BDA to initiate strict measures to check encroachments

BERHAMPUR: The Berhampur Development Authority (BDA) has decided to take strict measures to protect a few open patches of government land in the city which is fast becoming a concrete jungle with little breathing space. It was decided at a meeting of the BDA. Rapid unplanned urbanisation of this traditional city has left little space for vegetation within it. Open patches of government land have been encroached. In some places buildings have also been come up on this encroached land, said chairperson of the BDA Kailash Rana.

The BDA has identified ten large open spaces of government land within the city. They would be cleared off encroachments. “We may opt to demolish illegally constructed buildings on these patches,” Mr Rana said. These cleared up patches would be developed as zones for vegetation and would also serve as parks for localites, he added. Apart from them 30 other smaller patches of unused government land in different parts of the city would also be protected from future encroachments. These patches would be protected by boundary walls. They would also be transformed into islands of vegetation, Mr. Rana said.

The BDA also decided to come up with low-cost apartments in Vivek Vihar area where it has already started a housing project. These low- cost apartments would be provided to families at Rs. 6 lakh. Around 150 flats would come up on a patch of five acres of land in Vivek Vihar area. A Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for the city would be ready by September this year.

The city would get its master plan after more than four decades as its last master plan was prepared way back in 1969. The area under greater Berhampur includes the urban centres of Berhampur, Gopalpur, and Chatrapur and 139 villages between them. The BDA authorities also decided to make rain water harvesting a mandatory norm for each building in the city. Vice-chairman of the BDA and Ganjam District Collector V.K. Pandian said it was the need of the hour as groundwater level in the city was on a sharp decline due to lack of scope for its recharging in this water-scarce city.

Source: The Hindu