BMC finally clears Mumbai Development Plan-2014-34, after a 3-year delay
After scrapping the previous development plan following stiff opposition, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has finally passed a revised draft development plan, which will now be sent to the government for its approval
The long-pending draft Development Plan (DP) for 2014-34, which will be the blueprint for land use in the metropolis over the next 17 years, has been finally passed by the local civic body. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) passed the DP draft on August 1, 2017, after 227 corporators across political parties proposed/suggested 266 amendments, said a senior civic official. It will now go to the Maharashtra government for its final nod and implementation.
Of these 266 proposals/suggestions, 114 were moved by the BJP, 87 by the Shiv Sena, 25 by the Congress, 21 by the NCP and 13 by the SP, he said. The civic body is ruled by the Shiv Sena-BJP combine. The proposal to build a carshed for the Mumbai metro rail in Aarey Colony, a green belt, was a bone of contention between the Shiv Sena and the BJP. To avoid a stalemate, the issue was excluded from the draft.
However, town planning experts said merely chalking out the plan is not enough and efforts should be made to implement it in letter and spirit. Pankaj Joshi, executive director of the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI), a body of town planners, said making a plan is quite different from implementing and monitoring it. “Just see what the BMC did with its two previous DPs. The BMC executed only 18 per cent of the plans in the DP prepared in 1961 and 33 per cent in 1991 DP. So, the most important thing, is to implement the plans carefully,” he said.
The present DP has already been delayed by three years. It was scheduled to be cleared in 2014. The BMC came out with the draft DP in February 2015, but it faced stiff resistance from political parties, NGOs, heritage conservators and eminent personalities. Following the opposition, the BJP-led Maharashtra government scrapped the contentious DP. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis then directed the BMC to prepare a fresh plan.
BMC finally clears Mumbai Development Plan-2014-34
