The Delhi Master Plan

The Plan has been mentioned by every other entity we visited. It is a fully integrated Master Plan that includes social and economic goals as well as classic land use designations. Parking gets its own section, and also included is social infrastructure, disaster management (for every zone), sports, water supply, and power and energy. The current 2021 Plan is based on two previous plans from 1990 and 1962. The 1962 Plan in turn was influenced by the London Plan and London planners. The current Delhi Master Plan won an international award for the ISOCA.
Much of the Plan revolves around redevelopment (up to 40%). They need and will try to get the private sector to help finance the infrastructure improvements, similar to what happened with the new Dublin BART station.

Other aspects of their Plan have to do with concern about the ability of the city infrastructure to handle new growth. If they can influence growth in some sectors of the society and economy, the Plan tries to do it. One example is that they intend to have no new government offices in Delhi. Government offices should be created outside the city core that is already overburdened with activity. Another idea is that new industry should be high-tech. They didn't mention whether this was a goal because they thought high tech industries were less demanding on city infrastructure than other industries, or because they thought a stronger high-tech sector would help them economically (which it would any city), but I guess it is the former, with the latter being a pleasant side benefit. They also recently tried to restrict commercial activites in residential areas, but that was strongly resisted by the public. A similar mechanism is proposed for logistics and wholesale trade. The Plan plans for five new centers on the outskirts of Delhi for transfers and distribution of goods, so that this activity does not need to occur in the city's old town anymore.

A lot of the talk about the Plan during our meeting was about housing for the Economically Weak Sector (EWS), as well as other considerations for the EWS population. 35% of all housing created is supposed to be for the EWS, who are those who can afford nothing. Another 20% is for those who can only afford a little. Related to EWS issues is in-migration, where people from rural areas come to the city to try to make a better living. The Plan addresses in-migration in part through regional planning that would promote economic development in the hinterland, giving in-migrants a place to seek opportunity that is outside of Delhi center.

There was less talk about planned land uses than I had expected. The Plan expects to grow all the way out to the State boundaries (Delhi is a State as well as a City), accommodating an expected growth in population from 14 Million to 23 Million by 2020. The physical boundaries are a river to the west and a ridge to the south. They plan for a greenbelt to act as boundaries in the North and West, at the State border.

Learn more about the Delhi Master Plan online at www.dda.org.in and www.urbanindia.nic.in.