After a year, GMDA to hold meet tomorrow

Gurgaon: After a gap of almost a year, GMDA will hold its third executive committee meeting on Wednesday under the chairmanship of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The last GMDA meeting was held in April 2018. This delay has left many projects pending, said several sources within the Authority.
Among other things, the agenda includes the GMDA budget for the fiscal 2019-2020. As per documents accessed by TOI, an estimated amount of Rs 50,7.95 crore will be spent on capital expenditure in fiscal year 2019-20. This would include major projects, like improvement of Atul Kataria Chowk and Mahavir Chowk, and six-laning of the road from Umang Bhardwaj Chowk to NPR. The budget estimate for urban environment is expected to be around Rs 23 crore.

A senior GMDA official said, “Around Rs 90 crore has been set aside for Smart City projects, including laying of optical fibre network, installation of CCTV cameras. Another Rs 59 crore has been kept for mobility infrastructure development.”

The authority also plans to spend on infrastructure development, whose cost will be borne by external development charges (EDC) receipts. EDC is one of GMDA’s major revenue sources, although the government is yet to transfer any EDC money to GMDA.

The agenda also lists revision of the budget for fiscal 2018-19. While the original budget had estimated an expenditure of Rs 1001 crore, the revised estimate puts it at Rs 347 crore. Similarly, the total expected income of the Authority, as per the original budget, was supposed to be Rs 490 crore, which has now been revised to Rs 109 crore.

Also on agenda at the meeting will be projects such as Gurgaon Metro. The detailed project report (DPR) for this project has been approved by the state government. It now needs to be sent to the central government for approval. Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh has been continuously pushing the state government to speed up the metro project.

Going into the forthcoming assembly and Lok Sabha polls, it would be a big plus for the Khattar government if it can get the metro project started on time. Other projects up for discussion would be road infrastructure projects such as redevelopment of Huda City Centre, relocation of the old Civil Hospital, flower market in Sector 52 and decongestion of the expressway at the Sirhaul border.

Sources within GMDA said there will be some changes in delegation of authority within the body.

The chief minister will also review projects discussed and finalised in the earlier executive committee meetings, such as the city bus service.