50-year old ‘Bandipora Master Plan’ to get artistic make over

Bandipora: After successful culmination of governments ambitious ‘’My Town My Pride” programme, the District Administration is all set to give a new artistic makeover to the Bandipora town by reviewing the Master Plan formulated five decades ago in early 60’s.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Bandipora, Dr Owais Ahmad said that during the “MTMP” programme, several demands came to fore including the restoration and expansion of the master plan formulated for Bandipora after the town was gutted in a massive ablaze in 1962.
He said the administration is steadfast in providing basic amenities to the inhabitants of town along with sustainable development of town area with emphasis on facilities like proper drainage and sewerage system, planned construction, alternate roads, fire gaps between shops and houses across the town.
As a follow up of the MTMP programme, the DC on Saturday conducted an extensive tour of the town along with Joint Director Planning, Chairman Municipal Council Bandipora and a team of town planners and architects to assess the ground situation and get feedback of the people.
On the occasion, Dr Owais said that emphasis also needs to be given to beautification of town area along with enforcing proper waste disposal system that will perhaps make the town ecologically sustainable.
He said that proposal for construction of walk way from Sonerwani Bridge to Kaloosa Bridge is under consideration and will become one of the major attractions of the town besides, several other projects are also in pipeline for the augmentation of drainage system of the town that is the long pending demand of the people and was flagged as a prime demand of the people during MTMP.
Dr Owais further said that it is need of the hour to designate proper parking facilities for market area so as to reduce congestion. He also inspected several proposed sites for development of parking facility in the vicinity of market area.
The DC said that another priority of the administration will remain repair of footpaths and walkways and making them accessible to all by construction of ramps as recommended by relevant authorities.
He said the Municipal Council has been strictly implementing the ban on the use of single use polythene in Bandipora market and several market checking teams have been deployed in all towns of the district which besides routine market checking have also seized huge quantities of single use plastics and imposed relevant fines on defaulters.
He further said that participative role of citizens is encouraged in planning for better future of towns of Bandipora and any input from people in this regard is welcome and will be considered according to requirement.