Somewhere in Haryana....

The second spell of Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in Haryana seems to be pushing the development of 13 theme cities along the 136km-long Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway. The directorate of town and country planning (DTCP) will notify land patches earmarked for these future cities as controlled areas for the specific use. These proposed theme cities include cyber city, bio-science city, medical city, fashion city, entertainment city and leisure city. Deepender Singh Hooda, the MP from Rohtak, said on Sunday that out of these 13 theme cities, three would come up in Bahadurgarh on NH-10 and along the expressway. For Gurgaon district, the state government has proposed five theme cities — fashion city, entertainment city, world trade centre, leisure city and retail merchandiser warehouse centre. Similarly, Sonepat district will have specialized activities like the Rajeev Gandhi Education City, Sonepat-Kundli multifunctional urban complex. This apart, the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIIDC) is contemplating an industrial model township at Kharkhoda on the lines of Manesar. Likewise, a leisure and a leather city have been proposed for Mewat, Palwal district will get a dry port city. State government officials said that the development of these theme cities is a part of the plan to develop the areas along the KMP expressway as a global corridor. ‘‘A consultant engaged by the state government had proposed creation of sector-specific parks and sub-cities to ensure that economic activities are developed in a systematic manner,’’ said a senior DTCP official. He added the time-frame for developing these cities has not been fixed by the state and would largely depend on foreign investment and investment from private players in the state. ‘‘All this will happen only when the expressway becomes functional. The work has already been delayed,’’ the official said. Officials said the spatial plan of the corridor will be developed around a number of specialized economic activities and each activity is envisaged to be the focus of a selfsustaining cluster city. Sources said that the threshold population required for sustaining the physical and social infrastructure will govern the development of cluster cities.