State government urged to revive ‘abandoned’ City Centre project

LUDHIANA: Former Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) Chairman Ashok Juneja has urged the Punjab government to take immediate steps for the revival of (now abandoned) City Centre project in the larger interest of the industrial town and to fulfil needs of the business hub.

The incomplete City Centre project in Ludhiana. Inderjeet Verma

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, November 22

Former Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) Chairman Ashok Juneja has urged the Punjab government to take immediate steps for the revival of (now abandoned) City Centre project in the larger interest of the industrial town and to fulfil needs of the business hub.

By taking up construction of the ‘incomplete’ project, not only the prime land in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagal Colony would be put to productive use, but the LIT would also be able to mobilise much needed financial resources.

In a memorandum submitted to the Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, Juneja, who is also vice-president of the Chamber of Commercial and Industrial Undertakings (CICU), cited the award pronounced by former Chief Justice of India RC Lahoti, who was the sole arbitrator appointed by the Delhi High Court in a dispute between the LIT and Today Homes and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, promoters of the project.

Other signatories to the memorandum were Upkar Singh Ahuja and Pankaj Sharma, president and general secretary of the CICU, respectively.

In his directions (on September 2, 2015) and final award (on September 12, 2017), Justice Lahoti had recommended that the City Centre be built immediately, which would be in the interest of the Punjab government, promoters and the public at large, said Juneja.

Conceptualised by the LIT way back in 2005 under the regime of the then Congress government headed by Captain Amarinder Singh, the City Centre project launched under the private-public partnership (PPP) with a Delhi-based private real estate developer, was shelved due to an alleged Rs 3,000 crore scam.

Not only this, the government had dissolved the Improvement Trust, a criminal case was registered against the then chairman and a vigilance probe was also initiated into the allegedly shady transactions.

Copies of the memorandum have also been sent to the Minister for Local Bodies, Principal Secretary, Local Government, Punjab, Chairman of the LIT, Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana, Lok Sabha member Ravneet Singh Bittu and Cabinet Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, a Congress legislator from the Ludhiana (West) segment.