VUDA plans satellite town

VADODARA, June 18: Some nine years ago, the civic authorities began developing new Jaipur to ease the pressures on the Pink City. Vadodara c...

VADODARA, June 18: Some nine years ago, the civic authorities began developing new Jaipur to ease the pressures on the Pink City. Vadodara could be going the same way, if Krishnakant Shah, newly appointed chairman of the Vadodara Urban Development Authority, is to be believed.

Shah, who has been reappointed recently, told Express Newsline that the VUDA would forward, within a fortnight, a proposal to the State Government requesting a resolution on a satellite township.

Though reluctant to spell out the location, fearing spiralling of land prices, Shah said over 700 hectares had been surveyed for the project. While other details are still being finalised, it has already been decided that the satellite township would basically be a residential complex with all civic amenities, unlike, say, New Mumbai.

Farmers, whose land would be acquired for the project, would be compensated by a plot close to a road network and hospital and with water facilities, Shah said, adding, however, that the formula was yet to be worked out.

The VUDA will be a facilitating agency for the project, with all the civic amenities provided by private agencies. Shah said these agencies would be given 30 per cent of the total land, while VUDA would keep 10 per cent of it for future development.

8220;Pressures on Vadodara have caused the civic amenities to fall short and triggered a proliferation of slums8221;, Shah said, alleging that though the plan had been floated during his first stint as VUDA chairman between September 1995 and December 1996 no progress had been made on the project since.

Expressing hope that other five urban development authorities in the State would follow in the VUDA footsteps, Shah said if the State government okayed the proposal, they, too, would benefit.

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While he had no direct answer as to why the VUDA had not done much on the developmental front despite collecting charges for approving building permission maps, Shah said one of his top priorities would be the development of the Timbi lake, a few km away from the city.

Regretting the bureaucratisation8217; of urban development, Shah claimed that the State government was seriously considering converting the authorities into urban development boards or corporations in the hope of increasing its manpower and infrastructural support.

The VUDA chief said the local body had decided to contribute Rs 1.50 crore towards laying the second track of the Karelibaug VIP Road. Incidentally, Rs 3 crore had been sanctioned for the project during his earlier stint as chairman. However, by the time the proposal reached Gandhinagar, the Rashtriya Janata Party, which had succeeded the BJP in power, rejected the proposal, allegedly because it did not want an urban development authority to be so involved in the city, where a municipal corporation was also a player.