Work on satellite township Jathia Devi to begin in Oct, master plan submitted

Work on the much-delayed satellite township of Jathia Devi is likely to begin in October, later this year as Tata Consultants have submitted the master plan for the construction of flats, villas and eco resorts, besides other infrastructure.

The much-delayed projects of the state government has failed to take off due to paucity of funds. The satellite township, conceived more than a decade back, was planned to decongest the state capital. Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Authority (HIMUDA) has now decided to start work on the township at Jathia Devi, 14 km from here, from October from its own funds.

Failing to get Central funding, the state government will start work on the Phase I of the project from October. “We were pinning our hopes on getting central funding for the project but since that has not come through, we have decided to start the phase I from our own funds,” confirmed Rajesh Dharmani, Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister. He added that the next phases of the township will be undertaken in case central funding is received.

He said Tata Consultants have already submitted the master plan for the satellite township to be spread over 1944 bighas of land. Dharmani said HIMUDA will begin work on 250 bighas while formalities for transfer of 350 bighas of land from the Industries Department are being fulfilled. More private land will be acquired for the project as per requirement, he added.

The state government had sought Rs 500 crore funding under Urban Challenge Fund from the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development but there has been no response so far. The detailed project report (DPR) of the project was submitted to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. Sikkim, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are the other states that are competing with Himachal for the mountain township.

As funds are still awaited, HIMUDA has decided to start work on the Phase I under PPP mode. With Shimla being plagued with traffic congestion, water shortage and other civic problems, the state government is keen to develop a satellite township to ease the pressure.

It was during the tenure of the Virbhadra regime that an agreement was signed with a Singapore-based company for the setting up of the satellite township. However, the project became economically unviable following the restrictions imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on high rise structures in a bid to check high rise and haphazard construction activity in the town.

Himachal Tribune