Gurugram may open more areas for real estate as state reassess controlled areas

With 113 notified areas in Gurgaon, the entire district is currently under the Controlled Areas Act, 1963.

GURUGRAM: Unplanned construction may come up in many rural areas on the outskirts of the city if the Haryana government goes ahead with its plan to denotify some of the areas marked as controlled areas in the state, where no construction activity can be carried out without the approval of the department of town and country planning (DTCP).

With 113 notified areas in Gurgaon, the entire district is currently under the Controlled Areas Act, 1963. This means every construction needs the DTCP’s permission. Once an area is denotified, a landowner can take up construction there without seeking DTCP’s approval. Though the proposed move could meet the high demand for real estate in Gurgaon, urban planners say it will subvert the long-term development plans mentioned in regional, sub-regional and master plans.

The Haryana government has recently decided to reassess the status of controlled areas in the state, citing impact on agriculture and allied activities due to a significant increase in such areas in the past decade. A letter has been sent to all field officers of DTCP across the state, including Gurgaon, to conduct a field survey of controlled areas and submit a report.

Haryana has a total area of 44,212 sq km, out of which 14,000 sq km has been declared as controlled areas, which is almost 32% of the state’s total area. “Till 2015, only around 14% of state geographical area was under controlled area, now it has increased to 32%,” says the letter issued by the chief coordinator planner (CCP), NCR, Haryana.

“... it is required to reassess the controlled areas declared by the department. In case it is felt that the areas within controlled area are experiencing very few incidents of unregulated and haphazard development and where requests for seeking change of land use has been decided, such areas can very well be considered for denotification. It has been decided that field officers in each district would prepare an assessment report of controlled area,” it adds.


Urban planners say that denotification of controlled areas can disturb the future development work. “There is a regional plan (for entire NCR), sub-regional plan (for few districts) and then the master plan for a particular city. All these plans have proposals for several infrastructure and other development works, which will take place in next 20 to 30 years. Denotification of controlled areas will only hamper developments.”

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