The Gujarat government is planning to establish specialised district planning authorities to prevent the infrastructural chaos that often follows unregulated construction in the peripheries of rapidly growing cities. This move comes in response to the challenges faced when villages on the fringes of cities like Ahmedabad experience a construction boom—apartments, shops, and gated colonies—approved by panchayats lacking the expertise and resources to plan roads, drainage, or water supply. Years later, when cities absorb these areas, they inherit a mess of inadequate infrastructure.
Lessons from Bopal and Ghuma
When the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) absorbed Bopal and Ghuma in 2021, it encountered severe infrastructure deficits. Residents in these and other merged localities like Chandlodia, Gota, and Sarkhej were left without essential water supply, sewage networks, and proper roads. A senior official from the Urban Development Department (UDD) noted, “In Bopal-Ghuma, development took place without any organised town planning. The municipalities here were unable to provide basic infrastructure like water supply, drainage, sewerage, and roads.”
Proposed District Planning Authorities
The new authorities, to be set up under the UDD, will serve a dual purpose: checking unauthorised constructions outside the development plan zones of municipal corporations, municipalities, and urban development authorities (UDAs), and ensuring planned infrastructure facilities. According to a top government source, “These proposed district planning authorities will serve a dual purpose—checking unauthorised constructions in areas outside the development plan zones of municipal corporations, municipalities, and urban development authorities (UDAs) and setting up planned infrastructure facilities.”
District collectors and district development officers may be given additional responsibilities for monitoring and planning development in these fringe areas. The government faces challenges when such outgrowth areas are intended to be included within city or UDA limits. An official explained, “Even citizens who buy properties in non-draft development plan areas face challenges because of lack of basic amenities like drinking water supply, a proper sewage network, good roads, and the like.”
Focus on Town Planning Scheme Model
The district-level authorities will be responsible for keeping vigil on haphazard development in non-DP (development plan) areas and will plan for basic amenities on the town planning scheme model. Consultations on the proposal have already commenced. This initiative aims to prevent the kind of infrastructural mess that plagued Bopal and Ghuma, ensuring that future urban expansion is orderly and well-served with essential services.
