Environment,green cover to remain AUDA’s priority in newly-merged talukas

The land use of the villages has reportedly given a not so bright picture to AUDA,say AUDA officials. But they maintain that no recurrence of what happened in Bopal village will be allowed.

These 68 villages fall in the Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad-Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC),but AUDA claims that green development will be its priority.

Neela Munshi,Senior Town Planner at AUDA said: “We don’t have much land at our disposal. Eighty per cent of the land is for agriculture and we will maintain the status-quo. The village has a sizeable number of water bodies as well. Therefore,our special focus this time will be environment and green development. We are sure that a haphazard Bopal will not happen again.”

AUDA officials also insist that the green cover in these villages has left little scope for planning much development.

Munshi added: “The smaller part of the land that is with us will witness development based on our town-planning scheme that will be selected for each of the villages. Constructing roads in these villages will be a major task. The water bodies in the area have provided us with an opportunity to plan some good projects. Looking at the present picture,we do not see a scope for dwellings,community centres or other such constructions.”

AUDA has planned to give special focus to the major forthcoming infrastructure projects. Munshi said: “Charodi is of course in our preference,but we won’t say that we are especially concentrating on it. We will provide wider and better roads in this village for the plants. GIDC is also coming up with a lot of industrial development projects like a Logistic Park,among others. Therefore,providing internal roads to these industries is our priority”.

Incidentally,AUDA had approved a 300 feet Ring Road for Sanand including three Town Planning (TP) schemes. Some major upcoming government projects like the Metro Rail,regional rails,Mass Rapid Transit Bus Service and others are also coming in the newly merged areas.

Additionally,Ring Roads for Mehamdabad,Dahegam and Kalol are soon expected to come up.