23 Five Years urban planning in India

Dr. Taruna Bansal

epgp books

 

 

 

 

Aim: To understand the importance of five year plans and the role of cities towards Urban development in India

 

  1. Introduction

  Urbanisation being a world-wide phenomenon has affected India economy as direct reflection of the structural changes in the economy with anOccupational shift from agriculture to urban-based industry with increased agricultural performance solely responsible for promoting urbanisation. The combined contribution of industry and services to GDP is higher than agriculture which emphasis on urban areas which are likely to play an increasingly important role with the continuing liberalisation of the economy. As per the current scenario much of the growth of the economy will come from economic activities that are likely to be concentrated in and around existing cities and towns, particularly large cities, having transport and telecom linkages with global economy in order to become preferred destinations for investments. The cities need to be supported with improved planning and infrastructure to accommodate growth, better governance and management.Currently 300 million Indians currently live in towns and cities. Within 20-25 years, another 300 million people will get added to Indian towns and cities. This urban expansion will happen at a speed quite unlike anything that India has seen before.

 

2. History of Planning in India

 

The ever inevitable increase in India’s urban population under different circumstances has been adding enormous stress on its infrastructure systems, which needs proper planning & management in order to sustain & contribute towards the development of the nation & its economy. Therefore, Planning is an important component for any country, especially for a developing one like India.In view of prioritising planning the government of India initiated five year plans post-independence period in 1951. Prior to first five year plan, Indian economy was backward having increase in Population more as compared to economic growth with a bad situation of trade and industries, this was effecting The per capita income in the country which was also very low. Therefore, planning started in India with a central objective to initiate a process of development which will raise living standards and open out to the people new opportunities for a richer and more varied life. (comission)Since 1947, the Indian economy has been premised on the concept of planning. The Planning Commission has been entrusted with the responsibility of the creation, development and execution of India’s five year plans. This has been carried through the Five-Year Plans, developed, executed, and monitored by the Planning Commission to be known as NITI Aayog after the dissolution of the Planning Commission in 2014an acronym for National Institution for Transforming India.

 

2.1. Pre Independence Planning

 

Prior independence theoretical efforts including National Planning Committee by Indian National Congress in 1938, The Bombay Plan & Gandhian Plan in 1944, Peoples Plan in 1945 (by post war reconstruction Committee of Indian Trade Union), and Sarvodaya Plan in 1950 by Jaiprakash Narayan were steps towards planned economic developments in India.

 

2.2. Post Independence Planning

 

After independence, India launched its First FYP in 1951, under socialist influence of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The process began with setting up of Planning Commission in March 1950 in pursuance of declared objectives of the Government to promote a rapid rise in the standard of living of the people by efficient exploitation of the resources of the country, increasing production and offering opportunities to all for employment in the service of the community. The Planning Commission was charged with the responsibility of making assessment of all resources of the country, augmenting deficient resources, formulating plans for the most effective and balanced utilization of resources and determining priorities.

 

2.3. Disruptions in 5 Year Plans

 

However the inception of 1st 5year plan began in 1951 with two subsequent five-year plans was formulated till 1965, when there was a break because of the Indo-Pakistan Conflict. Two successive years of drought, devaluation of the currency, a general rise in prices and erosion of resources disrupted the planning process and after three Annual Plans between 1966 and 1969, the fourth Five-year plan was started in 1969 The Eighth Plan could not take off in 1990 due to the fast changing political Situation at the Centre and the years 1990-91 and 1991-92 were treated as Annual Plans. The Eighth Plan was finally launched in 1992 after the initiation of structural adjustment policies.

 

3. Detailed Outline of Five Year Plan’s in India

 

Table 1 Characteristics of Various Five Year Plans in India (CHAPTER 7 )

 

     4. Five Year Plan’s Realising Role of Cities

 

4.1. The Seventh Plan

 

During the earlier phases of Five year planning in India certain problems have arisen on account of inadequate regulatory reinforcement leading to insufficient control over constructive activities resulting to haphazard and unplanned growth. The role of cities was not recognised until the beginning of the Seventh Five Year Plan where the economic importance of cities was realised and emphasised. The Seventh Five Year Plan mentioned “Urbanisation as a phenomenon” to be included under considerations for further economic development. The plan envisaged large scale urban development via preparationof urban development plans at regional as well as sub-regional level to be ableto understand the planning feasibility along with the interaction between physical planning and investment planning, rather than planning based on simple basic urban services like transportation and water supply. Further, considering urbanisation as a part of economic development this plan suggested the diversion of migrating population back towards small and medium cities by creating opportunities through industrial investments. This diversion was created to concentrate urban development in close proximity of these small and medium cities using private and public both sector investing in themin order to prevent larger cities from further urban extension. The idea was to reallocate the benefits of urban development towards other cities which is surviving till date. However in the current version of UIDSSMT – UrbanInfrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns the objective of restraining growth of large cities is not clearly mentioned against the objective of migration diversion.(Phatak, UNLEASHING URBANIZATION, 2011)

 

4.2. The Eleventh Plan

   The eleventh five year plan focused on inclusive growth and is majorly known for its famous initiative called JNNURM, JawaharlalNehru National Urban Renewal Mission. It intends to enable and empower urban local bodies known as ULBs which includesMunicipal corporations, Municipalities including Municipal council, municipal board, municipal committee, Town area committees and notified area committees.(india, 2010-11)Under this plan the preparation of city development plan and identification of urban reforms was made at both state as well as municipal levels. However the CDP offered limited considerations with respect to socio economic aspects and could not guide towards the emerging needs by excluding the developments concentrated in peri-urban areas. Therefore, JNNURM was initiated to emphasise on urban development and to provide impulsion tocertain urban reforms. Inspite of some good example cases the overall progress in terms of execution of service delivery standards has been considered unsatisfactory.

 

JNNURM attempted towards providing a holistic approach from the point of implementing Urban Governance and providing urban infrastructure to ensure inclusive urban growth.

 

A total of 21 projects with an approved cost of 5,211 crore, were formulated and proposed to boost public transportation systems with BRT known as Bus rapid transit system executed in case of Delhi. Another set of 123 projects were allocated for the improvement of vehicular traffic and parking areas with an approved cost of Rs.10, 162 crore. This included building new roads, adding flyovers, introducing Road over bridges known as ROBs that allowed pedestrian traffic to claim its safe access, as in case of Mysore city.

 

Later the pilot phase of RAY known as Rajiv Awas Yojanawas launched to make India slum free. This scheme was supported by innovative construction techniques while using land as a resource with private participation for providing houses to eligible slum dwellers along with legislation to provide property rights to slum dwellers.Further the launch of SJSRY known as Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rozgaar Yojana enabled urban poor to gain full employment across the 3,941 towns included for an assistance of 3,360. (Commission)

 

4.3. The Twelfth Plan

 

The objective of the Twelfth Plan has more inclusive sustainable urban growth with special emphasis overEnvironmental sustainability of Indian cities.It aimed towards making all citiesbecome efficient towards management and utilisation of available resources including water, land and energy and at the same time should be able to preserve and promote their cultural and historical heritage and derive profits from their tourism potential.These cities were also expected to promote world class infrastructure and services at affordable prices to support the economic activities offered by them. The approach was to generate employment avenues and to enhance the quality of life by bringing people residing in the city as the predominant factor for the urban development. This development should ensure to provide its citizens with access to basic services of clean water, sanitation, sewage, solid waste management, affordable public transport systems and housing along with a healthy environment.

 

The Twelfth Five Year Plan focused on strengthening the five enablers for urbanisation: governance, planning, financing, capacity building and innovation.While strengthening the urban governance frame work by adopting the following strategies: Suggesting merger of Ministry of Urban Development with that of the Housing and Urban development in order to achieve Convergence at the Central Government and by setting up UTMA known as Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) for all million plus metro-politan cities to look into the city level transportation planswith respect to the spatial and land use plans for an integrated approach. It also mandated the capacity building component of E-Governance under renewed JNNURM scheme for every city receiving assistance under the scheme. Further this mandated the creation of DP known as development plans for every city with a minimum perspective of 10years of projected growth while taking into account its natural endowments, economic potential and sustainable elements to promote clean and green city. It specifically provided the following:

 

Strategic densification along mass transit corridors with mixed land use

   A city mobility plan for making cities safe for vulnerable groups including women, children, pedestrian and cyclists.

 

Urban poverty reduction strategy with inclusionary zoning for old age homes, orphanages, working hostels, night shelters, etc.

 

Plans for City sewerage, sanitation, water sources, Economic and commercial activity plan, Infrastructure plan, Affordable housing plan, Environment conservation plan and Plan for peri-urban areas with respect to the city.

 

Mission City Approach was followed under JNNURM-I. About 70 per cent of the central assistance was provided to 65 Mission cities in particular which limited the concept encouraging medium and small cities to realise their full economic potential. Therefore under JNNURM-II the limitation was removed and all cities were made eligible to participate under the programme.Along with improvements in JNNURM II and RAY, the NULM known as National Urban Livelihood Mission scheme is also taken up under the Twelfth Plan with an objective to make cities engines of inclusive growth. This entails revamping the guidelines of Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rozgaar Yojana (SJSRY) and enhancing its scope. Its basic thrust would be to build capacities and skills in sectors that have growing employment opportunities and are relevant to local socio-economic conditions, within the umbrella of NULM, theNational scheme for support to street vendors and assistance to the States for provision of shelters(Commission)

 

5. Major Initiatives Towards Urban Planning In India

 

As stated by the planning commission the future of urbanisation in India will be directed towards growth irrespective of the definition of large cities defined as million plus, metropolitan agglomerations or mega cities, this growth will be taking place on the peripheries of cities and densification will happen too in case of few existing cities. (K.C.Sivaramakrishnan & B.N.Singh)The analysis of urbanisation pattern and projections for the next 20 years for India is indicative of the fact that huge amount of the urban population will be living in metropolitan regions. However this does not ensure the growth of main cities to continue at the same pace. Instead in few cases the central city growthmay decline with significant growth towards its peripheries. Agglomerations covering several municipal jurisdictions will emerge as a distinct feature of India’s urbanisation and will also cause the existing urban agglomerations to expand in scale, where agricultural mandi towns, new industrial centres and service activities located in the metropolitan regions will be integrated together. It is also projected that most of these urban agglomerations will be growing along the future transport corridors, leading to elimination of distinction in terms of identity for area as urban and rural. These urban corridors will be characterised by multiple nodes, concentrating densification towards metropolitan node or otherwise the urban periphery as in case of Bangalore and in case of Calcutta respectively. Further it is estimated that few corridors may eventually lead into discontinuous growth wasting urban lands and other resources in the process of development and therefore will need careful management in fields of infrastructure and its due environmental implications with an urgent need for an urban model that goes beyond the current municipality model of Indian planning. In view of the above Indian government has proposed development specific urban reforms embracing industrial and economic policies as a key development strategy with emergence of industrial and economic corridors. Creation of SEZ’s known as Special Economic Zones and NIZM’s known as National Investment and Manufacturing Zones focusing on specific industrial and economic activities in and around existing urban regions.

 

5.1. Special Economic Zones

 

In the year 2000 Indian government announced its SEZ Policy and SEZ Act was passed in the year 2005 catering to the objectives of promoting foreign as well as domestic investments while promoting trade through exports and creating employment. The Act anticipated these Special economic zones to act as engines of growth by attracting huge financial investors to help develop infrastructure within the area, to enhance economic activity and by creating additional employment opportunity to benefit its population. (Planning Commission) This was also supported the idea of diverting migration from metropolitan cities by providing other cities with adequate and expected opportunities. Till the year 2014 a total of 196 Special Economic Zones were operational in India with few of them being successfulin achieving the anticipated levels of development and investment whereas majority of them could not meet up to the planning expectation.(Shriya Nanad, 2015)

 

5.2. National Investment and Manufacturing Zones

 

These are conceived as special industrial townships offering better level of infrastructure, governance, fiscal planning green technology as compared to Special Economic Zones. Its proposal is applicable only for manufacturing industries which are capable of organising clusters and are self-regulatory. These are again proposed along the emerging urban corridor’s and in total fourteen investment regions are proposed across India where Andhra Pradesh is leading to setup India’s first national investment and manufacturing zone. Apart from these fourteen the pilot phase of NIZM belongs to the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor where a total of eight investment regions are identified to promote state of art infrastructure and land use zoning under the umbrella of this concept.(Finance, 2016)

 

5.3. Urban Corridors

 

During the year of 1988 a total of 329 urban centres across the country were identified as GEM’s known as Generators of Economic Momentum by the National Commission on Urbanisation with the idea of converging and consolidating development activities. Along with 49 SPUR’s known as Spatial Priority Urban Regions based on the evaluation of development potential and existing opportunities. This followed a study titled as India-Urban Corridors by the National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO) based on the data acquired from 1991 Census, to identify potential urban corridors at the country level. Later by the year 2014, India had its inspirations from the already established international models of urban corridors fromcountries like china, japan and United States. These examples helped in the realisation of benefits to develop such urban corridor’s to help boost the economic growth while diverting urban expansions and infrastructural investment towards second order cities along the corridor’s to start developing with state of art facilities and in return favouring the major cities. The pilot project in this regard is still under development in collaboration with Japanese investors in the year 2007 and it is known as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. It is expected to attract 52% of foreign direct investment in India and is expected to reach a total of US$90 billion. (ADOMAITIS, 2014) along this corridor the following National Investment and Manufacturing Zones are identified: within Gujaratit’s the Ahmedabad-Dholera Investment Region, in Maharashtra Shendra-Bidkin Industrial Part city and Dighi Port Industrial Area is identified, in Haryana it’s the Manesar & Bawal Investment Region, in case of Rajasthan the circuit of Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana Investment Region and Jodhpur-Pali-Marwar Region is considered whereas Madhya Pradesh has Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow Investment Region and Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad investment Region in the state of Uttar Pradesh.(Finance, 2016)

 

 

Figure 1 State wise distribution of JNNURM cities, Allocated and Potential Smart Cities in India (2016 Bennett, 2015)

      Current Perspective  of Urbanisation and Urban Planning In India

 

The current terminology used for urban development is under the frame scope of Smart cities. This concept is based on technologically advanced interventions to help cities and settlements manage their resources better and to operate their infrastructure systems and structures more efficiently. This concept is also the catchphrase of Prime Minister Narendra

 

Modi’s government which targets setting up atleast 100 urban settlements in the first phase. Regarding this the Ministry of Urban Development has already identified existing cities that will beremodelled based on the smart city concept. They have categorised these cities considered for further development as allocated smart cities and potential smart cities.

 

As per the scheme of ministry of urban development initially a total of seven smart cities will be executed as role models and they will belong to the states of Gujarat, Kerala, Rajasthan and Karnataka.The state of Uttar Pradesh is alone identified with six upcoming proposals to be onsidered   under   smart   city modification.

 

The first three smart cities are essentially aligned along the DMIC known as Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and are expected to be completed by 2019. The idea supports sustainable development as it revolves around protecting natural environment from the adverse impacts created by urban development. It’s an initiative towards urban transformation of Indian cities with a smarter approach and concern towards self-sustenance.(Mission, 2015)However the government of India hasn’t defined a specific model for smart city instead each city is expected to formulate its own vision, approach and plan in view of their local resource potential and environmental concerns and to extent the levels of development could get accommodated. And accordingly they are expected to prepare their SCP called as the Smart city proposal envisioning the proposed plan outcomes in terms of smart applications and infrastructure development and resource mobilisation. (Ministry of Urban Development, 2015)

 

Figure 2 Smart Cities Vision, (vIKRAM, 2014)

 

 

 

you can view video on Five Years urban planning in India

 

References

 

  • Retrieved from http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/267/2670990/image001.jpg 2016 Bennett, C. &. (2015, August 14). List of Potential Smart Cities. Retrieved from Times of India:
  • http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/smart-cities/infographics/List-of-potential-Smart-Cities/articleshow/48482842.cms
  • ADOMAITIS, K. (2014, may 10). Euromonitor International. Retrieved 2016, from http://blog.euromonitor.com/2014/05/urban-corridors-to-boost-growth-of-second-tier-cities-in-india.html
  • CHAPTER 7 . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/SYB2014/CH-7-FIVE%20YEAR%20PLAN/Five%20Year%20Plan%20writeup.pdf
  • comission, p. (n.d.). 1st five year plan. Retrieved from http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/welcome.html
  • Commission, P. (n.d.). Urban Development. Retrieved May 2016, from http://planningcommission.nic.in/hackathon/Urban_Development.pdf
  • Finance, M. o. (2016, March 11). National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs) . Retrieved from Press Information Bureau Government of India: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=137814
  • Goby Cracked, W. a. (2015, january 6). Types of urban design. Retrieved AUgust 25, 2015, from Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/gobycracked/types-of-urban-design-43238694
  • Gupta, R. K. (July – September 2011, ). Change Detection Techniques for Monitoring Spatial. Institute of Town Planners, India Journal 8 – 3, , 88 – 104.
  • India, E. G. (2015, APRIL). Rapid Rail Transit System- RRTS corridors to Alwar Meerut Panipat get Delhi. Retrieved from http://www.estateguruindia.com/rapid-rail-transit-system-rrts-corridors-to-alwar-meerut-panipat-get-delhi/
  • india, m. o. (2010-11). Urban Planning in India. Retrieved July 2016, from maps of india: http://business.mapsofindia.com/india-planning/urban.html
  • K.C.Sivaramakrishnan & B.N.Singh. (n.d.). Urbanisation. Retrieved from https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi 33KDfxOHMAhVCm5QKHZ1qBagQFgghMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.planningcommission.nic.in%2Frepo rts%2Fsereport%2Fser%2Fvision2025%2Furban.doc&usg=AFQjCNGs7Cugk26ezRIPKi2A6I
  • Kumar, A. (2009). Retrieved 2016, from http://www.science20.com/humboldt_fellow_and_science/blog/jaipur_pink_city_india_its_drying_water_bodies_a nd_excessive_deforestation_could_only_be_revers
  • Ministry of Urban Development, G. o. (2015, June). Samrt Cities. Retrieved August 2016, from Mission Statement & Guidlines: http://smartcities.gov.in/writereaddata/smartcityguidelines.pdf
  • Mission, S. C. (2015). Govt. needs to change the way of implementation for smart city project. Retrieved october 30, 2015, from http://www.smartcitiesprojects.com/govt-needs-to-change-the-way-of-implementation-for-smart-city-project/
  • Omkarparishwad. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/omkarparishwad/analysing-smart-city-development-in-india
  • Phatak, V. K. (2011, jan 1). UNLEASHING URBANIZATION. Retrieved from Town and Country Planning Division Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority: http://www.theindiaeconomyreview.org/Article.aspx?aid=72&mid=4
  • Phatak, V. K. (2011). UNLEASHING URBANIZATION . Retrieved aPRIL, from tHE iNDIAN eCONOMY rEVIEW: http://www.theindiaeconomyreview.org/Article.aspx?aid=72&mid=4
  • Planning Commission, G. o. (n.d.). Managing Urbanization. Retrieved aPRIL 2016, from http://12thplan.gov.in/forum_description.php?f=17
  • Sharma, D. T. (2013). GEO-SPATIAL DATABASE CREATION. Retrieved April 2016, from Geospatial Forum, : http://www.indiageospatialforum.org/2013/pdf/Dr.%20Trilok%20Shanker%20Sharma.pdf
  • Shriya Nanad, N. S. (2015, September 1). Urban Corridors: Strategies for economic and urban development. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from International Growth center: http://www.theigc.org/project/urban-corridors-strategies-for-economic-and-urban-development/
  • Singh, S. (2015, February 14). Emerging Trends: Tier II, III cities set to grow in next phase of economic boom. Retrieved from The Indian Express: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/emerging-trends-tier-ii-iii-cities-set-to-grow-in-next-phase-of-economic-boom/
  • Vidyadhar K. Phatak. (n.d.). Retrieved from Town and Country Planning Division Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority : likho
  • vIKRAM, k. (2014, aUGUST). Modi’s vision of ‘smart cities’ takes shape as government commits to delivering first three hubs by 2019. Retrieved mAY 2016, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2738057/Modis-vision-smart-cities-takes-shape-government-zeroes-scores-sites-country.htmlAnnual Report 2012-13 of the Planning Commission of India.
  • Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17) – Faster, More Inclusive & Sustainable Growth Vol I, Planning Commission of India & website of Planning Commission of India Planning in India, Richard S Eckaus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  • Indian Economy, Ruddar Datt & KPM Sundharam. Eleventh Five Year Plan and Inclusive Growth – a review by Ruddar Datt.