‘Master Plan needs to factor in population rise’

Nath said that Delhi Development Authority’s Master Plan Delhi 2021 will be revised by next year,“as per the provision to revise the document every five years”.

“The process of revision has to be based on (findings of) 2011 Census. The Master Plan issued in 2007 is based on the 2001 Census. This revision,however,has to be based on the 2011 Census,when the population is more than 20 million — it is a 58 per cent increase,” Nath told Newsline on the sidelines of the foundation laying ceremony of 52 special-type flats for Lok Sabha MPs at Dr BD Marg.

The Minister said further load can be created only where the basic infrastructure can support it. “The situation that we are in,we cannot demolish anything. So vertical growth is the only answer because of the density of Delhi. But,vertical growth (can be allowed) only in those areas where the basic infrastructure is already there or can be built,” Nath said.

Last month,Nath said MPD-2021 is not viable as it is disconnected from ground realities. He had called for a revision in the plan. He had said the revised document would be made more accommodating,and also save several residential and commercial areas from demolition.

“If the Master Plan had been made correctly,the illegal constructions (which came up in) last 50 years would not have been there,” the Minister had said in November.