AHMEDABAD: Twelve years after the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (Auda) approved the layout for Gokuldham township, the authority’s chairman has been empowered to issue development and revised development permissions for the agricultural land within the township. A dispute surfaced in April 2014, resulting in a halt to these permissions.
The township covers over 10 lakh square meters in Sanand taluka, adjacent to Ahmedabad city. On October 8, 2002, Auda authorized the comprehensive layout plan for Gokuldham, which spans more than 50 hectares of land under the General Development Control Regulations of that time.
Permissible specifications included an FSI of 1.2, a building height limit of 10 meters, and ground coverage of up to 45% within Residential Zone 2. On October 16, 2006, amalgamation and sub-plotting were approved for 8.1 lakh square meters of land, which included 6.2 lakh square meters of Residential Zone 2 and 1.9 lakh square meters of agricultural zone.
Subsequently, on September 20, 2008, development permission was granted for 1,265 residential units, and on March 24, 2011, an additional 1.8 lakh square meters of agricultural land was integrated with the existing layout.
Auda later sought approval for revised development permissions covering a total of 10.1 lakh square meters of land. On June 10, 2011, Auda granted revised permission for 3,380 units across 25 sectors on this land.
After the dispute, Auda requested guidance from the state’s additional chief secretary in letters dated August 1, 2014, and August 25, 2014. Recently, based on the advocate general’s advice, the delegation of authority to Auda’s chairman for granting development permits for the agricultural land was approved.
