UT Administration allows MC to auction 7 acres in Manimajra for residential project

In a major relief to cash-starved Municipal Corporation, the Chandigarh Administration has given permission for auction of 7 acres situated in Manimajra for a housing project on a freehold basis.

Sources said the MC was likely to earn over Rs 400 crore from the auction of the land located in pocket 6 near Panchkula.

Confirming the development, MC Commissioner Amit Kumar said the civic body had received a letter from the Administration in this regard. “We have sought some clarification on certain issues. The auction process will begin after we receive the clarifications,” he said.

Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla has been pursuing the matter of getting the Administration permission to auction the land. She had raised the issue with UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria recently. Sources said the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning had also approved the zoning plan of the residential site of Manimajra as per the Master Plan of Chandigarh.

In 2005, the MC had sold a 5.39-acre residential site in Manimajra to a housing society on a freehold basis. Delhi-based Uppal Housing had bought the site for Rs 108 crore and constructed over 160 flats. The project received an overwhelming response. Later, the civic body sold a hotel site in Sector 35 for Rs 101.37 crore on a leasehold basis in 2006.

Babla said the auction of the site would help the MC overcome financial crisis. She said she was also expecting to receive share in the revenue generated by the Registering and Licensing Authority by registration of vehicles. She had requested the Administration to allocate at least 50% of the budget collected through tax/receipts from RLA towards maintaining roads and parking in the city. She said the MC was deprived of the share in road tax collection as provided in the Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, extended to the Union Territory, Chandigarh. She said the Administrator had also assured to give Rs 238 crores to the MC.

The civic body is presently facing the worst financial crisis as it has no fund for development works.

Chandigarh