Taking into consideration the pace of urbanisation, Maharashtra Government has conceptualised setting up Urban Design Cell (UDC) with a view of maintaining aesthetic point of view that gels with the local culture and traditions. These cells would work at Municipal Corporation, Regional Authority and also at Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat levels. The Government issued a notification on March 28 laying out the roadmap for establishment of these UDC to monitor implementation of rules.

 

The notification states that there are 421 Planning Authorities in State and the Development Plans are prepared by them have implementation period spread over 20 years. At Municipal Corporation category there are 21 Authorities, 13 at A category Municipal Councils, 73 at B category Municipal Councils, 148 at C category Municipal Councils and 155 at D category. Of those, 298 Development Plans have been approved by State Government while others are in process of approval. For A, B and C category Municipal Corporations and Special Planning Authorities, the UDCs will be headed by respective Commissioner, Metropolitan Commissioner /Special Planning Officer heading the Authority. The Deputy Director, Town Planning will be In-charge of the Committee,while the Members will be City Engineer, Expert in History or Heritage, Architect or Engineer specialising in City/Urban Planning, Structural Engineer with 10+ years of experience and member of the Institution of Engineers and senior citizens or invitees having knowledge about urban planning issues.

 

Other than Municipal Corporation, Government has notified creation of two separate monitoring units exclusively for Municipal Councils. Their functioning will be supervised under Presidentship of Deputy Director, Town Planning Traffic and Transport Sector, Pune/Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. Deputy Director, Town Planning Traffic and Transport Sector, will function as Head of the Department, while District Level officer nominated by District Collector, a Revenue Officer or SDO, will be its Member along with Assistant Director, Town Planner, Traffic and Transport Sector and Assistant Director, Town Planning, District Branch office, and Experts in Town Planning. As to their working, these UDCs are tasked with preparation of design for the particular area under its supervision by incorporating suggestions from concerned departments within their functional area.

 

The policy document prepared by UDC will act as guidelines to followed while allowing development activity, be it housing, commercial or industrial in that respective region. While finalising the master plan for development of any sector or township, the Committee will ensure that places of importance and heritage are kept at it is and care should be taken for its beautification without disturbing its originality. The District level UDC will focus on development of financial centres, Transit Oriented Development (TOD), mixed usage development, water front development and site specific designs. Similarly, the UDC at Nagar Parishad should take steps to promote development that would boost tourism and business in their respective areas and prepare master plan and recommend measures to District Collector. Also, they must chalk out plan for proper utilisaton of agricultural land for industrial, housing development. 

 

 

While the concept of UDC is quite welcome, the same may overlap with existing system wherein each of the units has independent Town Planning Authority. The Town Planning Departments at NMC, NMRDA, Municipal Councils, are already tasked with all the aspects outlined in UDC notification by Urban Development Department (UDD). So the objective of UDC is not very clear. Many are cautious about having another authority for planning. In future, the same may delay approvals for projects that may hit hard the citizen, fear the experts.