Sustainable green plan for urban areas soon: Gurugram development body

GURUGRAM: The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) by the end of this
year will put together a sustainable management plan for the “urban environment” of its notified
area. An official said the authority is currently working towards inviting an expression of interest
for the same.
According to officials, although the GMDA Act, 2017, mandated that such a plan should be
prepared “from time to time”, the district environment management plan was prepared and
released by the state government, creating uncertainty about whether a separate plan was
required for the GMDA areas.
“This sustainable environment management plan was supposed to be made as per the GMDA
Act. We were carrying out the exercise but, in between, the district environment management
plan was made. Hence, in the previous meeting of the GMDA’s Core Planning Cell, we brought
up the matter to confirm whether we should adopt that plan or make our own,” said Subhash
Chander Yadav, additional chief executive officer, Urban Environment Division.
At the meeting, following the discussion, GMDA CEO Sudhir Rajpal directed officials to invite a
separate expression of interest for preparation of the Sustainable Environment Management
Plan. “The CEO said since the issues of the urban area tend to be a little different, we should
make our own plan. A mobility management plan was prepared by the GMDA earlier, which had
predictions for the city such as what the vehicle population and the human population would be,
along with other parameters. We will take those as our basis and see what will be the
environmental challenges in Gurgaon,” said the Additional CEO.
“We will call an expression of interest for the project right now and give a period of six months
for the completion of the work. This plan should be ready by the second half of the year,” he
added.
As per the GMDA Act 2017, the plan for the “sustainable management of the urban
environment” will include “provision for urban forestry, tree plantation and horticulture” as well as
“measures for solid waste management and water conservation”.
The Act mandates that the plan be published on the GMDA website after it is prepared in order
to invite objections or suggestions and, once these are incorporated and the final document
approved, it should be uploaded once again on the website in its final form. The plan may
however be modified from time to time as may be required.