Civic body turns to specialists for Development Plan 2014-34

The BMC,for the first time,will have an urban planning firm with various experts on its panel drafting the plan. The earlier two Development Plans were drafted by BMC officials and the civic body was repeatedly criticised for non-implementation.

Six global and Indian consultants have been shortlisted and one will be chosen,depending on their experience,technological expertise and the key personnel who will be involved in the vast exercise.

The panel will include an environment planner,and a development control expert who will design codes for green buildings. The expert will also have to make suggestions about the possibilities of reclamation of NDZs (no development zones) and CRZs (coastal regulatory zones).

The base land use map with minute details of every plot of land in the city was earlier created after physically visiting every corner of the city. For the new DP,the consultant will have its own cartography and GIS (Geographic Information System) expert who will create high-resolution maps through satellite imagery.

“The DP is the document for a city’s development for 20 years. Sometimes it gets obsolete and that is one of the reasons why only 20 per cent of the vision of the current Development Plan has been implemented so far. These experts will help make the plan as dynamic as the changing situations of this city,” said Deepak Kulkarni,deputy chief engineer (Development Plan) of the BMC.

To suggest solutions for the problem of parking spaces,an urban transportation planner will make plans for traffic management,provisions for on-street and off-street parking and transit-oriented development. A medical expert will assess the requirement for public health services to be developed further and a financial analyst will create long-term financial models.

Officials from the DP department add that the plan will have to involve much more than land utilization; it will have to take into consideration employment levels and quality of population. “An urban economist will be assisted by a real estate market analyst to suggest ways to increase the standard of living for the ever-growing population,” Kulkarni said.

TOWN PLANNERS ON THE PANEL
An environment planner
A development control expert
Cartographer-GIS expert
A transportation planner
A medical expert
A financial analyst
An urban economist
A realty analyst