Mumbaiites, you still have a say in city’s 20-year Development Plan

Maharashtra govt will open plan for public scrutiny for 30 days once BMC submits it.

Your suggestions or objections can still be included in the city’s 20-year vision document. Once the Development Plan (DP) 2034 is submitted to the Maharashtra government, the state will invite citizens’ suggestions and objections to the plan, prepared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The draft plan is pending with the 227-member corporation, which has demanded another extension to study it. (HT FILE)

The draft plan is pending with the 227-member corporation, which has demanded another extension to study it. The changes made to the draft by the BMC’s elected house will be open to citizens’ scrutiny for 30 days, government officials said.

A senior civic official from BMC’s DP department said, “The process of getting suggestions/objections on the plan was conducted by the BMC in 2016. Therefore, this round of objections will only concern the latest changes proposed in the plan. The government has six months to finalise and sanction the plan.”

However, this means that finalising Mumbai’s vision document, which has already been delayed by three years, will take even longer. The DP was to be released in 2014 but went through many corrections, extensions and delays. Officials will now write to the state government asking for another extension of two months as demanded by the Shiv Sena, the party that runs the BMC.

Meanwhile, BMC has also started finalising the proposed land-use maps for areas between LBS Marg and Mithi river in Kurla, the A block in Bandra-Kurla Complex and the Oshiwara district centre. These land parcels were handed over to BMC by the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) in September 2016. The plan for these areas is likely to be released by the end of this month.