City’s development plan to be delayed by four years

The development plan (DP) of the city is set to get delayed by four years,according to corporators and officials in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The improvements committee on Monday gave its approval for a 30-month extension in the submission of the draft DP that should have originally been submitted by now. Instead of 2012,the revised DP of the city will now be ready only by 2016.

Chairman of the improvements committee,BJP corporator Bhalchandra Shirsat,said the delay in administrative processes has caused the 2012 deadline to lapse,which could have a significant effect on the city’s systematic development. The draft DP,that was due to be submitted in June 2011,will now be submitted in December 2013 since the whole exercise is still in the initial stages. The DP for 1991-2011 had to be revised by 2012. A two-year extension was sought earlier and the period for the next DP was fixed at 2014-34.

However,the period is likely to get further extended to 2016. “The draft DP will be submitted by the end of 2013. After this,it will have to be approved by the technical monitoring committee of the BMC. Then it will be open to suggestions and objections by the public and finally sent to the Urban Development Department of the state which have its own series of procedures. In all likelihood,the actual implementation of the revised DP is not expected to happen before 2016,” said Shirsat.

The DP is a document detailing land use and land reservation in the city over a period of 20 years. While the previous two DPs were chalked out by BMC officials,this is the first time that a foreign consultant is being appointed as officials admit they don’t have the required expertise and manpower.