The Times of India 12.08.2010
SMC HQ to shift from Mughal Sarai to sub-jail?
SURAT: Move to shift the 143-year-old Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) from its present location at Mughal Sarai building has been re-initiated. The ruling party leader placed a note to this effect for municipal commissioner to act on during a meeting on Tuesday. It's proposed that the SMC office will now be shifted to the current sub-jail campus on Ring Road.
This move was proposed for the first time in 2004 after it had been envisaged then that once the city limit expands in 2006, the Mughal Sarai area would become too congested to house the SMC headquarters (HQ). It would also cause heavy traffic jams as the area is in the centre of the city and roads leading to it are relatively narrow, the proposal had said.
"Yes, the demand for a bigger HQ is logical. But, we will have to think of many aspects before acting upon it. One of which is the decentralization of our civic services in last 10 years. Majority of the work is now taken care of at zonal levels. Moreover, feasibility of the new place also needs to be checked. Once these discussions are over at party level, we will be able to come out with a proper picture," city mayorRanjit Gilitwala said.
In 2004, the then standing committee chairmanShankar Chevli had put in the proposal of taking up the sub-jail land, which would eventually shift to new quarters of Lajpore (Jail authorities are likely to start shifting by Diwali 2010). The land was to be taken on a token rent of Re 1 for a lease of 99 years by paying revenue transfer fee from state government. However, since then lot of administration level changes have taken place and the state government has come out with a new understanding of "not parting with any of its land on token rent." The state government has in fact suggested the auction of its land.
The present building of SMC is spread over 11,000 sq m of land, whereas the sub-jail land is 22,100 sq m in area. In 2004, the Surat city limit was spread over 112 sq km with 24.33 lakh people. Today, the city has grown almost three-fold and has extended to 326 sq km with more than 45 lakh people live within the city limits.
"It's not wrong if we shift to bigger, better and more centrally located place," a councillor from the ruling party said. "Cost and time factor also needs to be considered. Furthermore, there is a lot of historical relevance of this place. The old sudhari' office was shifted to this Mughal Sarai building in 1867, and since then our civic body office has been housed here. One simply can't discard a place just like that," he did go on to add hinting at a possibility that the HQ shift issue may become a bone of contention with the ruling BJP party during the coming civic body elections.
