Master Plan of Delhi 2041

From creating a ’24-hour city’ with a nighttime economy, extensive transportation infrastructure, affordable housing for all, and a healthy environment to controlling rogue colonies and pollution, these are part of the guiding principles that The DDA has established for the ‘Delhi Master Plan 2041’.

The draft of MPD-2041, which was released to the public on Wednesday for suggestions and objections, largely covers policies on the environment, economy, mobility, heritage, culture, and public spaces, among others.

Delhi Master Plan 2041 | Perspectives

• The plan includes affordable rental housing and residential areas with complete facilities and small-format housing in the national capital for the next 20 years.
• He also proposes that there should be no further growth of unauthorized colonies, adding that there should be urban village development within two years of the notification of MPD 2041.
• According to the preliminary plan of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the population of Delhi is estimated to increase to 3.9 million rupees from 1.67 million rupees in the 2011 census.
• Given the growing concern about pollution, a shift is taking place towards cleaner economies such as information technology (IT), IT-enabled services, high-tech, and knowledge-based industries, business activities, the real estate market, tourism, hospitality, tertiary care, and higher education planned, stated the voluminous project.
• The concept of a ’24-hour city’ is being promoted through the Model Stores and Establishments (Employment and Conditions of Service Regulation) Act of 2015, as well as the night economy policy (NTE), he said.
• The nighttime economy is gaining prominence in many countries. Job creation and tourist attraction are some of the benefits. However, infrastructure support and management policies are needed for this.
• MPD 2041 advocates for the identification of nodes and circuits in the city to continue work, cultural activity, and nightly entertainment to attract tourists and locals.
• This will improve economic performance by expanding the use of workspaces and security in the city by promoting a vibrant nightlife, the draft plan proposes.
• Delhi areas such as Connaught Place and its sprawl, the commercial areas in the Walled City, and Karol Bagh have historically played the role of the central business district and continue to have a high concentration of commerce, offices, businesses, and socio-cultural facilities.
• “An area-based improvement approach will be taken to revitalize the city’s business core,” he says.
• Connaught Place and its expanse are iconic centers characterized by historic and heritage buildings and a diverse mix of office, hospitality, entertainment, retail and business activities.
• The proposed Delhi -2041 Master Plan also suggests identifying specific locations to allow agriculture in the floodplains.
• He suggests a special initiative for the rejuvenation of the Yamuna, including the creation of “greenways” along the embankments of the Yamuna for public access with a provision of walking and biking trails.
• The location of all heritage assets held by the respective agencies will be integrated with the GIS-based Delhi Spatial Information System.
• The list of heritage assets will be updated every five years to assess their status and take the necessary measures for their conservation.
• Establishing the roadmap for housing supply in the national capital, the draft says that future housing supply will be met by large-scale development of sectors in the new areas of Delhi using the land pool model.
• The identified land pool areas have the potential to develop 17-20 lakh housing units.
• He cites how metropolitan cities around the world maintain a diversified rental housing stock that provides residents and migrants with tenure flexibility, geographic mobility, and affordability.
• “Given the high cost of land in developed parts of the city, this also ensures the availability of housing for a variety of income groups closer to their places of work, thus minimizing travel distances,” he says.
• A paradigm shift in the supply scenario is anticipated, with the private sector leading the development or redevelopment of housing during the plan period, he added.
• It also calls for strategic corridors to drive high-speed connectivity and redevelopment of the historic bypass rail network.
• The draft outlines that Delhi’s public transport system needs further integration at the institutional, spatial and systems-level; to provide a perfect travel experience to travelers.
• “Institutional integration could be made possible by a broader mandate, efforts to achieve spatial integration (land use and transportation integration, multimodal integration, last-mile connectivity, among others), and systems integration (route rationalization buses, intelligent transport systems, including ticketing, command and control center for better traffic management), have been started, but need to be strengthened, “he said.
• He added that there should be regular safety audits for structural safety and the training of the state-of-the-art Delhi Disaster Response Force (DDRF).

In the next 20 years, Delhi’s infrastructure will face “unprecedented pressure” and therefore must respond to emerging needs and withstand “crises and stresses,” the draft plan reads, noting that the “approach is to create a sustainable and resource-efficient environment by enabling the provision of robust and resilient infrastructure services.”

The Master Plan for Delhi is one of the key instruments facilitating the development of Delhi by assessing the current condition and guiding how to achieve the desired development and meet future challenges. The anchor agency for the master plan is the DDA.