Why Delhi’s Master Plan 2041 may be changed to a 2047 vision

Changing the horizon year to 2047 will also align the plan with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of India becoming a developed nation by 2047. “As far as policies are concerned, population projections till the new year will have to be taken into account,” sources with knowledge of the development said.

The Delhi Master Plan 2041 was approved by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on February 28, 2023, and sent to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) for notification on April 13, 2023. Since then, several deadlines have been missed, including the 100-day deadline set by the MoHUA after the Modi government was elected for the third term.

The DDA and the LG’s Office did not respond to queries sent by The Indian Express regarding the expected revision.

At the beginning of this month, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal had said that the Master Plan 2041 would be finalised after one “last meeting” to be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “We have completed the work and submitted it…Just two-three final suggestions from there have to be incorporated and one last final meeting will be held…,” he had said.

The discussions on the possible revisions come in the backdrop of the meeting of the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB), which is scheduled to be held on Tuesday. At the meeting, officials concerned are expected to take a final call to draft the NCR Regional Plan-2041, which has faced similar delays.

Among others, policy on how the government intends to deal with unauthorised colonies in Yamuna’s O-Zone, which houses over five lakh people is set to be in spotlight in the wake of Delhi High Court order last month that residential colonies in the eco-sensitive floodplain are “completely impermissible”. In the absence of the full notification, the government has introduced key policy changes to Delhi’s urban planning framework in recent months.

In April, MoHUA had notified the new Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy for Delhi, which is expected to open up large swathes of land near Metro corridors to high density development. The government had also announced the decision to regularise 1,511 unauthorised colonies of Delhi on an “as-is-where-is basis”, removing the prerequisite of having an approved layout plan.

The government is also formulating a new policy for in-situ slum rehabilitation. The Indian Express had reported earlier that the Delhi government is planning a revision in its new slum rehabilitation policy — to extend the cut-off date in the current policy by around 10 years from January 1, 2015, to January 1, 2025. Drafted under the Delhi Development Act, 1957, the first Master Plan for Delhi was announced in 1962, followed by Master Plans of 2001 and 2021. The Delhi Master Plan 2021 had also missed deadlines and it was notified in 2007.