Admn still flaunts ‘unlikely’ mega projects

Projects like the Jawaharlal Nehru Chandigarh Education City,Integrated Milk Production Village,Modern Terminal Market and State Level Energy Park are nowhere in sight. The only project nearing completion is the Entrepreneur Development Centre — it is being supported by a few software giants.

Recently,the Special Audit team concluded the scrutiny of various financial aspects of these mega projects. The team will now seek remarks from top officials of the Administration on its findings.

Out of these projects,the Filmcity project is on the verge of being shelved. At present,the Administration is busy digging law books to find a way to wriggle out of the project by refunding the developer’s money.

Even the developer,fed up with the Administration’s attitude,has been running after officials to refund his initial deposit of Rs 47 crore with penal interest.

Another project attracted controversies even before it could be initiated. In the beginning,the Administration itself kept shifting sites for the Medicity project. Now,UT Administrator General (retd) S F Rodrigues recently gave instructions to start the project all over again.

The Amusement-cum-Theme Park,which,according to the Adminitration’s website,“is being constructed on the pattern of Disneyland”,is also a far-fetched dream. Sources said the CVC has pointed out several loopholes in the conceptualisation of the theme park.

“The projects are under scrutiny,but still not shelved,” said a senior UT official. However,the Central Vigilance Commission has completely stalled work on most of these projects.