Towards Responsive Urban And
Regional Planning…
National Land Use Policy for
Sustainable Development
JB Kshirsagar
Chief Planner
Background
• All human settlements sustain on land
• Any environmentally compatible planning
strategy must begin with a comprehensive look
on the use of land.
• Planners need detailed information about the
extent and spatial distribution of various land
uses, their characteristics, population growth
patterns, sprawl, existing condition of
infrastructure, utilities etc. for perspective
planning and management.
• In the present context, settlements, environment, water resources,
forests, agricultural land, rural and urban livelihoods etc have come
under tremendous pressure largely on account of increase in
urbanisation.
•
Urbanisation per se denotes the growth of urban settlements both
in demographic and spatial terms.
•
However, its undesirable manifestations are been increasingly felt
on the rural hinterland in terms of unorganised and haphazard peri
urban/fringe area development, location of industries, activities etc
far away from cities, in many cases on a stand alone basis and the
consequent undesirable impacts on the environment.
Historical Framework
• Country Planning has its genesis in the term Town and
Country Planning which is planning for landuse in order to
balance economic development and environmental quality.
• The Town and Country Planning Act, 1947(England) created
the framework for this system.
• Green belts subservient to agricultural use were added in
1955 by a Government circular. The system has basically
remained the same since the first Act of 1947 which
repealed all previous Acts including the first Housing and
Town Planning Act,1909 followed by the Housing and Town
Planning Act, 1919, the Town Planning Act, 1925 and Town
and Country Planning Act , 1932.
• The roots of the British system created in the post war
years lie in the concerns developed over the previous
half century in response to rapid industrialisation and
urbanisation.
• The particular concerns focused on pollution, urban
sprawl and ribbon development.
• During the years, 1939-45 a series of Royal
Commissions looked at the problems of urban planning
and development control.
• Essentially, country planning deals with those areas
outside the town limits and are part of the region.
• The discipline of Town and Country Planning(T&CP) focuses on
planned and orderly growth of ‘town’ and ‘country’ through
formulating, implementing and enforcing the provisions of
Development Plans prepared under statutory provisions.
• However , not all T&CP Acts have provisions for ‘country’ planning
i.e regional planning and development, as a result of which , among
others, peri urban/ fringe area development of an undesirable kind
tends to occur
• This necessitates the need for comprehensive and integrated
regional planning and development throughout the country in
order that agricultural land is conserved , forest areas are protected
and water resources judiciously managed. It is therefore imperative
to dwell on the National Land Use Policy for the country as a whole
by promoting regional planning and development .
• The history of contemporary planning practice in India commenced
with the enactment of the Bombay Improvement Trust Act 1920.
Subsequently, similar Acts were enacted in other presidencies. The
visit of Sir Patrick Gaddes to India and his propagation of the work home place theory laid the foundation for the enactment of Town
and Country Planning Acts in various States and the establishment
of State Town and Country Planning Departments.
• Following this, Development Authorities were set up under
Development Authority Acts for addressing the problems of fast
growing towns and cities and formulating Master Plans which apart
from having strong spatial connotations also have both social and
economic aims.
• The area outside the proposed urbanisable limits of towns and
cities were not really seen as problem area in the past.
Country Planning viz a viz Regional
Planning
• However, with urbanisation fuelled by economic growth.
Statutory regional planning exercises at all levels are an
absolute necessity
• In the past many regional plans like Dandkarnaya region,
Damodar Valley region, South East Resource region ,
Singrauli region , Western Ghats region, Chandigarh inter
state region were formulated but not really implemented
on account of absence of enabling legislation.
• Perhaps, the only successful examples of regional planning
efforts in India among others the National Capital Regional
Plan, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Plan, Bangalore
Metropolitan Region Plan, Delhi Metropolitan Area Plan.
• Regional planning in turn is a branch of landuse
planning which deals with the efficient placement of
landuse, infrastructure and settlements across a
significantly larger area than an individual town/city.
• In planning terms, a region may be administrative or
functional and includes a hierarchy of settlements,
associated network and agricultural land, forest areas,
environmentally sensitive zones and the like. Regional
planning addresses issues related to flood plains,
transportation infrastructure, the assigned role of
settlements, designating various uses, green belts,
setting out regional policies, zoning etc.
The Fringe
• Many terms synonymous to fringe such as urban fringe,
rural urban fringe, sub-urban areas, suburbs, urban
periphery and more recently extended metropolitan
regions (EMRs) have been used in planning literature.
• Fringe relates to the growth of cities immediately outside
the designated urbanizable limits and has strong
interaction with present city and bears an urban reflection
on the physical, occupational and demographic
characteristics.
• By and large, the residents of the fringe enjoy the urban
services and facilities but usually do not pay for them.
• The process of urbanization operating in the fringe has given rise to typical
land use associations where the contemporary and dynamic land use
pattern is developing side by side in the contemporary context
• Various land uses, i.e. old villages, new residential extensions, commerce,
industry, city service and farming are not sorted out into homogenous
areas but are intermingled in a random fashion which gives a distinctive
quality to the land use pattern of rural urban fringe.
• The haphazard development of slums, unauthorized colonies, piecemeal
commercial development, intermix of conforming and non-conforming
uses of land coupled with inadequate services and facilities have become
a common features in the fringe.
• The dynamic change from rural to urban land use is so fast that the
resultant need and complex uses coupled with shortage of land have led
to speculation and increase in land values.
•
The ever-growing difference between the demand and supplies of house sites and units coupled with
restriction on other forms of supply and very high cost of land in the city have increased the pressure of
fringe area tremendously which has given rise to proliferation of unauthorized development of land usesresidential and industries etc.
•
The fringe areas are generally within the jurisdiction of panchayat which has neither the financial
resources nor the technical expertise to plan and manage the rapidly developing fringe.
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The urban authorities also ignore the problems of fringe as it falls outside their limit. Thus the city and
fringe, although, administratively fall in different areas, for the residents of the fringe there is hardly any
difference between the two and their movement is unrestricted and they use the municipal services
without paying for it.
•
The property and service taxes are relatively higher in the city than in the fringe area and therefore
attracts industries which intensifies development. Like municipal areas, panchayats have no town
planning rules, sub-division regulations and rules for provision of services suited to the dynamic
situation of the fringe and haphazard development takes place. Since land in the city is beyond the reach
of middle/low income group people, they look for land outside the city limit.
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The speculator who holds the land for quick profit starts selling it by parcelling it
unauthorisedly without any services. The buyers who are in urgent need for
housing build houses on un-serviced plot whereas others hold the plot without
use in anticipation of infrastructure development.
Unplanned development of fringe areas leads to the lack of public facilities- public
open spaces, health centres and schools and degradation of environment as the
required sanitary and water disposal services are not provided.
The agricultural land around the city is eaten away and the agriculturists and
workers are forced to change their occupation. In brief, it may be concluded that in
order to offset and contain urban sprawl, green belt has been statutorily provided
in the plan which however has presented several difficulties.
The extent of the area is so vast that it is virtually impossible to prevent nonconforming uses in the green belts. The local panchayats lack the men, material
and the will to look after enforcement whereas the local authority has its own
priorities within the conurbation to develop housing and services.
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Thus there is always a variety of pressures by vested interest
groups for conversion of land use in the green belts.
Industrialists press for large and cheap sites with less controls.
Cooperative housing societies, which have purchased land for
housing from farmers prior to notification of the green belts press
for exemptions.
Established industries have pressed for expansion and housing.
Speculators have entered into deals with farmers for sale of their
lands even after notification of green belt.
Failure to prevent unauthorized development in the green belt has
created political pressures to regularize them subsequently and
change the land use from agricultural to industrial development
and finally unawaited extension of conurbation.
To address this issue
• It is important to have Statutory plans at 3 levels in place1
Macro – Regional
2
Meso- Town/City
3
Micro- Zone/ LAP
• A Master Plan is a statutory tool to guide and channelize the growth and
development of a settlement . It is notified under T&CP Act or Urban
Development Authority Act.
• The objective is to regulate the development of urban areas and their
environs to address :
• Overall
City
planning
and
development
over
the
space(Horizontal/Vertical).
• Regulating future landuse and Implementing the provisions of Zoning
Regulations and regulating the Built up Space.
• Planning and Management of Physical and Social Infrastructure.
•
Planning and Management of Heritage ,Built and Natural Environment
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Preparation of Master Plans for any City or Town urban area involves detailed
planning surveys for physical,socio-economic and demographic parameters.
Depending upon the spatial expanse of a city or a town , base map is prepared on
an appropriate scale which not only shows the existing landuse but also physical
and social infrastructure, utilities,etc.
One of the pre-requisites for taking up a Master Plan exercise is availability of
accurate and updated large scale base map.
The master plan has a detailed analysis of availability of existing physical and
social infrastructure facilities along with analysis of holding capacity of city as
whole duly taking into future urbanizable area.
Policies for densification, redensification , renewal/redevelopment and congestion
which are the typical intervention for any metropolitan cities are also included in
Master plan.
Of late, issues like disaster management, environment management, heritage
conservation are also being included in Master Plans. VISION for a city/town as to
what it is going to be in next 20 years and what would be the future development
is enunciated in Master Plan.
• As the mega and metropolitan cities expand, the planning
exercise has to increase its scope to the city’s region
encompassing the surrounding hinterland by developing
satellite towns.
• In order to achieve balanced development of the region,
Regional Plan is prepared keeping in view the overall
settlement hierarchy and allocation of economic activities
as per the potential of the settlements of different order.
Regional Plans have also been prepared under the NCRPB
Act (NCR Plan, 2021) ,State T&CP Acts/Development
Authority Act (Goa Regional Plan, Mumbai Metropolitan
Region Plan, 2021, Kolkata Metropolitan Region Plan,
2021, etc.
The need of the hour
• Is to create an information system at regional level to retrieve, integrate
and create various planning scenarios for decision making.
• Compliance of 74th CAA in terms of constitution of MPC/DPC and prepare
Metropolitan and District Development Plans.
• Restructuring the spatial pattern of the city through a Comprehensive
Mobility Plan to achieve integration between landuse and transport
especially when the city expands spatially.
• The State Governments have to take these steps at multiple levels –
1. Address legislative and institutional structures
2. Develop spatial and attribute data structures
3. Capacity building
4. Promote alternatives to land assembly, development, disposal methods
5. Incentivise reforms and tie finances
6. Promote advocacy measures to adopt a strategic approach