Nearly a dozen townships coming up to check unplanned urban expansion in J&K

The Jammu and Kashmir government is planning to set up nearly a dozen townships at various places, including the twin capital cities, to check unplanned urban expansion and meet the housing needs of people, Health Minister Sakeena Itoo said on Saturday. The minister was replying on behalf of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to a question raised by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Waheed Ur Rehman Parra in the Assembly here.

Itoo said the Srinagar Development Authority has identified state land along the national highway in Bemina Bypasss and the Jammu Development Authority has identified land at Sidhra for catering to the housing needs of the people of the Union Territory.

In addition, 1,298.28 kanals of land has been identified for the establishment of nine townships at Padgampura in Pulwama, Watapora in Bandipora, Changran in Kathua, Bakoora in Ganderbal, Kanuyian in Poonch, Chatterhama in Srinagar and Bhalwal, Chakbhalwal and Chowadhi in Jammu.

In his supplementary, Para expressed concern over the utilisation of wetland for raising infrastructure post the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019 and demanded an environment assessment of all the township projects.

“The 4,200 kanals of land near Bemina identified for housing is wetland. We are already facing a climate crisis because of large-scale devastation and destruction due to land, soil and sand mining over the past five years. The future looks very dark and grim if the right steps are not taken,” the PDP leader said.

“All ecological issues shall be taken into consideration while undertaking any construction,” the minister said, adding that the details of the beneficiaries shall be determined after the formulation of the Detailed Project Report (DPR).