Gurugram: DTCP zooms in on illegal colony ‘hub’ of Sector 69

GURUGRAM: With major residential and commercial projects and office spaces, Sector 69 was once projected as one of the upcoming sectors along the Southern Peripheral Road. Now, it has turned into a hub for illegal colonies.

At least three major unauthorised colonies have been identified in the sector by the department of town and country planning (DTCP) near the Genpact building and the Tulip White residential project. These illegal colonies have placed more burden on the existing infrastructure — water, electricity and sewer lines — causing inconvenience to residents.

On Sunday, the enforcement team of DTCP, led by district town planner RS Batth, launched a demolition drive against one of these colonies and freed around 7 acres of land from the developers. Apart from illegal structures, the team also razed the road and sewer networks laid in the colony.

There are two other illegal colonies adjoining this one but they have procured a stay on demolition from the court, sources said. DTCP is pursuing the case in court to get the stay vacated, after which it will take action against these colonies.

DTP Batth said the enforcement team razed five under-construction structures and one residential building and demolished sewer and road networks in presence of around 60 policemen on Sunday. “We have strict directions from the DTCP director to continue demolition drives on Sunday too in order to check mushrooming of illegal colonies,” Batth added.

Asked about two other big illegal colonies in the area, DTCP director KM Pandurang said the department is representing the case in court. “We will try to get the stay vacated and demolish the remaining two illegal colonies in Sector 69,” he said.

A local resident, Aravind Kumar, said the sector, which has residential and commercial projects of Tulip, Unitech and Spaze developers, has turned into a large hub of unauthorised colonies. “They have come up with the support of local politicians and musclemen. There are illegal water borewells, the roads are in a mess, and people are being duped by the developers of these colonies,” he said.

TOI had earlier reported that the state government is planning to develop by September 15 a digital platform where a land buyer can access all information related to the property, such as an ongoing dispute, if any, or pending taxes.

The move follows multiple complaints of illegal registries of land in the past three months. During the lockdown period, around 10,000 land registrations had been done in Gurugram. Of these, at least 1,200 land parcels had been registered in an illegal manner.