Forget homes, they’re building drafts

BASHIR PATHAN

GANDHINAGAR, JANUARY 18: The people who lost their houses in last year’s quake in Bhuj, Anjar and Bhachau — the worst-hit towns of Kutch district — will have to wait 20 weeks more before they get permission to start construction. The state government needs this time to finalise its town planning schemes.

The draft schemes, which will be ready in the next 12 weeks, will then be circulated among the public for suggestions, taking another eight weeks. If there are no major hitches, the schemes will come into effect, paving way for construction work. The schemes would take care of as many as 20,500 properties, both residential and commercial lost in these towns, principal secretary (Urban Development) Sudha Anchalia said.

Since there is not much damage in the old walled-city areas of Rapar, no town planning scheme was required for this town.

Anchalia said that eight schemes would be prepared for 15,000 lost properties in Bhuj, four for 3,300 properties in Anjar and two for 2,200 properties in Bhachau. The plans have been prepared and approved. Denying that the pace of work had been slow, Anchalia said that the plans had been finalised in six months which normally takes at least two years.

The process involves 17 different studies which have been completed in record time. Besides, the affected families had been given a hearing. Only the finalisation of town planning schemes remained. ‘‘In normal circumstances, the process of finalising development plans and town planning schemes takes three to four years,’’ she said.

In order to expedite work, the government had engaged two Ahmedabad-based private consultancy firms and marshalled the resources of the Urban Development Department. While the Environmental Planning Corroborative (EPC) was engaged for Bhuj, Dalal Consultants was doing the job in Bhachau. Another firm is to be hired for the work in Anjar.

‘‘We have identified plots of land for the affected people. The land levelling work has already been completed for the people of Rapar and Bhachau towns and it is on for the people of Bhuj and Anjar,’’ she said. Of the 4,031 families of Bhuj which applied for relocation, 2,200 had been found eligible. In Anjar, 250 of the 3,236 applicants, in Bhachau 77 of the 224, and in Rapar only five of the 586 families had been found eligible.

Meanwhile, Urban Development Minister I.K. Jadeja has said that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had sanctioned a Rs 610 crore loan to create the civic infrastructure in the 14 urban centres affected by the quake. Of this, Rs 471 crore would be utilised in Bhuj, Bhachau, Anjar and Rapar.