Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has relaunched the ‘Atal Apartments’ project while dropping the plan to rename it as ‘Sahir Ludhianvi Apartments’. The decision comes ahead of the state assembly elections to be held early next year. It may be recalled that the ‘Atal Apartments’ project was conceptualised a decade ago in 2010-11 by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government and was named after former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee. However, the project has failed to take off till date.

The project was being implemented by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT). It ran into controversy after the LIT proposed to rechristen and relaunch the project as ‘Sahir Ludhianvi Apartments’ as a tribute to the poet and lyricist who belonged to Ludhiana. The proposal triggered a political storm after the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) opposed the move terming it an insult to a statesman like Vajpayee.

Yesterday, the Punjab government led by CM Channi relaunched the project by laying the foundation stone. Speaking to The Indian Express, Raman Balasubramanium, Congress leader and chairman LIT, said that the project has been relaunched after rectifying technical loopholes that were there in the initial project plan.

He said that the Congress government dropped the plan to rename it because the government then would have to go back and amend all documents and clearances. “Our aim was to pay a tribute to Sahir Ludhianvi and not to insult Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was a political stalwart cutting across party lines….We are now coming up with a fresh project as a tribute to Sahir and an auditorium, memorial and library will come up at SCD Government College on 25 acres,” he said.

Earlier, it was proposed that the project will have high-rise flats on 8.80 acres of prime land in Shaheed Karnail Singh Nagar of Ludhiana.

After laying the foundation stone of the project yesterday, CM Channi said that the project would have 576 flats up to 12 floors (336 HIG and 240 MIG). Channi said that land for the proposed flats is in the possession of LIT, adding that interested persons can apply for this scheme till December 18, 2021 and the draw of lots will be carried out on December 24.