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 The system has basically remained the same since the first Act of 1947 which repealed all previous Acts including the first Housing and Town Planning Act,1909 followed by the Housing and Town Planning Act, 1919, the Town Planning Act, 1925 and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 uses-residential 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.

• 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.

• 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 non-conforming 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.

• 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 place- 1 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

• 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