With its board meeting scheduled for Friday, GDA is ready with the draft master plan for 2031, incorporating suggestions made by the Meerut divisional commissioner during the last meeting.This is the third time that GDA is getting ready to present the plan. In August, the draft plan was rejected because GDA had not incorporated a suggestion by NCR transport corporation to change the category of the land around Duhai RapidX station-cum-depot from agriculture to mixed-use under the UP Transit-Oriented Development Policy, 2022.
As per the state government’s policy, areas within a 1.5 km radius of the RapidX corridor come under the TOD zone and are also to be considered ‘influence zones’. Areas within a 500-metre radius of intra-city mass transit projects like metro, neo metro, metro lite, and bus rapid transit system (BRTS) also fall under the TOD zone.
“The draft master plan tabled in the August board meeting did not include RapidX Duhai station-cum-depot in the TOD zone, so, Meerut divisional commissioner Selva Kumari J, in keeping with the TOD policy, sent it back to the drawing boards,” a GDA official said.
Subsequently, GDA held a meeting with DDF Consultant — the firm hired by the development authority to prepare the draft master plan — and asked it to make the necessary changes in the draft.
“A few days ago, the consultant submitted the revised draft and now it is ready to be tabled before the board on Friday,” the official said.
The revised master plan draft earmarks two special development areas (SDAs) — 250 hectares of land near Guldhar and 400 hectares around Duhai along DME that will emerge as new townships. It also identifies influence zones along the seven stations — Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai, Muradnagar, Modinagar South and Modinagar North — on the 17-km priority section of the RapidX corridor.
According to GDA, demand for residential land along the RapidX corridor, the Delhi-Meerut and Eastern Peripheral expressways will increase in the coming years. Keeping the projection in mind, the land use has been altered to the ‘mixed’ category for areas within a 1.5km radius.
The plan period is 10 years and will include areas like Loni, Dasna, Modinagar and Muradnagar. The previous Master Plan 2021 had a 20-year plan period.
