13.9.11

Twin cities

Following in the footsteps of Hyderabad-Secundarabad and Surat-Navsari, the Gujarat government has decided to develop six more cities as twin cities. The Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) has taken up the study to develop Surendranagar-Wadhwan, Morbi-Wakaner and Bharuch-Ankleshwar as twin cities. GIDB officials said that with cities coming closer to each other, the state government has decided to have a twin-city development policy for the cities in the state. The twin-city study for Surat-Navsari has already been conducted and is under consideration by the state government. Officials said that the GIDB is now in the process of selecting consultants for twin-city development studies for Surendranagar-Wadhwan, Morbi-Wakaner and Bharuch-Ankleshwar. Also on priority for these twin-city projects are enhancing the social and environmental climate of these cities through effective strategic planning, improvement of service delivery, capital investment programming and to suggest development project benefits. GIDB officials said that the twin-city concept will pool in infrastructure and increase dependency of the cities on each other. The concept will also develop the infrastructure in each of the cities. Officials said both the urban centres will have a common town planning scheme. He added that there would be one civic authority to decide on the means of transport and the development in the area. Long term planning for the two cities will also be taken up for both cities together. The two cities will also have special investment zones. Citing an example, the officer said that with the ceramic industry flourishing in the Morbi-Wakaner stretch, these two cities would be developed as a special zone for the ceramic industries. Officials said other issues like present and future land use plan, traffic and transportation pattern and future needs, environmental issues, sanitation and other infrastructure will also be addressed.

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