Land for parks in new sectors not acquired

GURUGRAM: The new sectors (58-115) of Gurugram have beautiful buildings, fancy condominiums and wide roads but not enough green space and parks.

The Gurugram-Manesar master plan 2031 has notified 2,928 hectares as open space out of which around 1,294 hectares was supposed to come under new sectors. But acquisition of this land which was supposed to be utilised for developing parks, green spaces, a stadium and a night safari in Sector 87 has been abandoned. The reason: Huda does not have Rs 8,000 crore it has to pay as compensation to landowners to acquire 1,294 acres. The acquisition, which was notified in 2013, lapsed in 2016 because no money was paid.

Architects say urban green areas are critical for making cities sustainable, healthy and energy efficient. “From the planning perspective, well-designed networks of green spaces help encourage people to travel safely by foot or by bicycle for recreation. It also provides barriers against noise and dust pollution,” said Punit Sethi, chairman of the Haryana chapter of Indian Institute of Architects.

More than 90,000 housing units have already been sold in the new sectors and several big-ticket residential and commercial projects of private developers are coming up, including the Trump Towers (in Sector 65). Officials said the notice for acquisition of 1,294 hectares in 13 villages was issued by the Congress government in 2013. But Huda failed to pay compensation. As a result, the acquisition process got nullified.

The absence of parks and grounds has provided landowners along Southern Peripheral Road and Dwarka Expressway an opportunity in utilising their land for developing private cricket grounds. As a result, cricket grounds have come up in Ullhawas, Kadarpur, Badshapur, Bairampur, Wazirabad, Baliyawas, Palam Vihar, Sector 23 and on Carterpuri Road in Old Gurugram. According to an estimate there are around 50 private cricket grounds, of which around 15 are well equipped with facilities, including floodlights.

Many of these are on plots that have been left out of the acquisition process for parks. “For converting land into a cricket ground, we don’t have to change the zoning plan, which can be done only after getting approval from the department of town and country planning after paying a hefty fee,” said Karamveer Singh, owner of a private cricket ground.

Recently, the GMDA announced it would work on doubling Gurugram’s green area. The model to follow is the World Health Organisation standard of nine square metres of per capita green space. In India, cities like Varanasi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Bhopal, Allahabad and Noida have a higher ratio of green space than that.