The Times of India         29.09.2010

Urban plan for a jam-free Gurgaon

GURGAON: The Haryana government, it seems, is finally learning from its past mistakes. On Tuesday, while approving the revised Gurgaon-Manesar Urban Complex Plan, the state government also approved a plan to construct 60-meter wide roads with 50-meter green belt on the periphery of upcoming sectors.

Not just that. To check haphazard and unauthorized development, the government has decided that all major roads will get a 50-metre wide green belt, and 200-metre wide institutional belt along them will be exclusively reserved and developed by government or semi-government organizations.

The move is a breather for a city where almost all roads have breached their carrying capacity and there is very little scope of widening them.

The committee under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda approved the Development Plan of Gurgaon-Manesar Urban complex-2025. The new plan has been prepared to accommodate 40 lakh people. The government had added six more controlled areas to the existing 41 controlled areas.

According to a government spokesperson, a 60-metre wide road with 50-metre wide green belt on outer side has been proposed at the outer periphery of Sectors-59, 60, 63, 64 and 67. Similarly, these sectors would get 24-metre wide inner roads to accommodate traffic.

He added that the committee found that major roads leading from Sector 58/61, 59/61 to 59/60, 61/62 to 60/63, 62/65 to 63/64 and arterial roads of Sector 65/66 to 64/67 were ending abruptly at the end of development plan area. So, the committee has proposed the provision of 60-metre wide sector road at the end of these sectors that will improve the traffic circulation, said a senior official of town and country planning department (DTCP).

The government has also decided to realign and cover the Kost Nallah along the southern peripheral road (SPR). This is likely to bring huge relief to the residents of Sectors 58-66. The new development plan for 2025 has made provisions for 15,148 hectares of residential area.