Wanted: town planners for smart cities

A town planner is trained to prepare town plans or Master Plans. These are statutory documents which give the broad direction for the spatial growth of a city.

Updated on: May 28, 2015, 19:47:34 IST

Hindustan Times | By Vandana Ramnani, New Delhi

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A town planner is trained to prepare town plans or Master Plans. These are statutory documents which give the broad direction for the spatial growth of a city. Most states in India have Town Planning Acts which empower the state town planning departments to prepare plans for all of its towns and cities. After the town plans are prepared, they need to be implemented. Town planners also play a role there in terms of validating land uses, approving land subdivisions, projects, etc.

Town planners have a key role to play in terms of giving sanctions to the proposals put up by real estate developers. Town planners, in addition to preparing Master Plans, also have to prepare zonal plans for the city.

Architecture-is-not-just-about-creating-buildings-It-s-an-art-and-a-passion-The-profession-can-give-you-a-creative-high-and-immortality-through-the-structures-you-design

Today, in addition to political interference in the planning process, it is increasingly being felt that people themselves also need to be actively involved.

Therefore, plans prepared today need to go through detailed exposure in terms of stakeholder consultative meetings, etc. Often, in the preparation of a Master Plan, thousands of comments are received and all these need to be duly examined before the plan is finalised. This is often seen as a huge challenge and not always welcome.

Therefore, over the years, India has moved from a top down approach to a participative and inclusive approach to plan preparation, says Prof Dr PSN Rao, head (housing), SPA, Delhi.

There is a huge scope for town planners in India. Whilst we have as many as 5,161 towns and cities in the country only a few hundred of them have plans prepared. Also, with a 100 smart cities being planned across the country, the demand for town planners will be humongous.

There are around 600 districts and 5,000 towns in the country. Most cities do not even have zonal plans in place and many states have also only recently initiated the process of town planning. Rapid urbanisation across the country will therefore ensure that town planners are always in great demand.

As far as salaries are concerned, an architecture graduate can start as an associate town planner at a salary of Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 30,000 per month.

Institute watch

School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi
www.spa.ac.in

School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal
http://www.spabhopal.ac.in/home.aspx

School of Planning and Architecture, Vijaywada
http://www.spav.ac.in/

CEPT University, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad
http://www.cept.ac.in/

Jadavpur University, Kolkata
http://www.jaduniv.edu.in/

Sir J J College of Architecture, Mumbai
http://www.sirjjarchitecture.org/

MS University, Baroda
http://www.msubaroda.ac.in/

MIT, School of Planning and Architecture, US
http://sap.mit.edu/

AA School of Architecture, UK
http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/AASCHOOL/WELCOME/index.phpi

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vandana Ramnani
Vandana Ramnani leads the real estate vertical at Hindustan Times Digital, bringing over two decades of journalism experience across real estate, education, human resources, and foreign affairs. She specialises in India’s real estate sector, covering residential and commercial markets in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, with in-depth reporting on regulatory developments, urban policy, housing trends, and interviews with industry leaders. Her work has also appeared in the Hindustan Times newspaper and HT Estates. Earlier, Vandana played a key role in establishing the real estate vertical at Moneycontrol (NW18 Group), shaping its editorial direction and market coverage. She has also written extensively on international education for HT Education, tracking global study destinations, policy changes, and student mobility trends, earning the Singapore Education Award 2009 for Best Media Coverage (Print). Her reporting portfolio includes human resources and employment trends for HT ShineJobs and PowerJobs, as well as lifestyle and interior design features for HT Premium Homes. Vandana began her career with the Press Trust of India, gaining strong editorial and reporting expertise. She was also selected for a prestigious fellowship at Fondation Journalistes en Europe in Paris, where she wrote for EuroMag. One of her notable reporting assignments included covering Germany’s capital relocation from Bonn to Berlin. Outside of journalism, Vandana is a passionate traveller, constantly seeking out charming hideaways across India and the lesser-known, offbeat corners of Southeast Asia.Read More

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