IANS spoke to Noida CEO Ritu Maheshwari, who also holds additional portfolio of Greater Noida and New Noida. She laid out priorities for New Noida which, she said, will change the face of the region. Big industries will set up shop here which will generate lakhs of jobs, she says.

Here are the excerpts of the interview.

Q. What will be the outline of New Noida, what facilities will it have?

A. New Noida will be developed on a massive scale, about 80 villages of Greater Noida and Bulandshahr have been included in the region. The master plan is almost ready. We are working on inputs received from various quarters. The master plan will be placed in the next board meeting.

New Noida will promote investment, industries, build warehouses across NCR. Multi-modal hubs and industries are already being created in the Greater Noida area, so New Noida will be a big centre to support all of these. Apart from this, New Noida will have top class connectivity as eastern and western freight corridors will add to development.

What we could not achieve while building Noida, will be taken care of this time in New Noida. As much as 41 per cent of the land has been kept for industrial use only.

Q. Which big companies are investing in New Noida?

A. Ikea, Adani, Microsoft… all big companies will be investing in New Noida, they have taken land parcels. There is a lot of interest in the data centre that will be developed here, Google is also setting up a data centre in cooperation with Adani.

The Noida Authority recently had come out with a scheme of 70 plots, for which more than 900 applications were received. Scrutiny is on, after which plots will be allotted to big multinational companies.

Q. Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP) has been implemented, what steps are being taken by the authority to control pollution?

A. Mechanical sweeping is being done after the implementation of GRAP, now more and more water sprinklers will be used, those who keep garbage and debris in the open will be punished and penalised. Smog guns will be installed to remove dust from the roads.

Q. There has been a lot of improvement in the cleanliness in Noida in the last few years, how is it going to beautify and keep the city clean?

A. The infrastructure of the city was already very good, now Noida is number one in its category. Noida is now ranked 11th in India on cleanliness. The city is already open defecation free, garbage free. In times to come, we have to work on the sewerage system after which city’s ranking will improve further,

Q. Though big parking stations have been built, there are still traffic jams. What are you doing for that?

A. Enforcement is required in all the multi-level parking lots which have been built by the authority. The concerned officials have been asked to ensure this in their parking lots. We will also increase the number of e-rickshaws so that people do not face any problem in reaching their destination from parking lots. Surface parking needs to be streamlined. Efforts are on to bring them on automated mode. We are now taking it to the next level where people can book their parking slots in advance through apps.

Q. What is the plan to build a theme park from waste and scrap materials?

A. We created three artefacts out of scrap material on a pilot basis. Taking it forward, we have floated a tender and a theme park is being built from the waste material, in which different art works will be installed.

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