IT Chandigarh

Chandigarh: Mohali and Greater Mohali will see an investment of Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 3,000 crore in infrastructure, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) acting president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Tuesday. He also announced that the government is planning to develop a ground in Mohali on the lines of New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan for holding international and national fairs and exhibitions.

Sukhbir was speaking at a ceremony to lay the foundation stone of the 200-acre integrated township project of the Taneja group (TDI) in Mohali. He said the government wants to showcase Mohali as the future city of the country. “International airport, metro rail for tricity, Mohali-Phagwara Expressway, widening of existing roads to four or six-lane and the masterplan of Greater Mohali, which is being prepared by Singapore firm Zurong International, are all steps in this direction,” he said.

Interestingly, private developers, who did not find a friend in the Shiromani Akali Dal earlier, now have the Akali government eating out of their hands. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who was to lay the foundation stone, could not make it for the event.
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Panchkula: In a major relief for residents of the district, vehicle registration will now be possible in Panchkula.

Till now, residents of Panchkula district had to go to Ambala to get a National Crime Record Bureau certificate.

Panchkula now joins Madhuban, Gurgaon and Rohtak districts of Haryana, which also have this facility.

“It was a major harassment for residents of the district to go to Ambala for NCRB certificates. This was after the Chandigarh branch in Sector 9 refused to issue certificates to residents of the district. Now onwards, they can get their NCRB certificate from the Mini Secretariat in Sector 1,” said Superintendent of Police, Panchkula, Sandeep Khirwar.

The certificates will be made available by the Crime Record Officer, whose office is on the first floor of the Mini Secretariat.

Till last month, people had the option of getting NCRB certificates from Chandigarh.

Atul Gupta, a resident of Sector 9 of the city, said, “It will be a big relief for us. Going to Ambala for a certificate means wasting the entire day. Besides, it was a big harassment”.

Source: ENS

Chandigarh: If all goes well, international flights to Dubai, London and other destinations will begin in the city in a matter of 18 months.

An official said, “Initially, the proposal is to start with weekly or bi-weekly international flights to Dubai by April 2009. Later, London, Vancouver, New York, Singapore, Kathmandu and other European destinations will be added to the list.”

Sources said the existing terminal building, with a capacity to cater to two hundred passengers, is being expanded at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore to facilitate five hundred passengers at a time. It’s going to take 18 months for the project to finish.

The new terminal building will be centrally air-conditioned with a built-up area of 12,150 sqms, equipped with modern passenger-friendly facilities that are a common sight at other international airports. These include boarding bridges with visual docking guidance system, escalators, elevators, in-line baggage conveyor system in the arrival as well as departure hall, CCTV and car parking facilities.

At the present apron, only three aircraft can be parked- two Airbus 320 and one small one ATR-72 type aircraft. Once work on the new building and apron is finished, there will be space for four Airbus 320s, said sources.
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Chandigarh: Apart from the metro rail system, the coming few years are also expected to give the city a modern bus service efficiently linked to all metro stations.

For this, the Centre has asked the UT Administration to prepare a Comprehensive Mobility Plan for the entire region including the UT, Mohali, Panchkula, Kharar, Dera Bassi, Zirakpur, Kalka, Pinjore, Baddi and Morinda.

The administration received the formal minutes approving the Grade Separated Metro Rail project for Chandigarh and the neighbouring towns in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal.

The CMP, along with a Detailed Public Report, will be prepared to suggest a mix of different modes of connectivity in the region. Both the reports will be sent to the Ministry after chalking out the details of the metro rail project in terms of funding model, exact routes and other technical nitty gritties.

Grade Separated Metro means the study will include underground, surface and elevated metro rail.

The ministry has recommended that “underground length be restricted to heritage areas”. This means that the entire city grid will have an underground metro, which costs nearly three times as much as the surface system.
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