National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) on Tuesday approved the inclusion of two more districts of Haryana namely Karnal and Jind in National Capital Region (NCR), thus bringing a total of 57 percent area of Haryana in the NCR. A meeting of NCRPB was presided over by Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs, M Venkaiah Naidu, who is also chairman of the NCRPB on Tuesday in New Delhi.
Earlier, eleven districts of Haryana namely Gurgaon, Rewari, Faridabad, Palwal, Mewat, Rohtak, Sonipat, Paniapt, Jhajjar, Mahendergarh and Bhiwani were included in NCR. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal thanked M Venkaiah Naidu for including two more districts of Haryana in the NCR. The Chief Minister said that he has sought specific provision by the NCRPB to finance infrastructure upgradation in rural areas of NCR.
“Regional Plan-2021 for NCR region has been prepared with emphasis on the development of infrastructure in the urban centres. However, the objective of creation of NCR could not be fully achieved unless the infrastructure of the villages in the region is simultaneously upgraded, at par with the urban areas, to make them as attractive as towns,” said he while speaking at the 35th meeting of NCRPB.
The Chief Minister said that in order to provide quality infrastructure, like road network, mass rapid transit systems, power and water supply, adequate budgetary provision is required to be made for the Board which should be further passed on to the participating states. He said that the power utilities would invest about Rs6500 crore in the NCR region of the State in the next three financial years for the upgradation of generation capacity, transmission and distribution network.
The Chief Minister also requested the NCRPB to expeditiously sanction some of these projects that would be submitted to it for funding upgradation of transmission and distribution network.
Manohar lal seeks completion of three proposed dams
Chief Minister Manohar lal urged the NCRPB to take up the matter of three proposed dams of Renuka, Kishau and lakhwar on river Yamuna and its tributaries with the Centre for their expeditious completion. Speaking at the NCRPB meet, he said that the problem of acute shortage of water in the NCR could be resolved to some extent with the completion of these long pending projects.
Delhi has been seeking more water from Haryana resulting in reduction of Haryana’s legitimate water share from Yamuna, thereby causing extreme hardship to the people of the state. large dry and arid areas of districts of Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat in Haryana falling in the NCR were being deprived of their legitimate share in Yamuna water due to non release of due share of Haryana in Yamuna waters at Okhla. The problem is further compounded due to discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluents in the stretch of the river passing through Delhi territory which is totally unfit for human as well as animal consumption, said Manohar lal.
Demand of alternate International Airport at Hisar raised
Manohar lal urged the Board to take up the matter with the Ministry of Civil Aviation for granting in-principle approval to set up an alternate International Airport at Hisar. The site can provide much needed facility of Maintenance and Repair Operations (MRO) for the air crafts in northern India. Hisar is an ideal choice for the development of an alternate International Airport as around 3,500 acres of adjoining Government owned land could easily be utilised for the purpose, he added.
Three RRTS corridors should be aligned
With a view to reduce land acquisition cost of the ambitious project of three Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridors, the Chief Minister urged the NCRPB to take up the matter with the Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to allow the alignment of these three corridors to be developed for providing fast connectivity within the NCR through the central verge or right-of-way, wherever feasible. He said that in order to provide fast connectivity within the NCR, the NCRPB had decided to develop three important RRTS corridors i.e. Delhi-Gurgaon-Rewari-Alwar(DGRA), Delhi-Sonipat-Panipat (DSP) and Delhi-Gaziabad-Meerut (DGM) on priority basis, out of eight corridors proposed in the NCR functional plan of transport for the year 2032.
Provide metro link between Faridabad and Gurgaon
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) should re-examine the proposal and come out with a viable solution for providing metro connectivity between Faridabad and Gurgaon, as these cities are planned to be developed as smart cities, demanded Manohar lal.
He said that with a view to give further boost to the metro projects in Haryana, the matter was taken up with the Centre to provide adequate metro connectivity between the commercial hubs of Faridabad and Gurgaon cities. The State Government has already committed an investment of more than Rs3500 crore for the implementation of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ballabgarh and Bahadurgarh metro line extensions from Delhi.
The Chief Minister suggested that the total cost of metro extension projects falling in Delhi should be borne by the Government of NCT of Delhi as the metro connectivity with sub urban towns would significantly de-congest Delhi, which is one of the primary objectives of NCRPB.
HSIIDC seeks financial assistance of Rs457.81 crore
While the work from Manesar to Palwal has already been allotted after terminating the contract with the previous concessionaire, the work for the Manesar Kundli stretch of the expressway is likely to be allotted within a month so that work could be completed within a period of two-and-a-half years, informed Manohar lal.
He said that Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructural Development Corporation (HSIIDC) is the nodal agency to implement the project relating to the development of Western Peripheral Expressway also known as the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway as envisaged in the Regional Plan 2021 AD. This expressway is 135 km long on which tenders were invited in two packages that is 0.00 km to 83.320 km on BOT (annuity) Basis and 83.320 km to 135.650 km on Item Rate Mode.
He said that the State Government, through HSIIDC, has recently submitted a proposal to NCRPB for seeking financial assistance to the tune of Rs457.81 crore. He urged the Board to sanction the said amount for timely completion of the project.
Amend land use plan of SRP-2021 of Haryana sub-region
The Chief Minister urged the NCRPB and NRSC to provide assistance in amending the existing or proposed land use plan of SRP-2021 of Haryana sub-region, by incorporating the final outcome of the NCZ ground truthing, at the earliest. He also urged the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) to quickly finalise the definition of forest for the entire country, so that status of balance pockets could be determined, for the purpose of delineation of NCZ.
Manohar lal said that the process of ground-truthing of Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ) which was initiated last year has since been completed, on the basis of satellite imageries of the years 1999 and 2012 provided by National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and the revenue record upto the year 2005.
He said that the reports received from all the nine districts of the state, reveal that there are 3,538 confirmed NCZ pockets, spread over an area of 90,803 acres in Haryana sub-region. In addition, there are 267 pockets, covering an area of 50,358 acres which have been put in the category of ‘status yet to be decided’, mainly because the comprehensive national definition of forest has not yet been evolved.
