GMDA to make environment mgmt plan for Gurugram city in six months

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) is working to develop a sustainable environment management plan with focus on the urban population needs till 2041, said officials on Sunday, adding that the plan will be ready by June this year.

Sudhir Rajpal, chief executive officer of GMDA, said, “The sustainable environment plan will focus on interventions that have to be made on a micro level in the whole metropolitan area to make all the aspects of environment like greenery, measures to reduce pollution, and water conservation, come together. It will be an integrated plan for the whole city which will be citizen centric and will be made using inputs from residents of the city.”

Rajpal said that an agency will be hired soon to work on the plan.

In December 2019, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), GMDA and the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) had jointly prepared a district-level environmental management plan for Gurugram. But officials said that this plan does not have specification for an urban population, and is a generic plan for the whole district.

Subhash Yadav, head of GMDA’s urban environment division, said, “A district management plan is there for Gurugram but the issues and challenges of an urban area are different compared to the whole district. So, GMDA will develop an environment management plan for the urban area which will be based on the needs and demands of the population over the next 20 years. As the mobility plan has been made for 2041, we have to see what will be the environmental challenges along with it and mitigation measures will be offered.”

An expression of interest to hire an agency for developing the plan will be issued by next week, said the officials.