Townships coming up in Gurgaon to look greener

Townships coming up in Gurgaon to look greener
The Hindustan Times, December 9, Page 4

Gurgaon townships due to come up in sectors earmarked in the Gurgaon Master Plan 2021 will be greener than the older ones.

The town and country planning department has now made it mandatory for the developers, including Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), to provide for a minimum five per cent green buffer in the townships.

As per building norms, developers must develop residential units at 51 per cent of the land allotted or licenced for the township. Four per cent can be used for commercial projects such as malls and office complexes while the remaining 45 per cent of the land must be left for open spaces.

The open spaces include community service sites such as parks, clubs, sports complexes, recreational sites, cemeteries, fuel filling stations and bus queue shelters.

So far there was no mention in the licencing conditions for the developers to leave the minimum percentage of space for leaving parks and green belts.

According to a senior town and country planning official, it is now mandatory for the developers to leave at least four percent of the open space area as an organised green buffer in the form of parks inside the township.

“The balance of one per cent can be in the form of unorganised green buffer such as left out corners of the plots,” the official said on the condition of anonymity for not being authorised to speak to the press.

“This green buffer is in addition to the green area left all along the sector roads in the form of green belts.”

The officials said the developers used to take advantage of the norms for the want of minimum percentage specification for the green buffer and would construct projects falling under the category of dispensary and clubs and draw commercial advantage by outsourcing the same.

New guidelines are applicable in all the townships coming up in Sectors 58 to 115.

Last year too the department had made it necessary for developers to provide a park — spread over at least an acre of land — in the newly earmarked sectors but there was no such condition prevalent.