Gurgaon: Nearly 8 km of roads, footpaths and other public spaces were cleared of encroachments on Monday as GMDA began a drive to reclaim land falling within its Right of Way (ROW).On the first day, the drive was carried out along Old Railway Road, Sector 3A-4, Sector 4/7 and Sector 4/9 dividing roads, among other stretches. The enforcement teams of GMDA removed illegal ramps, vending carts, kiosks and temporary structures occupying road margins, footpaths, green belts and service roads.This comes following Supreme Court’s directions to clear public land of illegal occupations.The exercise aims to improve pedestrian accessibility, road safety and traffic movement while ensuring that govt land and public infrastructure remain available for their designated purpose. The authority plans to continue the drive across other sector-dividing roads and stretches under its jurisdiction, an official said.GMDA chief executive officer PC Meena said the available road space and public areas must be kept accessible for their intended use. “Right of way of roads, footpaths, green belts and service roads under GMDA jurisdiction has to remain free from encroachments. The drive is aimed at restoring public spaces and ensuring that the available road space is used as intended. Action will continue against encroachments that affect pedestrian movement, road safety and the use of public infrastructure,” Meena said.Officials said both temporary and permanent structures found on govt or public land would be removed as part of the campaign. Besides clearing existing encroachments, field teams will carry out regular inspections to check whether the cleared stretches are occupied again.The drive is being carried out by 12 teams comprising 36 officials and staff under the supervision of RS Batth, DTP enforcement of GMDA. Each team has three members, including junior engineers from GMDA’s enforcement wing, Infra-1 and Infra-2 divisions and the Municipal Corporation of Manesar.Meanwhile, GMDA also plans to engage agencies to deploy dedicated quick response teams (QRTs) for patrolling its roads and removing encroachment. The authority has divided the city into three zones, with dedicated QRT teams to be deployed for sectors 1 to 57, sectors 58 to 80, and sectors 81 to 115.The authority will spend around Rs 1.5 crore on outsourcing manpower for providing and deploying patrolling teams with vehicles to safeguard the authority’s right of way (RoW) against temporary and permanent encroachments across Sectors 1 to 115.
