PATNA: The Planning Commission has okayed the proposal to redevelop the state capital’s oldest government residential colony – Gardanibagh – which covers an area of 276 acres. Bihar’s building construction department has already got a re-development plan prepared. The redevelopment plan would be executed in public private partnership (PPP) mode.
Currently most of the single-storied government bungalows in the area are in bad shape. A large number of bungalows are illegally occupied. These government bungalows are mainly meant for class two and three government employees.
“It is sheer wastage of government’s precious land by not developing this area, which is located near the secretariat and airport, said an octogenarian resident, Sahdeo Prasad. Before demolishing these bungalows government must accommodate all bonafide occupants in some other flats, said a government employee working in the finance department.
The issue was discussed in a meeting held under the chairmanship of advisor to deputy chairman, Planning Commission, Gajendra Haldea, on April 15 in New Delhi while reviewing the PPP programme in Bihar. Besides four officials of the Planning Commission, five senior Bihar government officials, including principal secretary, health, Amarjeet Sinha, attended the meeting.
The meeting also felt that there was need to prepare a proper feasibility report by engaging a town planner or an architectural expert. Accordingly, as a starting point, it was decided either to engage a town planner of national/international repute to provide a report on the land use plan of Gardanibagh area or to undertake a detailed survey by the government department concerned to assess how much land of the area is available for development and measures required to vacate the area that has encroachments.
The meeting also discussed three projects that are being considered by the state government for taking up in the PPP mode: a super-speciality hospital in the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna; super-speciality hospital in the Jayaprabha trust hospital, Patna; a district hospital in one of the divisional headquarters.
It was decided that after a decision is taken by the state on setting up three super-speciality hospitals, one greenfield pilot scheme on PPP mode could be undertaken.
Proposals for power distribution in PPP mode in respect of two towns – Patna and Muzaffarpur – have been submitted by the Bihar State Electricity Board to the energy department. Similar proposals have been submitted for Darbhanga and Munger districts, as per the decision in a high-level meeting.
The Delhi meeting felt that the proposed project for Patna may be taken up first and based on the model that emerges, other districts could be taken up.
The Planning Commission, in a recent letter to Bihar chief secretary has requested him to arrange a meeting with CM Nitish Kumar early next month, wherein a detailed presentation on these issues could be made for giving a go-ahead signal.