Implementation of Development Plan unlikely before civic polls

MUMBAI: The delay in appointing the planning committee will further delay the release of Mumbai’s blueprint for the next twenty years.

MUMBAI: The delay in appointing the planning committee will further delay the release of Mumbai’s blueprint for the next twenty years.

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The committee, which will go through suggestions and objections to the revised draft Development Plan (DP-2034), is also expected to hear the recommendations of citizens for two months.

The delay also means the revised draft DP will not be implemented until the civic elections — to be held in February 2017 — are over.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the state are yet to appoint the members of this committee.

The seven-member committee will have three members from the standing committee and four experts from urban planning and environment departments. Ideally, the appointment of the committee should have been done before August 1, after which, the hearing of citizens was supposed to begin. “After the planning committee is formed, citizens will get two months to be heard. Once completed, the changes accepted by the committee will be incorporated in the draft DP,” said a senior civic official.

“It will take at least a week to appoint the committee,” he said.

“Since the revised draft DP has many controversial issues , none of the political parties wanted to release it before the election. It’s a deliberate ploy to delay the process till after the election,” said an officer.

The proposal to appoint planning members from the standing committee was passed during Thursday’s general body meeting, but mayor Snehal Ambekar is yet to declare their names.