Sat Sharma for early completion of Srinagar Master Plan, making it holistic

SRINAGAR, MAY 22: The Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Sat Paul Sharma today directed the officers to ensure the Srinagar Master Plan is finalized as early as possible and stressed for making it a holistic and comprehensive document which would address all developmental need of the city, besides catering to every section of society.

The Minister was speaking at a meeting convened to review the status of the Draft Master Plan Srinagar-2035 and to discuss suggestions and objections put forth by different quarters in this regard.

Minister for Relief, Rehabilitation, Javaid Mustafa Mir, Minister for Finance Altaf Bukhari,  Minister for I&FC Sham Chowdhary, Minister for FCS&CA Mohammad Ashraf Mir,  Minister of State for Housing, PDD, Asiea Naqash, Minister of State for PHE, I&FC Mir Zahoor, Legislators Khurshid Alam, Noor Mohammad Sheikh, Financial Commissioner, Housing and Urban Development, KB Agarwal, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Secretary Irrigation & Flood control M Raju, Commissioner SMC, VC LAWADA, DC Srinagar, Chief Town Planner and other senior officers were present  in the meeting.

On the onset of the meeting a team of officers from Town Planning Organization Kashmir involved in the preparation of the Draft Master Plan Srinagar-2035 made a power point presentation detailing the project besides putting forth all areas of concern before the meeting.

During the meeting, deliberate discussions were held to ensure a balance between rapid urbanization and the requirements for sound implementation of master plan proposals, land use thereof and rapid unhindered and unfeasible growth of residential, commercial and institutional activities.

Sat Sharma directed the officers to consult the local representatives and legislators and incorporate their suggestions and views to make the plan more holistic and also in tune with the demands of the areas. He said that the officers should hold regular meetings with them to remove the bottlenecks if any so that it is made broad-based and area specific.

The Minister while deliberating on the master plan policy framework passed directions to the Financial Commissioner, H&UDD for early finalization of objections and suggestions.  “We should show urgency for completion of the whole process involved in finalization of the master plan and complete it within the shortest possible time for submission of final Master Plan to the cabinet for accord of approval,” he said.

The meeting expressed reservations for shifting of a few establishments of heritage character as envisaged in the Draft Master Plan-2035. It was further discussed that adequate steps are required to be taken for the safety of city dwellers from floods especially of the kind witnessed in 2014.

The Ministers also flagged certain issues and called for immediate incorporation into the draft besides undertaking modifications with regard to issues related to housing needs of the people of the city.