DTCP set to map illegal colonies in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: The department of town and country planning has decided to mark areas where illegal colonies had come up in the past in the new district map. It is also designing a software to prepare a database of areas where the administration has conducted demolition drives.

The move, officials said, would help keep a check on encroachments. “This will not only keep the menace of encroachments in check, but also help in better coordination with other departments and police,” said DTCP director KM Pandurang

District town planner RS Batth, who has been given the charge of preparing the district map, said, “We have already started working on the map. It will have areas with a larger concentration of illegal colonies and areas where we have undertaken demolition drives.”

Over the past few months, the enforcement team of the DTCP has carried out 55 demolition drives. Around 200 illegal clusters that had encroached on 750 acres have been razed. The area included 250 buildings, 25 farm houses and over 300 under-construction structures.

Officials said since DTCP could not carry out any demolition drive for two months of the lockdown, illegal clusters mushroomed in several parts of the city. The areas where such colonies had come up included Suncity, DLF Phases 1, 2 and 3, Pataudi, Farukkhnagar, Bilaspur, Binola, Badshapur, Bhondsi and sectors 34, 69, 70, 72.

Apart from this, the department is also devising ways to keep records of illegal colonies. “As of now, there are no proper records of illegal colonies in Gurgaon and those we have demolished in the past. In the absence of records, the department often faces difficulty in taking action against developers who construct illegal structures again. A software is being designed, which will also bring in transparency to the system,” said Batth.

The officer also said that once the software was developed, key processes such as notices, action taken reports and other details would be available online. “All details of demolition drives and illegal colonies will be uploaded online so that it becomes easy to identify the area when drives are carried out in the future. The details related to court proceedings and stays will also be available online,” Batth said.