The Indian Express 08.04.2013
Master Plan stresses development of 17 pockets in the periphery
The size of these pockets varies from 30 acres to more than 400 acres. Express archives
The draft of the Master Plan for Chandigarh has outlined development of 17 pockets in the periphery. With the land within the city being scarce, the planning of the patches of vacant land in the periphery has been planned out.
Of the total of 2,968 acres of area in these pockets for which development plan has been prepared, the maximum area, 1.51 per cent, has been earmarked for agricultural purposes. Land has been proposed to be allocated for residential, commercial and industrial use. The size of these pockets varies from 30 acres to more than 400 acres.
The original plan for the city was for a population of 5 lakh people. With the number having more than doubled, optimum use of the land available is required. The development outside of the grid has been irregular. While designing the city, Le Corbusier had proposed a green buffer around it. However, over the past few years, the boundary between Chandigarh and Punjab has been vanishing with some areas so intermingled that it has become difficult to see where Chandigarh ends and UT begins. In fact, in some sectors, a patch belongs to Punjab and another to Chandigarh.
Keeping this in view, several pockets have been identified where green belts up to 30-metre width would be constructed to segregate the boundaries. These would be near Sarangpur and Dhanas along with some other areas.
Sarangpur would be kept largely as an institutional area. In this area as well as in pockets like Dhanas, low-density residential areas would be permitted. In other places like pocket 6 near Sector 38 (W) and pocket 7 comprising Maloya high-density residential area has been proposed. This is due to the presence of rehabilitation colonies in these areas.
In certain pockets, the land use would be restricted to having green or open spaces. Activities like farming and horticulture would be the only ones permitted. These are areas like pocket 11 comprising Raipur Khurd and Pocket 12 along Chandigarh-Ambala highway. In pockets 9 and 10, only landscaping would be allowed in the area near the railway tracks opposite Sector 48.
No construction activity would be allowed in Kaimbwala and Khuda Alisher. Land in Kaimbwala would be acquired for making the wildlife corridor. While this proposal has been doing the rounds for some time, the land is yet to be acquired. The land also forms part of catchment area of the Sukhna Lake.
In pocket 8 near Sector 56, a new transport area is proposed for which 45 acres of land would be earmarked. A bulk material market, warehousing have been proposed here while a second grain market is proposed in pocket 7 near Maloya. It is proposed that warehouses would be permitted near Daria village.
In order to increase the connectivity of these pockets, extension of roads has also been proposed. To segregate the residential area, it is proposed to extend the road dividing pocket A and B of 38 (W) to meet extension of Dakshin Marg. A 100-ft wide road has been proposed between Vikas Marg via Maloya Rehabilitation Colony and existing road along Patiala ki Rao Choe.
With the city lacking any marriage palace and the residents having to go to the outskirts for holding functions, a marriage palace has been proposed in pocket 6. Earlier proposals mooted for marriage palace have failed to take off.
