‘Maharashtra government to release Mumbai’s 20-year development plan by March’

The CM said he will create a separate body for development urban spaces in the city

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said that the final Development Plan 2034 will be published by March and he will create a separate body for development urban spaces in the city.

CM Devendra Fadnavis during a conference on open spaces, in Mumbai on Tuesday. (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

The DP was supposed to be released three years ago. To develop more accessible urban spaces, the CM also announced that his government will create Urban Art Commission within one month. An Urban art commission will look into aesthetic development of the city.

He was speaking at a function organised by the Observer Research Foundation to release a report on city’s open spaces on Tuesday. The report titled ‘Endangered Future of Mumbai’s Open Spaces’ highlights availability of open spaces in the city, accessibility, civic body’s budget and slew of measures to for playgrounds.

The state government had six months to review and publish the DP, after it was passed by civic body’s general body in August. The DP is a crucial document determining the city’s land use and infrastructure development for the next 20 years. While the first version was released in February 2015, Fadnavis ordered a revision post a public-outcry over the DP being builder-friendly. The revised DP was then released in four different phases in 2016 with the BMC accepting public observations at every stage.

While the event discussed and demanded the need of a comprehensive open space policy, CM kept quiet about the issue and said that the report will be forwarded to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporartion (BMC).

The per capita allocation for open spaces, healthcare facilities, education amenities and social amenities in the DP is not even close to the required national standards of the Urban Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (UDPFI) guidelines. For instance, the required per capita allocation for open spaces is 10-12 per sqm, according to the UDPFI. However, the DP has allocated only 4 per sqm in the city and suburbs.