<div>It is of interest to note that many urban areas across the country now have Master Plans, Zonal Plans and Local Area Plans to control future development. One would like to believe that planning and urban design professionals are now active, aware and more involved in controlling the massive proliferation of urban growth across the country. This would however be a grossly misleading conclusion. A mere look at the plans in relation to the actual situation on the ground would help to dispel any illusions in this matter. With steadily increasing pressure of urban growth unauthorized construction is rampant in most areas, as there are no effective control systems in place. </div><div> </div><div>In discussing this issue, Delhi and its surrounding areas present a good example for study of a kind of planning that is being replicated in other parts of the country. Delhi has had three Master Plans from 1961 onwards, and in a sense much of what has been developed over the last 50 years has been in accordance with the prescribed Master Plans. The failure of course, lies in the gross mismatch between what was planned and what actually happened on the ground. </div><div> </div><div>One major failure was the factor of implementation over time. Facilities and amenities that should have been developed within some kind of time framework were not developed. Of the 15 District Centres proposed in the 1961 Delhi Master Plan to serve as the major work centers of the city, to date only 12 have been implemented. Some of these are still not fully complete, creating a serious shortfall of available commercial space in relation to overall population growth. </div><div> </div><div>In many areas where Local Shopping Centres and Community Centres were not built alongside with residential development, a series of retail shops came up within residential units to meet actual need. A misuse which still continues in many areas. When commercial development related to District Centres did not come up, the increased demand for commercial space was met in areas outside the Master Plan zone. A large number of commercial offices moved to adjoining towns like NOIDA and Gurgaon. </div><div> </div><div>These shortfalls relating to actual need have still not been rectified over time. This is because the Master Plans are inflexible documents, which in their updated form have simply replicated what was prescribed earlier, without making adjustments for the changed demands that emerged over time. </div><div> </div><div><strong><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/MAIN-DC-FOR-2031-lrg.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 588px; margin: 1px;"><br><br>The Latest Delhi Master Plan 2021 provides for 13 new District Centres </strong></div><div>in addition to the original 15 - which are supposedly in the process of development. Although six years have passed since the 2021 Master Plan became law, development continues at a pace controlled by the Delhi Development Authority. The DDA as per the 1961 Delhi Master Plan was entrusted with the responsibility to implement the Plan, as well as to buy, develop, and sell land within the notified area. Over time DDA’s interest in effectively planning the future growth of the city has diminished, and emphasis has shifted to the generation of maximum profit from the sale of land. The long term welfare of city residents, and the provision of meeting actual need on a timely basis, has become secondary. This has happened at a time when the population has increased way beyond earlier projections, and the pressures of growth, traffic and massive construction, all call for a complete revision of the Master Plan along with more intensive detailed planning of specific areas.</div><div> </div><div>What has happened in and around Delh, is similar to the process of development being followed in most states across the country. In many situations while the Master Plans make a fair attempt to provide a unified structure with a defined hierarchy of roads and sectors, actual development on the ground follows a totally disorganized process. Most pockets of land ear marked for development consist of irregular shaped plots, based on age old agricultural khasra plans. No attempt has been made to consolidate such plots into any kind of regular shape. The proposed traffic and infrastructure network is simply superimposed on these irregular patches of erstwhile farm pockets. Planning sanction is given according to prescribed use, regardless of the shape of the plots. The result of such inefficient planning is evident in large built areas of Gurgaon, with its odd shaped building complexes. </div><div> </div><div>Even in towns and cities where land has been consolidated and then sold in regular pockets by the local development authorities, the resulting end product is not always much better. This can be seen in the area controlled by the Delhi Development Authority in the metropolitan area of the capital. Although on the face of it the Master Plans and Zonal Plans appear to be more orderly, in many cases the lack of proper detailed planning, shows up in the shallow outline land use plans. There is no 3D visualization of the proposed development. Different areas as can be seen from the air or in Google maps showing major changes that have already occurred in different areas, that have either been ignored in the Zonal Plans, or find only casual mention.</div><div> </div><div><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/LAJPAT-NAGAR-PLAN-lrg.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 498px; margin: 1px;"><br><br>Notable plan omissions include, the enormous commercial development at Lajpat Nagar, Karol Bagh, Rajouri Garden, and the entire Delhi Metro Rail network, and the BRT corridors. The metro-rail and the BRT corridors have simply been superimposed on the existing development without reflection of the substantial changes emanating from these developments. The inevitable increase of concentrated development along these corridors are only verbally described in the plan notification with no detailed plans or urban design for the affected areas. </div><div> </div><div>Despite the fact that we have available today a whole range of up to date tools to facilitate proper detailed design of each and every space, the local planning authorities have not used any such devices. Today with the help of GPS projections, the entire existing development can be viewed in three dimensions, along with multiple layers of services, along with clear projections of future development being proposed. Such visualisations, can be regularly updated to reflect actual change, and also be used as devices for determining the direction of future growth. At present the plans contained in the Zonal Development Plans of the Delhi Metropolitan area lack depth due to inadequate infrastructure information, resulting in superficial outline development proposals.</div><div> </div><div><img alt="" src="http://bw-image.s3.amazonaws.com/172949-lrg.jpg" style="width: 650px; height: 440px; margin: 1px;"><br><br>Part of the problem with planning in Delhi is the multiplicity of authorities responsible for control of specific areas and different aspects. The MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) now split into three units covering North, South and East zones, looks after the major part of the city within urban area limits, the NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Committee) looks after the government area of Lutyen’s Delhi, and some areas beyond this. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) administers the Delhi Master Plan, and is also responsible for the development and sale of land within the city. The DUAC (Delhi Urban Art Commission) is the overall watchdog that is expected to protect and control the aesthetic and environmental aspects of the city. It is however largely an advisory body, and its recommendations are often ignored. As can be expected in such a situation there is considerable overlapping of responsibilities of the different agencies, with the result, that the future of development remains uncertain. </div><div> </div><div>Professional architects, town planners and urban designers should have been active participants in helping to bring about some sense of order in this confused and constantly changing urban situation. But this has not happened. Most town planners in government agencies have over time become bureaucrats administering and implementing outdated plans, without undertaking any creative exercise to update and change plans, to resolve complex urban issues arising from constant pressures of haphazard growth. Master Plans that do not respond to actual changes on the ground soon become obsolete and meaningless. Government officials responsible for the implementation of plans generally resist change. The steady increase of population in most urban areas calls for planning on an ongoing basis. This calls for a fundamental change in the current approach to the detailed development of our cities, and it is now essential that planners and urban designers play a lead role in making this change happen.</div><div> </div><div><div> </div><div><em>The author, Ranjit Sabikhi has been in practice as an Architect in New Delhi since 1961. He taught at the School of Planning & Architecture in New Delhi from 1959 to 1975 and has also been a Visiting Critic to the Urban Design Program at GSD Harvard University and the School of Architecture at Washington University St. Louis</em></div></div><div> </div>
