Focussing on urban planning and development, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced several measures including setting up a high-level committee of planners, economists, and institutions to steer a paradigm change in the approach towards urban sector policies, planning, implementation, capacity building, and governance.

Highlighting the need for orderly urban development, the FM said by the time India turns 100 in 2047, about half the population of the country is likely to live in urban areas.

Orderly development of urban areas will help “realize the country’s economic potential, including livelihood opportunities for the demographic dividend,” Sitharaman said while delivering the Union Budget 2022-23 to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

How the govt plans to change urban planning

Along with nurturing megacities to become centers of economic growth, the government will facilitate the growth of tier 2 and 3 cities to meet future demand, she said, adding that this would require reimagining cities as centers of sustainable living with opportunities for all. To achieve this, the “business-as-usual approach” cannot continue for urban planning, Sitharaman said.

The government will also provide support to states for urban capacity building. It will implement measures like modernization of building bylaws, town planning schemes, and transit-oriented development, which will help people live and work closer to mass transit systems.

States will use the financial support from the Centre for mass transit projects and AMRUT schemes to develop and implement action plans for facilitating town planning schemes and transit-oriented development.

Sitharaman allocated Rs 76,549.46 crore in Union Budget 2022-23 for the Housing and Urban Affairs ministry, which is higher than the budget estimate of Rs 54,581 crore in 2021-22. The revised estimate for 2021-22 stood at Rs 73,850.26 crore.

Why is this being done?

Experts are of the view that despite large-scale investments in cities, the lack of urban planning is a major concern for the government. The move is likely to bring about best practices for urban development by addressing the critical issue of the shortage of urban planners.

The high-level expert committee will be instrumental in bringing in new-age urban planning concepts such as evidence-based urban planning, new-age transportation system, and building resilient and sustainable urban areas, to India, Mint quoted Debashish Biswas, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, as saying.

Highlighting the importance of transit-oriented development schemes, Jignesh Mehta, master of urban planning at CEPT University, told Hindustan Times: “One size fits all approach will not work in cities. Planning transit-oriented developments are important but have to be planned based on the requirements of each city.”

(Edited by : Pradeep Suresh V)

First Published:Feb 2, 2022 5:35 PM IST