Rethinking Master Plans For Our Growing Cities

Delhi has been facing severe consequences due to the lack of a comprehensive urban plan. Until June this year, the capital endured scorching heat that led to the deaths of hundreds. The anticipated rains in July brought flooding instead of relief in many areas. This dire situation highlights the Supreme Court’s October 2023 statement that Delhi is in an “utter mess”, a frustration fuelled by the prolonged delay in notifying the Master Plan for Delhi (MPD) 2041, a vital blueprint for the city’s future.

A master plan is a statutory document that determines the city’s land use, reserves land for public purposes, and sets regulations for land use and buildings.

The MPD-2041 draft, released in 2021, focuses on environmental sustainability. It promotes green built environments and enhances natural assets under the vision of “Fostering a sustainable, liveable, and vibrant Delhi.” The MPD-2041 outlines key focus areas essential for a sustainable life, including environmental protection, water management, waste recycling, a shift to renewable energy, and mobility issues. It has received appreciation for its inclusive approach to plan preparation.

Talking to Mongabay India, Mathew Idiculla, a legal and policy consultant working on urban issues, and a visiting faculty at Bengaluru-based National Law School of India University, says, “The exercise of the planning process was slightly more inclusive. At least in the process of making the plan, there has been more discussion and input from citizens, citizen groups, and various coalitions.”

However, the delay in notifying the plan has raised several concerns. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) released the MPD-2041 draft to the public in June 2021. In August 2022, the court directed the centre and the DDA to specify the timeline for completing the MPD-2041. The government responded in September of that year, stating that the final approval of the MPD was expected before the end of January 2023. In response, the court gave the centre a deadline to finalise the Master Plan for Delhi (MPD)-2041 by April 30, 2023, including a three-month grace period. The DDA approved the draft MPD-2041 in February 2023, and it was sent to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Since then, the draft plan has been with the centre.

The government, formed earlier this year, has said it would approve MPD-2041 within 100 days of the ministry formation (in the NDA-3), which is a much-needed step, says Ramesh Menon, a principal lead at Delhi Consortiums, a think tank working on Delhi development. He highlights that several provisions of Master Plan 2021 that were notified in 2007 were not implemented. “Many important developmental agenda under land pooling and such important chapters were not operationalised owing to objections, suggestion, and other procedural delays,” he says. This means Delhi has been virtually governed without a proper plan for several years. He says that Delhi, being the capital of the nation, needs to be developed as a beacon or example for other cities. The immediate notification of MPD-2041 is a must to arrest the expansion of unauthorised colonies (neighbourhoods or localities) in Delhi.

Since 2007, the population of Delhi has almost doubled, from 19 million in 2007 to an estimated 33 million in 2024 but without a proper Master Plan. The same trend is visible in other parts of the country too.

Growth without plan

India’s urban population has grown rapidly. At independence, in 1947, 17% of the population lived in cities; by 2011 (the last Census), it was 31.8%. Several estimates suggest over 50% of the population now consists of urban dwellers. “It took nearly 40 years (between 1971 and 2008) for the urban population in India to rise by nearly 230 million. It will take only half that time to add the next 250 million,” says an Asian Development Bank report.

As a result, cities in India have experienced rapid but largely unplanned growth, as highlighted by a 2021 NITI Aayog report. It revealed that about half of statutory towns and two-thirds of census towns lack master plans to guide their spatial development. Of the 7,933 towns classified as urban, nearly half are still governed as rural entities.

No plan is one challenge, but delays in implementing plans are another. Similar to Delhi, Bengaluru also experienced a flood-like situation in June. Known as Silicon Valley of India, Bengaluru is governed by the Revised Master Plan, 2015, formulated in 2006-07 and intended to be effective until 2015. Although the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) initiated drafting a new master plan in 2017, the state government scrapped the Revised Master Plan 2031 in mid-2020. In December 2021, the BDA again issued tenders for the preparation of the Master Plan for 2041, but progress has since stalled.

An October 2023 survey by Janaagraha, a Bengaluru-based non-profit, found that 39% of state capitals do not have active master plans.

Idiculla says he believes master plans are often seen as a major inconvenience, leading policymakers to create a parallel decision-making system. This lack of urgency results in delaying the plans. In the case of Delhi, the Supreme Court also made a similar statement: “The whole problem in the city is that public authorities are keeping everything in limbo to give themselves unreasonable powers.”

NITI Aayog underlined in its 2021 report that “the poor and the marginalised, the biodiversity and the economy” bear the brunt of unplanned growth. This leads to crises such as the lack of availability of serviced land, traffic congestion, pressure on basic infrastructure, extreme air pollution, urban flooding, water scarcity, and droughts.

However, Saswat Bandyopadhyay, a professor at the Faculty of Planning at Ahmedabad-based CEPT University, sees a change in attitude. He notes that in the past, slower growth allowed for a more casual approach to master planning. With current rapid growth, it is crucial to recognise that 65-70% of the economy is linked to urban areas. One dysfunctional day due to flooding or other disruptions can cause millions in losses. Many states now realise that without proper planning, the costs of congestion, disruption, and lost opportunities are significantly higher. “Achieving targets, such as becoming a $10 trillion economy, is impossible if cities do not function efficiently,” he adds.

The government of India launched the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) in 2015, which targets the formulation of master plans for 500 cities.

Call for reform

The legacy of city planning in India dates back to British rule. In 1896, Mumbai, then known as Bombay, witnessed a severe outbreak of plague, known as the Bombay Bubonic Plague, which claimed millions of lives in India. Following the outbreak, the first Improvement Trust was established in 1898 with three primary goals: improving sanitation, raising housing standards, and maintaining key urban development powers in the hands of appointed officials. This model was subsequently extended to other large cities across India.

Mumbai is the city that saw the first town planning legislation in India with the Bombay Town Planning Act of 1915. It gave the Bombay Municipal Corporation powers to prepare town planning and called for zoning, building regulations, acquisition of land for public purposes, and the collection of funds for local improvements. Other provinces followed the same path, like Uttar Pradesh in 1919 and Madras in 1920.

The Central Town and Country Planning Organisation (TCPO) drafted the Model Town and Regional Planning and Development Law in 1962, which formed the basis for various states to enact Town and Country Planning Acts with modifications to suit local conditions. However, most of the Acts focus on land use and zoning only, experts say. A NITI Aayog report also states that the definition of urban planning was limited to physical design, enforced through strict land use regulations due to colonial influence. The foundations of the state town and country planning departments were laid during British rule.

Bandyopadhyay says that the existing planning system, inherited from the colonial era, does not address modern-day challenges like climatic shocks and flooding. “The existing plans often fail to account for the necessary infrastructure to support designated land uses. For instance, zoning land for residential or commercial purposes doesn’t adequately consider the space needed for transportation and other civic amenities. This oversight at the planning stage neglects crucial aspects of urban development,” Bandyopadhyay adds, noting that Gujarat, to some extent, focuses on these issues.

New plans from Delhi, Mumbai, or the draft Master Plan of Bengaluru now include issues like the environment, climate change, public health, safety, and gender. However, there’s a caveat: the present legislative framework and laws regarding master planning remain unchanged. This means that under the law, the master plan is still largely restricted to land use regulation, zoning regulation, and development control. These are the only enforceable parts of the plans, Idiculla says.

Due to the limitations of the existing planning system, some people are calling for moving away from the master plan approach. However, Bandyopadhyay disagrees and says the current model is the sole statutory framework governing land management, overseeing public and private properties. It urgently requires modernisation to address contemporary challenges such as climate change and heatwaves, which the outdated system is ill-equipped to handle.

Idiculla says that the existing planning system is overly prescriptive and restrictive, detailing what can and cannot be done to the point where people find it challenging to abide by, leading to frequent violations. The present system is not aligned with ground reality. Cities need a guiding master plan complemented by various sectoral plans for the environment, climate change, housing, public health, and more, all under an overall planning framework. This approach should be adaptive to present needs, allowing certain changes and involving people in the process, he adds.

(Published under Creative Commons from Mongabay-India. Read the original article here)