The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) recently has started the groundwork for six more clusters of the Cluster Development Scheme (CDS) proposed for the city. This comes after the civic body received approval for the Urban Renewal Plans (URPs) for the first six clusters of CDS.
The upcoming clusters will consist of Azadnagar, Thane Station area, Charai, Mahagiri, Siddheshwar, and Gokul Nagar. The proposals for these locations will reportedly be tabled in the TMC’s general body meeting which will be held on November 20.
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The Town Planning Department has reportedly allowed the option to exclude or include some congested areas among these clusters. The second phase of the six clusters will span 125.99 hectares whereas reserved plots and the region under the road are said to be 46.98 hectares.
Sharing more information, an officer from the town planning department said that the team is closer to completing the list of beneficiaries across clusters and proposal for the implementation has been submitted, whereby suggestions and objections were made regarding all the 44 clusters, but none were made regarding Anand Nagar cluster. Meanwhile, one suggestion was received from Gokul Nagar, 355 from Mahagiri, 27 from Charai, 17 from Siddheshwar and 37 from Station area. The team has received a total of 17,770 replies, and almost all the suggestions and objections were checked in October 2020.
It is worth pointing out that over 70% of tenants from legal buildings in Mahagiri haven’t provided their consent for the cluster development in their region. Officials said that though the area is included in the scheme now, it can be removed at a later date. Similarly, officials said that their plans received opposition from the gaonthans and koliwadas following which their areas were removed from the URPs in 2019.
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“However, in the six clusters, no area is clearly demarcated as gaonthan, especially in Charai, Station area and Mahagiri as per the developmental plan of the city. It is true that some of the areas here are congested and comprise old community settlements. It will be beneficial to these residents to get redeveloped in the cluster scheme. However, with opposition from most residents in Mahagiri, the decision to include or exclude these settlements will have to be taken after detailed discussions,” the town planning officer said.
The Gaonthans in their defence have said that the implementation of the scheme can only happen after the authorities conduct a demarcation of their areas. An unnamed member of the Thane Gaonthan Koliwada Conservation Committee said - “The government had asked the corporation to create a separate development plan for the gaonthans and koliwadas before the elections last year. However, the corporation, though, is claiming the areas are excluded, most of the congested areas that are not demarcated as gaonthans are included in the scheme. We have approached the collector and the state government for proper demarcation of all the gaonthans in Thane and a separate development plan for them.”
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