Chandigarh, 5 Dec:
The way has been paved for the construction of the proposed North Regional Office of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Chandigarh. The UT administration has allotted 1.72 acres of land in Sector 38 West for this. This land has been allotted between Labor Bureau and Gurudwara Santsar Sahib. The construction of ED office will cost Rs 59.13 crore, which has already been approved.
A letter was written by ED to Chandigarh Administration regarding the land, after which this land has been transferred to the name of the Directorate. A letter has also been written to the UT administration to build a residential colony for 220 employees in the office of the Enforcement Directorate.
At present, one office of ED is located in Jalandhar but the office to be built in Chandigarh will be the biggest office in the North Zone. However, the directorate has started work temporarily. It is being operated from the Press Building of Sector-18, Chandigarh.
A senior ED official said that the directorate has written a letter to the advisor to the UT Administrator saying that there will be a staff of 220 people for the new office. The Central Public Works Department does not have enough flats to allot them all, hence either alternative arrangements should be made for these employees or land should be allotted to build a new residential colony for them. The directorate has demanded 14,890 square meters of land from the Chandigarh administration.