9 Things You Should Know About HUDA, Now The Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran

In the past decade, the state of Haryana has registered urban growth which not many states in the country can match. And, the credit for this must go to the body responsible for carrying out the development work. Most of us are aware that the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) does the development work in the state's urban areas. However, many of us do not really know much about the body.

Let's have a look some of the things you should know about the HUDA and its journey so far:

The formation

Before the HUDA came into being in 1977, the urban development work in the state used to be carried out by the urban estates department. As several agencies used to be involved in the process, lack of communication took its toll and resulted into conflicts over development works. To simplify things, the HUDA was created under the Haryana Urban development Authority Act, 1977. Recently, the body was renamed as the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran, the hindi translation of the previous name. 

The job

The body was formed with many objectives in mind. Its future functions would include promoting “development of urban areas in a planned, use the acquired land for residential, industrial, recreational and commercial purpose, and to make available the developed land to the Haryana Housing Board and other bodies for providing houses to economically weaker sections”. The duties of HUDA also included undertaking construction works.

The wings

There are a total of 12 wings under the body which assist it doing the development work. These include wings on information technology, land acquisition wing, policy, establishment & authority, vigilance, enforcement, monitoring, legal, architecture, town planning, finance and engineering.

As it stands today

Data show that till 2013, the HUDA had constructed 8,336-kms road stretch, laid water supply lines of 3,676 kms and sewer lines of 3,307 kms over the 61,678 acres of land it acquired till that period. The body has 30 urban townships in Haryana and the whole state is divided into five zones to carry out the development work. These zones are divided into Faridabad, Gurgaon, Hisar, Panchkula and Rohtak.

Raising revenue

To utilise idle government-owned land to earn better revenue for the state exchequer, the HUDA launched 15 schemes spreading over an area of 716 acres. Under the scheme, commercial, industrial, residential and mix-use set ups were constructed in cities like Ambala, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Jind, Hisar, Narwana, Panipat, Rohtak and Sirsa.

The community building

While the number o f educational institutes developed by the HUDA stand at 108, there are only two old age homes developed by the body. While it has constructed 98 police posts and 20 police stations, it has also developed 36 dispensaries and 124 community centres across Haryana. Across 12 cities, the HUDA has constructed 16 Gymkhana clubs. Panchkula has the highest number of Gymkhanas, one each in Sectors 3 and 6 and one in 1 MDC.

Changing for better

Since its inception, the body has made several changes in the way it functions by initiating new policies. For instance, the HUDA has launched alternate housing sites for the scheduled caste, while increasing the percentage of plots allotted to economically weaker sections, from 20 per cent to 35 per cent.

The green push

As a sharp rise in construction activities in the state is sucking up all the groundwater, the HUDA is coming up with initiatives like using treated sewage water in public parks. The body plans to start this practice in Gurgaon soon.

Just a click away

The body has brought many services online to improve its services. From developers to home buyers, everyone is finding it much simpler to deal with the tardy land buying and development processes much simpler to deal with. In case of any complaint, you can just log on to the official site and express your grievance there. This mechanism has improved the grievance redressal system.