Delhi’s Master Plan 2041 to be out in first week of June

While focus is on sustainable development, the draft plan talks about urban design provisions to ensure safety of people on the streets by allowing round-the-clock activities.

Tackling pollution, provisioning rental housing, enhancing walkability and redevelopment of old areas are some of the key features of the Master Plan of Delhi-2041 (MPD-2041), the blueprint for city’s development in the next two decades. The draft MPD-2041 was approved by the Delhi Development Authority on Tuesday and will be placed in public domain for comments next month.

Dense clouds on an overcast day at Connaught Place in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

DDA vice chairman Anurag Jain said, “The vision is to foster a sustainable, liveable and vibrant Delhi by 204I. There are several policies and norms that have been introduced to achieve this. In fact, we have included some of them such as green development areas (policy for development in green belt areas), walkability, Transit Oriented Development (ToD), norms for unauthorised colonies etc in the current master plan.”

While focus is on sustainable development, the draft plan talks about urban design provisions to ensure safety of people on the streets by allowing round-the-clock activities.

Jain said, “It is important to have eyes on the streets for the safety of people. It is based on this idea that we have included provisions to mainstream urban design ideas such as active frontage, walkable block lengths, round the clock activity, etc. In new areas which will come up under land pooling, this can easily be done.”

The DDA aims to notify the MPD-2041 or the vision document by December this year.

While there are proposals to modify some existing norms related to development control, there are many new policies which will change the city. These include introduction of Special Green Economic Uses having low Floor Area Ratio and larger green areas, allowing development in green belt, rental housing, etc.

Environment

Increasing air pollution has been one of the key concerns of the city in the past few years. The draft MPD-2041 stresses on the need to enhance the city’s preparedness to deal with climate change issues and tackle pollution, mainly air.

For this, the draft plan has proposed a blue-green policy which is to integrate the drains (blues) with the green areas around it. A senior DDA official said, “The policy for new industrial areas has been changed and no manufacturing units will be allowed. There is provision for adopting strict norms for tackling air, water and noise pollution and Special Green Economic Uses that will have low Floor Area Ratio and large green areas.”

Environmentalist Diwan Singh said just pushing for construction of green buildings or green industries is not enough and concrete measures have to be taken.

Singh said, “There is a conscious effort to increase the green buffer. The DDA should include creation of a biodiversity park or dense green area every 4-5 square km. Green cover is essential to mitigate local air pollution. There should be a plan to revive the water bodies and not flood them with treated water.”

Housing

Currently, the DDA is one of the main agencies responsible for providing housing in the city. While the land-owning agency has modified its policies allowing private developers to provide housing, the DDA has made provision for rental accommodations in its next master plan (a major departure from the existing norms).

A DDA official said, “The focus will be on non-ownership/ rental and small format housing (particularly close to mass transit) with incentivising new formats like serviced apartments, condominiums, hostels, student housing, worker housing, etc. DDA could earmark some plots in the zonal plan for this which can be allotted on leasehold basis to private developers.”

While transit-oriented development (ToD) is being pushed as a major policy in future developments, the draft plan proposes policy for redevelopment and re-densification of old areas specially urbanised villages and unauthorised colonies. DDA officials said that this could be done either through retrofitting or redevelopment. The draft plan also has provisions to provide flexibility in land use and FAR. It stresses on the need to provide social infrastructure in existing residential areas such as urbanised villages, unauthorised colonies, etc.

GIS-based planning

For the first time, the DDA has used GIS-based planning in the MPD-2041. DDA officials said that zonal plans have been prepared after digitally mapping every service, land use and infrastructure . “GIS-based plan is to enable stakeholders to know the exact policies/provisions of the draft Master Plan,” said an official.

There are 168 layers such as residential, trade and commerce, utilities, roads, transport networks, unauthorised colonies, government offices etc which are being earmarked. “So far we have completed 50 layers and plan to finish the remaining soon,” said a senior DDA official.

AK Jain, former planning commission, DDA, said, “GIS is an outdated system and DDA should use new technologies for better planning of the city.”

DDA officials said that efforts have been made to make the document people-friendly and easy to read and understand.

Other provisions

The draft MPD-2041, which is divided in two volumes, focuses on enhancing infrastructure for walkability, special provisions for preservation and redevelopment within identified heritage and cultural precincts. There is also focus on enhancing the environment with focus on preservation and enhancement of ecological heritage (Yamuna riverfront development, biodiversity parks).

Jain, who has been part of the preparation of 2001 and 2021 master plans, said, “The focus of the new master plan should be on developing a 15-minute city by allowing development along transport nodes. It should take people 15 minutes to reach their workplace from home. Also, the land use provisions should be relaxed and made flexible.”