Work starts on Rs100-cr Badshahpur leisure hub

More than nine months after it gave its consent for development of a six-km stretch along the Badshahpur drain as a leisure and entertainment space, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) on Tuesday started work on the project by removing encroachments in the area. The ₹100 crore project, which will benefit residents living along Southern Peripheral Road (SPR), is likely to be completed by August this year, municipal officials said.

The development has come a week after MCG procured certain patches of land between Vatika Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk from both the Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) and Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA).

On Tuesday, more than 100 shanties were removed next to the drain, an under-construction house was demolished, and a building was also sealed under heavy police cover, the MCG officials said.

The beautification of the area along the drain will see facilities such as cycling, walkway and jogging tracks, basketball and lawn tennis courts, open air gymnasiums, food courts, green belts, open air theatres, small ponds, and parks.

MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav said he expects work on the project to be completed by August. “I have set a five-month deadline for the development of this stretch. Throughout April, encroachments will be removed from along the six-km stretch between Vatika Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk. Subsequently, municipal waste dumps will be removed, following which massive plantation drive will be carried out, along with establishing rainwater harvesting pits on both sides of the drain,” Yadav said.

Following a meeting on June 21 last year, MCG officials had decided to develop the stretch between Vatika Chowk (near Tatvam Villas) and Hero Honda Chowk (near MCG’s office in Sector 34), for establishing a recreational and leisure area.

The officials said for the last nine months they had been waiting for certain stretches of land to be transferred from the GMDA and HSVP. The beautification of the six-km stretch is being done in five layers, all running parallel to each other (see graphic).

The left most lane, next to the drain, will have space marked for green belts, rain water harvesting pits, benches, sewage treatment plant and food court. For establishing fountains, basketball court, open-air gyms, lawn tennis court, green belt, open-air theatre and small ponds, the right most lane has been earmarked. The three lanes in the middle will have spaces for cycle track, walkway and jogging track.

As per the MCG officials, the original building plans were modified marginally to account for rainwater harvesting pits as a source of recharging groundwater since parts of the drain will be partially concretised.

Concretising of the drain has been under the scanner over the last four months. In January, an application was accepted in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) challenging GMDA’s decision on concretising the 29-km Badshahpur drain through reinforced cement concrete (RCC) pipes.

Environmentalists have criticised the MCG’s plan.

“No natural storm water drains can be concretised as stated by an NGT order in 2016. Gurugram has been declared as an overexploited zone in terms of its ground water table. The biggest drawback of concretising drains is that it stops groundwater from recharging. Also, problems of silting and clogging is also compounded that creates a situation of urban flooding during monsoon. The carrying capacity of the drain also reduces. MCG’s action on beautifying the drain only aggravates the problems,” said Vaishali Rana Chandhra, an environmentalist.

First Published: Apr 04, 2019 08:10 IST