Ahmedabad civic body plans Urban House to bring three key departments under one roof
With the aim to bring three departments of urban governance – Urban Development, City Planning, and Estate Department – under one roof, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is planning to set up a new building, 'Urban House', in the city.
To come up on the road from NCC Circle to Nagari Hospital in Navrangpura Ward of the West Zone, the building with two basements, ground floor plus 10 floors, and a garden, will house the central office of the Building Plan Approval System (BPSP) Department, City Planning along with the office of the Town Planning officers.
'It has been planned to build a storage-record room, training centre, GIS cell, server room, cafeteria, terrace garden-canteen, and offices of high-ranking officials. Parking for a total of 140 four-wheelers and 1,184 two-wheelers has been planned in two basements. The estimated cost of construction of the said building will be Rs 96 crore,' AMC stated in an official statement issued Tuesday.
Estimated to be complete in two-and-a-half years, the green building rating is aimed for 'Platinum' grade as per the rating of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). It is envisaged to include features like solar generation, water conservation, energy saving, indoor environment quality, use of certified green building materials, waste-water reuse among others.
'Delegations frequently visit Ahmedabad city to learn about the urbanisation process… plans have also been made to create conference rooms with advanced WiFi facilities in this Urban House (for them). Thus, there is no doubt that this 'Urban House' will become a model for the city in the future, as all the processes related to urbanisation will be available at one place. Thus, there will be a comprehensive system to provide urban facilities to the citizens,' AMC further added.
The Urban House has also been planned keeping in mind the development of Ahmedabad city, which is expected to accelerate in the coming years, and the citizens will be provided with necessary facilities such as town planning, development maps, construction and development permissions, allocation of municipal plots at one place, the AMC said.
Further, the AMC stated, 'Due to the modern 'Urban House' where all the information and work can be done from one place, the citizens will get a lot of benefit… all the departments will get a single-window arrangement… A facility has been included in the plan so that the staff can get training on matters related to estate, town development and city planning departments.'
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