1,289 acres through the 1990s, Indirapuram has reached its saturation point and needs to expand urgently to accommodate the growing population. This extended township will come up in an area of 3 lakh sqm.
As part of this plan, GDA will carve out 116 plots from a land parcel of 3 lakh sqm, which GDA could not sell despite 26 rounds of auctions.
“So, a three-member committee was formed to suggest how to sell the land. The committee suggested that instead of a single huge tract of land, it should be sold as small plots. The Board approved this on Monday,” Singh said. The Board also cleared a revised project report of Wave City, paving the way for registries and land allotments for around 12,000 people.
“The revised DPR of 3,786.8 acres got approval from the Board. This will give a much-needed relief to 1,2000 investors in the project. They can now register their plots,” said Singh.
At the Monday meeting, it was also decided to freeze the existing rates of flats that GDA has failed to sell in years. So far, GDA has an inventory of 1,748 flats in various housing schemes, costing over Rs 500 crore.
Officials said the cost of each flat for the 2024-25 financial year would be reserved for the future. The flats cost anything between Rs 5.7 lakh to Rs 69.4 lakh for 1, 2 and 3 BHKs
For infrastructure projects such as Medi City, Logistics Hub, Education City, and Aerocity, the Board has allowed GDA to hire a consultant. Land will be earmarked for these projects, preferably along the Hindon Elevated Road, Eastern Peripheral Road and Delhi-Dehradun Expressway.
