Gurugram civic body junks DLF plea for more time to finish pending infrastructure

GURUGRAM: The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has declined a request by DLF to give it time till December to complete all pending work at three of its licenced colonies — DLF phases 1, 2 and 3. Municipal commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh has instead asked the developer to complete all work related to roads, drains and other basic amenities by June 30.

Only when these basic amenities are complete, the civic body will take over the three colonies. According to MCG rules, the developer either has to complete all such work by itself or pay the corporation for doing it on its behalf. In this case, DLF has agreed to complete all pending work, but has been dragging its feet on the deadline. It had earlier committed to finish the work by June 30, but has now sought a 6-month extension.

It was in January this year that MCG had asked DLF to come up with the “shortest possible deadline” to complete all remaining work in the three colonies. In a tentative deadline submitted to the civic body, DLF has said it needs time till December to finish the job.

DLF’s request for an extension was taken up at a meeting on Friday chaired by additional commissioner Jaspreet Kaur. The meeting was held to review the progress of the development work that was left in these areas.

Officials who attended the meeting said the extension was “too long”, considering the June 30 deadline to which DLF had agreed earlier. The civic body has directed a committee of officials and councillors to conduct a ground-level inspection of the pending work at the DLF colonies and come up with a report by February 26.

There has been delay on the part of the civic body too. On January 11, the committee of the chief engineer, joint commissioner, executive engineer and the councillors of wards 34 and 35 was supposed to conduct an inspection of the infrastructure and submit a report in 15 days. But the inspection is yet to be conducted.

This committee has now been given time till February 26.

After the committee has submitted its report, the chief engineer will carry out a fresh survey of the civic amenities in place. Apart from what is mentioned in the detailed project report, other work such parks and green areas will also need to be readied. For that, MCG will float tenders.

The chief engineer said he was studying the DPR and hoped to submit an analytical report in the next 20 days.

RS Rathee, the councillor for ward number 34, said the inspection team would survey the cleaning of roads and drains, installation of gym canopies in parks, sewage treatment and composting plants, trimming of trees and laying of tiles in common areas.

A senior DLF official told TOI that all pending work would be completed within the original deadline of June 30. Meanwhile, the corporation has written to the department of town and country planning to consider a request by DLF to change the term “deficient infrastructure” in its order.