For a successful town planning there must be a plan, which envisages the entire town as a single unit. This is necessary to achieve overall development of the town in co-coordinated manner. The development or expansion of a town takes a long time, and therefore, the development requires control at any time on the basis of a plan. Such a plan is called as “Master Plan”
Necessity of the master plan
The period of ‘Industrial revolution’(1760 – 1820) marks an important epoch in the history of the growth of all the cities. Between the two world wars and especially after the Second World War (1939 – 45), many towns and cities have been grown up haphazardly without proper planning. And the over-grown cities became a mess and a muddle with all the evils.
The industries have been set up in the heart of the cities without any consideration of transport and other utility services. The migration of rural population has caused housing shortage and increased congestion. The rapid development of transport has been found to be inadequate for the growing needs of the automobiles. It has caused over-crowding and congestion on the roads resulting road accidents. Industries have encroached upon the residential areas causing shortage of open and recreational areas.
In order to eradicate the evils of the ill-planned cities, there is a need of a comprehensive Master plan for the general welfare of the citizens in respect of health, convenience and comfort.
Scope and Content of the master plan
The master plan may propose or provide for all or any of the following matters, namely: - ¾ The manner in which the land in the planning area shall be used
¾ The allotment or reservation of land for residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural purposes and for parks, playfields and open spaces
¾ The allotment or reservation of land for public buildings, institutions and for civic amenities ¾ The making of provision for the national highways, arterial roads, ring roads, major streets,
lines of communication including railways, airports and canals ¾ The traffic and transportation pattern and traffic circulation pattern ¾ The major road and street improvements
¾ The areas reserved for future development, expansion and for new housing
¾ The provision for the improvement of areas or bad layout or obsolete development and slum areas and for relocation of population
¾ The amenities, services and utilities
¾ The provision for detailed development of specific areas for housing, shopping, industries and civic amenities and educational and cultural facilities
¾ The control of architectural features, elevation and frontage of buildings and structures ¾ The provision for regulating the zone, the location height, number of storeys and size of
buildings and other structures, the size of the yards and other open spaces and the use of buildings, structures and land
¾ The stages by which the master plan shall be carried out
Stages in the preparation of Master plan
The re-planning of an existing town is more complex than planning or designing a new town on virgin land, such as capital towns like New Delhi, Chandigarh, industrial town like rourkela, port town, military cantonments etc. The work of ordinary town-planner is usually restricted to re- planning of an existing town.
After taking the Government sanction to prepare the scheme, next work is to collect the data and relevant information, with the help of a comprehensive civic survey. From the data collected in the civic survey, he is in a position to make a correct diagnosis of the various ills of the town and suggest remedies for their cure.
For the collection of data for the planning scheme, the town is divided into old town and new town. In the former case, the work is tedious because the old town usually consists of narrow streets, congestion, insanitation, and un-healthy conditions etc. But in the later case, zoned areas, provision of all civic amenities etc. However care should be taken to keep the whole town, old or new alike in all aspect and finally blended skillfully so as to form in-separately interwoven structure.
Duration of preparation of master plan
¾ The planning authority prepares the interim master plan, also called the outline development plan. The statutory time limit is two years.
¾ It shall then be notified for the public comments and suggestions (1 month).
¾ The draft plan may be revised in the light of the public and expert comments and shall be
submitted for Govt’s sanction (4 months from date of publication of the draft plan to be
further extended by the Govt. by three months, if required).
¾ The Govt. sanctions the revised plan and appoints an arbitrator (12 months).
¾ The arbitrator after holding proceedings in respect of each plot, publishes the award and
submits the detailed proposals to the higher authority such as the president of the Tribunal
of Arbitration (no fixed time limit but at least 12 months for small scheme and more for longer schemes).
¾ The tribunal shall make thorough scrutiny of arbitrator’s proposals and convey their decision ( usually 6 months).
¾ The arbitrator prepares the final scheme and submits to Govt. with plans through the local
authority (usually 6 months).
¾ The local authority forwards the final scheme to the Govt. (usually 3 months).
¾ Govt. sanctions the final scheme after the photozinco Dept., has printed all the plans
(normally 9 months) after which the final scheme of Action plan comes into force (usually 2 months after the Govt.’s sanction).
¾ The detailed master plan also called the comprehensive development plan is duly approved and sanctioned by the Govt. then made legally bindings on all the authorities concerned, by giving it a legal status.
¾ Lastly a financial programme is prepared to devise the ways and means for the implementation of the master plan according to the schedule.
ZONING
The basic concept of zoning lies in the division of a settlement into zones and districts according to present and potential uses of land and buildings. Zoning has to pay particular attention to the character of a place and its suitability. Thus, ‘zoning’ is establishing ‘districts’ within which certain rights of citizens are legally curbed.
Objectives of zoning
¾ To lessen congestion in streets
¾ To secure safety of fire and other hazards ¾ To promote health and general welfare ¾ To protect amenity value and hence property ¾ To provide adequate light and air
¾ To prevent over concentration of population
¾ To facilitate transportation, water supply, sewerage, schools, parks, etc ¾ To encourage the most appropriate use of land
Environmental Planning
It is being increasingly realized that environmental considerations deserve greater attention in the process of plan preparation, and scientific understanding of environmental paradigms of every competing land use is necessary. The environmental compatibility between various land uses need to be established and for that the planner needs to understand the behavioural pattern and
functional characteristics of every land use in terms of pollution and medico-social implications. It is possible to identify few major areas of environmental concern, whose input in the process of Development Plan preparation appear to be essential, which are as following:
(1) Shelter with particular reference to urban poor;
(2) Environmental infrastructure with emphasis on affordability by the poor; (3) Factors of climate, land erosion and landscaping on living environment; (4) Interface between man made and natural environment;
(5) Vehicular traffic as a source of environmental hazard and acoustical considerations; (6) Energy as a tool of development control and provision of access to alternate appropriate technologies;
(7) Industrial location on the basis of typology and environmental hazard; (8) Environmental legislation, monitoring, evaluation and management; (9) Impact assessment of development.