Chandigarh, Nov. 19 -- UT chief secretary H Rajesh Prasad, who also heads the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB), has directed board officials to submit a comprehensive plan for the development of its vacant land by the first week of December. The CHB currently holds around 175 acres of undeveloped land: 123 acres at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park, 31 acres in Sector 54 and 21 acres in Sector 53. A senior CHB officer said the planning process is underway, but new directions issued during a recent meeting chaired by UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria require revisions. Kataria instructed the UT chief architect to divide the available eight-acre chunk of land in Sector 53 into two pockets - one to be sold to a private developer and the other to be developed by CHB. The remaining 11 acres in Sector 53 have already been earmarked for a housing scheme for UT employees, he added. For the portion to be developed by CHB, the administrator has asked the chief architect to examine the feasibility of increasing the Floor Area Ratio (FAR), enhancing building height and raising density to make the project financially viable for all income groups, including the economically weaker sections (EWS). Regarding the 31 acres in Sector 54 - reclaimed earlier this year after the removal of the illegal furniture market and Adarsh Colony - Kataria directed CHB to explore constructing government rental accommodation for UT employees. He also asked officials to work out financial modalities to make the rental model self-sustaining, with rents equivalent to House Rent Allowance (HRA) to be paid to CHB by the administration. The administrator has also directed the architect to examine whether the land at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park can be sold as individual plots, instead of being developed for group housing. This follows a major setback in October 2022, when the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) refused environmental clearance for the proposed housing project, stating that the site falls within the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary....