No land in IT Park, but 48 acres offered in Sarangpur for new HC complex

Time of India

3 days ago

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Chandigarh: Suggesting to plan a new high court complex in Sarangpur institutional area, the Chandigarh administration has offered to give a total of 48 acres of land, which includes 15 acres already offered and 33 acres new for the expansion of high court building to meet its demand for additional space.
The administration, however, has expressed inability to hand over land in the IT park area in response to a query from the court made in July.
The administration has also come out with a detailed plan to decongest PGIMER to the Sarangpur stretch of road.
Importantly, the HC has projected a requirement of 31,71,000 square feet area for planning of a new high court complex consisting of 140 court rooms in view of the next 50-year requirement.
The current HC premises are inadequate to meet the current requirement of space.
"It would be more appropriate to plan the new high court complex in Sarangpur, which is an institutional area with compatible land use, higher FAR and a good connectivity by 200 wide road along with a proposed elevated road. A total of 15 acres has already been earmarked to HC in Sarangpur institutional area. Further, there is a proposal to allot additional 33.65-acre land to the HC in Sarangpur institutional area.
The permissible covered area will be 4238388 square feet which will offer more flexibility in planning and design of the new high court complex and for its future requirements," the UT has suggested in its detailed affidavit submitted on Friday.
In Aug, the HC had asked the Chandigarh administration to explore providing an alternative site for the high court in the IT Park area within the city. HC has made these observations after noticing that the proposed land to the HC in village Sarangpur may not be viable due to vehicular congestion in that area.
Expressing inability to give land in IT Park area, the UT has submitted that land at IT park may not be suitable for the new high court campus on account of the fact that the 30 acre plot in IT park has maximum FAR of 1.5, which will allow a maximum construction of 1960200 square feet which would not be able to accommodate the requirement of the HC.
The 30- acre plot at IT Park as per Chandigarh master plan 2031 is to be used for information services, information services, information work and information technology enabled services as per notification dated October 10, 2006, i.e.
allotment of campus sites in Chandigarh Technology Park Rules 2006.
Further citing some environmental concerns, UT has also submitted that the National Wildlife Board of India has not permitted high rise buildings near the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary as it would lead to disturbance of migratory birds path. In its detailed affidavit filed through Jigna K Sanghadia, Superintending Engineer, the UT administration has also stated that the approved layout plan for a larger plot of 123.79 acres earmarked for IT habitat has already been issued to Chandigarh housing board for development work.
The matter is pending before the HC in the wake of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Vinod Dhatterwal of the Punjab and Haryana high court Employees Association and others. The petitioner in this case had submitted that the existing building/premises of the HC is not able to bear the load, as there is hardly any space to accommodate more than five lakh judicial files which are pending in the HC.
Steps to decongest PGIMER to Sarangpur stretch
According to UT administration, to decongest the stretch from PGIMER to Sarangpur passing through village Khuda Lahora, a proposal for the construction of a 4-lane flyover has been prepared by the consultant engaged by
Engineering Department, UT, Chandigarh and the same was presented during the meeting of the Sub-Committee of the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee (CHCC) held on July 22.
After due discussions and deliberations, the CHCC sub-committee has found that the proposal is feasible as it was beyond the sectoral grid and will not have any adverse effect on the urban character of the city. UT has also informed that the project is likely to begin in the current financial year and is expected to take approximately 12 to 16 months for completion from the date of actual commencement at site.
It was further added that the construction of the 4-lane flyover has already been included in the Work Plan of the Financial Year 2025–2026, with a budgetary provision of Rs 5 crore already earmarked for the current financial year. After the completion of the flyover, there will be two levels of traffic movement, which will significantly help in easing traffic congestion on this stretch of the road.