11 years on, HSVP submits Rs 30-crore budget estimates for Transport Nagar in Palwal

The Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) has submitted a budget estimate of Rs 30 crore for the development of the Transport Nagar project — the foundation stone of which had been laid way back in 2014.

According to sources in the district administration, the work on the setting up of the facility in the city and the district has got a fillip after a long gap as the HSVP office has recently submitted the fund estimates required for the plan, which had been on a hold for the past around 11 years.

Though the budget estimates for the project proposed to come up on around 208 acres of land in Sector 21 here was reported to be Rs 30 crore, the work was expected to start after the formal and the final approval of the state government, said an official.

While the facility of the Transport Nagar already exists in the neighbouring district of Faridabad, its proposal for this city had come up in 2013 and its foundation was laid by the then Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in 2014. The budget had been pegged at nearly Rs 35.50 crore.

Officials say the motive behind it had been the development of infrastructure to promote the logistics and transportation facilities here.

“The Transport Nagar is a hub of urban transportation activities, including storage, loading and unloading of goods at one place,” says Subhash Kaushik, a transporter. Claiming that it facilitated the services for commuters and transporters, he said it would serve as a multi-modal transport hub that would offer easy access to public and commercial transport such as railways, buses and even taxis.

“Such a facility not only provides the movement of goods, it is also capable of accommodating heavy commercial vehicles and ensuring space for parking of such vehicles,” says Devender Singh from Road Safety Haryana, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

Describing the Transport Nagar facility as the need of the hour, SK Sharma of the NGO said it could curb the menace of illegal parking on roads and curtail the risk of accidents and hurdles in traffic movement due to wrong parking.

The facilities offered include parking facility for heavy commercial vehicles, loading and unloading stations, weighing bridges (scales), fuelling station, repairing facilities, warehouses, lodging and boarding for truck drivers and staff, restrooms and support centre for the trucking community.

HSVP Superintending Engineer Manoj Saini said as the budget estimates for the project had been submitted, it might take at least a year for its completion after approval.