GIDB has been entrusted with the job of preparing the ambitious scheme; officials have mixed views on plan.
The state government is planning to create five twin cities in Gujarat. Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar, Bharuch-Ankleshwar,
Surendranagar-Wadhwan, Morbi-Wankaner and Vadodara-Halol have been identified for the purpose and plans are under consideration for their joint development. Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) has been assigned the job of detailed planning for the proposed cities.
Sources in the state government said that a meeting for the presentation of the scheme was held last Wednesday, where top officials of GIDB, GUDC and Gujarat Urban Development Mission and state Urban Development Department were present.
Officials present at the meeting said, "The idea is to link up the cities which are located close to each other and have economic commonality, in a planned manner. For instance, Morbi-Wankaner has economic linkage due to their ceramic industries while Bharuch and Ankleshwar have an economic relationship because of chemical industries."
Talking about the benefits of developing twin cities, another official said, "It is always good to develop such cities jointly, rather than separately. Having twin cities helps to develop them in a planned manner so that future urban issues of being close to each other can be dealt with efficiently, as there would be a single planning and development authority which could shape both the cities. There would also be development authorities for the proposed twin cities. Hyderabad and Secunderabad are classic examples of twin cities."
However, some officials have a different view on the development. "Morbi-Wankaner, Surendranagar-Wadhwan and Bharuch-Ankleshwar can surely be twin cities, but Vadodara-Halol and Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar would lead to other issues. Halol is too small a town to be considered a city and it doesn't have
any direct economical linkage with Vadodara. Same is the case with Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar. Ahmedabad is too big and if it is to be developed with the state capital, we need to ensure that the big doesn't eat away the share of the small, because being big, its needs would also be big."
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