Calling the development of the Golf Course Road at a cost of Rs 500 crore “lopsided investment”, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) commissioner Yashpal Yadav Friday said the road, which was completed in 2017, benefited only a small percentage of the city’s population.

He added the funds could have been used to develop roads across the city, particularly sector roads, which would have benefitted a larger number of people.

Yadav, however, clarified that of the Rs 500-odd crore spent on developing the Golf Course Road into a 16-lane carriageway, about Rs 400 crore had been supplied by DLF, a private builder. The rest was furnished by the Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), then HUDA, which gave its land for the project.

“While private enterprises are welcome to contribute toward the development of the city, it still begs the question of whether the remaining funds, which came from the government’s EDC(external development charges) corpus, should have been spent on this lopsided kind of development,” Yadav maintained.

Yadav was speaking at a conference titled, ‘Roads of Gurugram: Boon or Bane?’ at the Management Development Institute in Sector 17.

The event brought together several stakeholders, academicians and researchers to discuss issues related to transportation and mobility in the city.

The Golf Course Road is one of the city’s widest and longest roads at 8 kilometres, with seven underpasses, and benefits more than 1.5 million residents living in the condominiums in DLF-1, DLF-4 and DLF-5 residential areas. It is also aligned with the Rapid Metro.

Sharing his thoughts on ‘Roads—Much More than Mobility’, the municipal commissioner pointed out that the “lopsided” nature of Golf Course Road’s development had been recognised by citizens, and alluded to the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority’s (GMDA) plans to develop the Southern Peripheral Road(SPR) (Golf Course Extension Road) along similar lines, at a budget of over Rs 280 crore.

“A private member of the GMDA, however, recently raised objection to spending money from the authority’s EDC fund on this proposal,” Yadav said, stressing on the need for equitable distribution of public wealth for citizens’ benefit.

Speaking to HT on the sidelines of the conference, Yadav said, “The municipal corporation is of the view that EDC money should be spent on improving infrastructure in developing sectors of the city, as opposed to improving facilities in a select area, which will only benefit a few people.”

As per the minutes of the last authority meeting, the GMDA is trying to identify an alternative source of funding to develop the SPR. This proposal consists of two options. First requires improving the road without providing for a signal-free junction (i.e. road widening and refurbishing), while the second option aims at providing signal-free movement of traffic at all junctions of the stretch by constructing three flyovers and two underpasses. The estimated cost of option one, as proposed by the GMDA, is Rs 132 crore, whereas the cost of option two is estimated at Rs 281 crore.

GMDA chief executive officer V Umashankar declined to comment on the matter.

A senior DLF functionary said, “We cannot respond directly to the commissioner’s statement. However, the intention behind developing the Golf Course Road was to provide the citizens of Gurugram with world class infrastructure and we look forward to do doing so again in the future.”

EDC refers to mandatory costs which need to be paid by homebuyers to the state for development of roads, water supply, drainage systems, electricity supply, and so on, around the realty project.

First Published: Apr 13, 2019 01:57 IST