For the first time since Chandigarh’s development, the N-choe (natural choe) is in for a major de-silting, channelisation and maintenance drive.

In a key decision, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) overrode its own policy to take up the initiative, estimated to cost around Rs 1.75 crore, in the “larger public interest”.

According to GMADA policy, it is not liable to undertake maintenance works. The task actually falls to the Mohali Municipal Council (MC), which categorically refused to take up the job citing lack of funds in a meeting with GMADA officials on May 28.

“Finally, keeping in view the larger public interest and to secure the lives and property of Mohali residents, we decided to take up the job as a one-time exercise from our own resources,” said GMADA Chief Administrator Vivek Pratap Singh.

The decision, which will give respite to thousands of people residing along the open drain in different parts of Greater Mohali, was taken at the fifth meeting of GMADA, chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, in Chandigarh recently.

The choe, which carries untreated sewage, filth and hazardous waste in abundance, originates from near the Punjab Civil Secretariat in Sector 2 and passes through the Rose Garden, Shanti Kunj, Sectors 16, 23, 36, 41, 42, Kajheri, Modern Jail, Burail, Phases VIII, IX, X, XI, Sector 66, 67, Chilla and Manauli villages in Mohali before culminating in a seasonal rivulet in Patiala district.

The drain also crosses through the international Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER).

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