Planning Act amendment to speed up development

The amendment of the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act of 1966 will now help in speedy implementation of Pune city development plan (DP) which is pending since 2007. The DP that was approved in 1987 had to be followed till 2007. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had to revise the DP in 2007 but the plan is not ready even after four years.

This amendment is not with retrospective effect and it will not help the pending DP for fringe villages. When contacted PMC commissioner Mahesh Phatak who was in Delhi on Monday said over the phone the amendment is to finalise the DP in 4.5 years and it will not affect the DP for fringe villages.

“Earlier,the DP submitted to the government would take 10-15 years for sanctioning which would affect the development of the area. The amendment will definitely put the onus on the municipal corporations to ready the plan within the time frame,’’ said Principal Secretary Urban Development Department (UDD) T C Benjamin.

The period of 20 years to follow the DP is also being considered by the Urban Development Department. “Twenty years is a long period for any DP with so much growth taking place. We are planning to reduce it by 10 years. With rapid urbanisation,any modern city should consider only 10 years for implementation of the DP,’’ said Benjamin.

All planning authorities have to ready the plan in a given time-frame after the amendment. “Pune,Mumbai and Aurangabad will have to abide by this amendment,’’ Benjamin said,adding,“This amendment is for all the new DPs. Pune city DP which is being planned out will fall under this category.’’

For the 2007 DP,PMC officials had sought time till December 2011.