“I want to construct a house on a plot of land I have purchased on Nageshwar Road as our family home is proving small now that my children have grown up. But for the past three months, I have been doing the rounds of the Dwarka municipality office, hoping my development plan will be approved and I will be able to avail of a bank loan to finance the construction of my home. But officers of the municipality are turning me down, saying they no longer have powers after the creation of DOUDA. I don’t know where the DOUDA office is,” says a 42-year-old man employed at a reputed guesthouse in Dwarka.

The move to appoint DOUDA came 10 days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Sudarshan Setu, a sea link connecting Beyt Dwarka island with mainland Gujarat through Okha town in Devbhumi Dwarka district on February 25. The sea link provided all-weather road connectivity to the island. on which the important pilgrimage site, the Shree Dwarkadhish Mukhya Mandir, is located.

With Sudarshan Setu ending tourists’ dependence on ferry services from Okha to Beyt Dwarka to reach the island, the footfall of pilgrims on Beyt Dwarka has seen an unprecedented rise.

“After the inauguration of Sudarshan Setu, tourist footfall has increased on an unimaginable scale. People want to construct homes, shops, restaurants, hotels etc. The decision to form DOUDA is welcome for the planned development of the Dwarka-Okha corridor. But the government has been slow in operationalising this new body,” says Subhash Bhayani, president of Dwarka Taluka Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a two-time president of Okha municipality.

State government officials say the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is to blame for the delay. The MCC came into force on March 16, just 10 days after the announcement of DOUDA and delayed matters. “The MCC remained in force till early June and therefore work for marking DOUDA functional remained stalled for around three months,” an official said.

With Sudarshan Setu ending tourists’ dependence on ferry services from Okha to Beyt Dwarka to reach the island, the footfall of pilgrims on Beyt Dwarka has seen an unprecedented rise. (Express Photo by Gopal Kateshiya)

Development stalled

Dwarka town is famous for the Dwarkadhish temple, a shrine of Lord Krishna, while Okha, which is around 30 km north of Dwarka, is a port town. Beyt Dwarka is part of Okha municipality. The twin municipalities are part of Dwarka taluka of Devbhumi Dwarka district, which is also home to the famous Nageshwar temple, one of the 12 sacred jyotirlingas in the country.

On March 6, the Gujarat government issued a notification announcing DOUDA, a new special body. The Dwarka collector is the ex-officio chairman of DOUDA. The other ex-officio members are the member secretary of Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board, the district development officer of Devbhumi Dwarka, the president of Dwarka district panchayat, the Rajkot regional commissioner of municipalities, the chief town planner of the state or his representative, and the municipal engineer of Dwarka municipality.

Devbhumi Dwarka’s resident additional collector (RAC) was appointed ex-officio member secretary of the new body. The gazette said that the government will appoint four members of “local authority” as members of DOUDA.

While announcing DOUDA, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel had said that it would facilitate the development of tourism and infrastructure on 10,721 hectares (107.21 sq km). Besides the area of ​​the twin municipalities, the government also brought Varvala, a village on the outskirts of Dwarka town, and Shivrajpur, a village where the famous Shivrajpur beach, a Blue Flag-accredited (an eco-label awarded to beaches) beach, is located, under DOUDA jurisdiction.

But almost four months on, DOUDA has yet to take shape.

Devbhumi Dwarka RAC Bhupesh Jotaniya admits DOUDA is only on paper as of now. “The Authority is yet to be executed. The government has yet to appoint its members (except ex-officio). Also matters like office building, staff etc are also pending. Therefore, we are not in a position to accept applications from people as of now,” Jotaniya told The Indian Express.

According to a state government official, the Urban Development Department has sanctioned manpower for the new body on June 22. “Now, the 63 posts sanctioned for DOUDA will be filled. It is possible the posts might be filled through deputation from other departments,” the official added.

‘People have nowhere to go’

However, the delay has left residents, and officials, at their wits’ end.

“People are running from pillar to post as the two municipalities have stopped entertaining applications seeking approvals of development plans and permission to start construction. Nor are such applications accepted online on the government’s online development permission system (ODPS),” says Bhayani.

“As people have nowhere to go to seek approvals of development plans and construction permission, a lot of unauthorized construction is going on,” says Raman Samani, former president of Dwarka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Uday Nasit, chief officer (CO) of Dwarka municipality, says he is helpless. “Some 15 applications were pending when Dwarka municipality’s powers as an ADA were withdrawn. People have been approaching us with applications seeking permission to construct residential and commercial buildings. But we no longer have the authority to accept and process them. So, we have to turn them down,” he says.

“There is no requirement to get a development plan approved by the government for constructing a private home on a plot of land measuring up to 125 square meters and a plot owner has to merely intimate the ADA about the start of construction. But with ADA status having been withdrawn, we do not have the powers to accept such intimations either,” Nasit adds.

Incidentally, Dwarka municipality does not have an elected body since the term of a BJP-ruled board ended in February last year as the elections are stuck along with other local bodies, due to the pending decision on the quota to the Other Backward Class community. “People are facing hardships as there is no one to entertain their applications. Many of them are coming to us with their grievances in this regard and we are finding it difficult to reason with them,” says a BJP leader in Dwarka.