Uttar Pradesh's Shamli District Included in NCR

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district was on Monday included in the national capital region, taking the total number of districts in the NCR to 23, according to an official statement.

Cities in the NCR get funds at "attractive" interest rates from the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) for infrastructure development.

The decision to include Shamli in the NCR was taken at the 37th meeting of the NCRPB held in New Delhi on Monday.

"The Board considered the proposal of the Uttar Pradesh government for inclusion of Shamli district in the NCR and stated that with addition to the NCR, the provisions of the NCRPB Act will be applicable," the statement read.

Besides Delhi, there are at present 22 districts -- 13 of Haryana, seven of Uttar Pradesh and two of Rajasthan -- in the NCR.

The meeting decided that the Aravallis are to be delineated in the entire NCR according to the earlier decisions of the Board and the work on natural conservation zone (NCZ) delineation needed to be expeditiously finalised by the NCR participating states.

"The forests should be identified as per the order of the Supreme Court and the 'Aravallis' are to be delineated in the entire NCR, as per the earlier decisions of the Board," it read.

The meeting, chaired by Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, was attended by Haryana Chief Minister Manoharlal Khattar, Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna and Delhi Public Works Department Minister Satyendra Jain, among others.

At the meeting, Puri said interest rates offered by the NCRPB for infrastructure development projects were the "most attractive" and the Board had achieved a new feat in 2016-17 by disbursing loan of Rs 1,654 crore in a single year, the highest since its inception in 1985.

During the first nine months of the current year, the Board had already disbursed a loan of Rs 1,276 crore and had a plan to achieve a target of Rs 2,000 crore, he said.

The Board also took stock of progress made in the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS).

It said a delineation study needed to be carried out for further inclusion or exclusion of districts in the NCR and that states may expedite submission of their comments on broad parameters for it.

It was decided that the NCR participating states need to expedite preparation of the sub-regional plans for newly-added districts and complete the works by March 2018.

The Delhi government was asked to expedite its approval for a detailed project report on the Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor, according to the statement.