Residents have high hopes from trans-Ghaggar projects

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, November 21

Residents living in trans-Ghaggar sectors are hopeful that various projects, especially educational institutions like the NIFT in Sector 23 and Polytechnic Institute in Sector 26, would change their lives as more people would come to live in these sectors and eventually their earnings would go up.

However, the construction work of the NIFT in Sector 23 and multi-feature park in Sector 24 is still underway and take a lot of time to complete.

Baldev Raj Monga, a representative of the Sector 23 residents welfare association (RWA), said, “The NIFT is a Central Government project. It is an educational institute. Wherever such an institute comes up in an area, its rental value naturally goes up. I had gone at the construction site of the NIFT a few days ago. People working there told me that it will take one more year to complete.”

While praising the local MLA for many projects in the trans-Ghaggar area, Sanjeev Goyal, president of the Sector 25 RWA said, “Dumping ground is still a concern. Undoubtedly, we will benefit from projects as these will generate employment opportunities. Also, the people can give their houses on rent for more income.”

“Markets will be developed. The MLA did a lot of work, but the main issue of shifting dumping ground is yet to be addressed,” he added.

The people in trans-Ghaggar sectors often complain that they are practically getting less civic amenities than residential sectors located across Panchkula-Zirakpur highway.

Their main concerns, include shifting of dumping ground, better transportation and availability of marketplace in many residential sectors, street lights and many issues.

Projects in trans-Ghaggar sectors

The work for setting up Rs 150-crore NIFT on 10 acres in Sector 23 is underway. However, classes for five NIFT courses are running at Polytechnic Institute building in Sector 26. A multi-featured park in Sector 24, whose work started a few months ago, would also take a lot of time to complete. Even construction work of many buildings, including hostel at Polytechnic Institute is ongoing. When asked, the office of Speaker Gian Chand Gupta couldn’t share information when these projects would be completed.