Existing planning system remains largely prescriptive and restrictive; with the result that Master Plans prepared under the system have emerged as controllers of development rather than promoters of development. Effective implementation of Master plan would require, changing the negative intent/ perception of the communities about the plan. For generating respect for the Master plan and promote its wider acceptability, It would be critical to promote the usability of Master Plans as a plan committed to promote public good, make human living more qualitative and ensure universal accessibility to basic amenities of life to the poorest of poor citizens to lead a dignified life.

1. Approach to Implementing Master Plans in the Urban Context
*Jit Kumar Gupta
**jit.kumar1944@gmail.com
Master plans have been recognized and used extensively by urban
planners, as one of the numerous options to launch any city on the path of
planned, sustainable growth, development and management. In the
parlance of planning of human settlements, land, finance and manpower
have been valued as three major resources for promoting planned
development and ensuring effective plan implementation. Master plans,
which are not implemented, or cannot be implemented on ground, for
reasons of; inappropriate intent, contents, scope, approach and
methodology adopted for preparing such plans, has little role and
relevance in urban planning and are known to promote unplanned
development and act only as paper tigers in the urban parlance.
Accordingly, it will critical, vital and important that; master plans prepared
for any city, must be based on prevailing ground realities; addressing
issues and challenges of climate change, global warming, rising
temperature, environment and bio-diversity; meeting goals of
sustainability, livability, inclusivity, safety, resilience involving local culture,
communities; so that they can be implemented effectively, efficiently and
holistically. Accordingly, pre-requisites for effective implementation of
Master Plans and making then promoter of planned development for
ushering an era of quality living in urban context, must include, involve
and revolve around;
 Valuing Master Plans; All planning, development and management
agencies operating at local level must accept Master Plan as the
document meant for the holistic growth and integrated development
of the city. For effective implementation, all such agencies and
stakeholders must ensure that urban and infrastructure related
projects undertaken by them, from time to time, shall be structured
within the framework of the approved Master Plan

2.  Integrating Planning with development and Implementation;
Making implementation integral part of the preparation of the Master
Plan and development of the city, would be valuable in effective and
focused implementation of the Master plan on the ground.
 Opting for Phasing; Considering the fact that Master Plans are
prepared to define city development, for a period spanning over next
20 years period , accordingly such plans involve catering to large
population to be housed in the city, large area to be urbanized for
meeting the current /future requirements of additional population,
along with large number of services to be provided in the city.
Cumulative fact of all these additions involves lot of resources to be
spent on the city growth, development and expansion. Considering
the limited availability of resources with parastatal agencies and
large financial requirement of development; rational and realistic
phasing of Master Plan will remain critical and valuable for proper
implementation of any master plan. Defining different phases of
development, must include and involve requirements of all planning
& development agencies involving; Urban local bodies, Urban
development authorities, Housing Boards, Improvement Trusts,
Central and State agencies, other stakeholders operating at local
level, for accommodating their future projects of development,
within the given framework of master plan and also ensuring the
effective implementation of master plans. In addition, phasing must
include and involve making city development compact, contiguous
and cost-effective besides ensuring that it provides continuity to
existing growth and development. Any development which promotes
urban sprawl, involves increased travel, excludes optimum utilization
of existing/future resources, involves higher cost of development
and does not serve the larger purposes of urban community, must be
excluded from phasing of the development and implementation of
Master Plans .
 Preparing 5 years Module; Defining/dividing Master plan in four
distinct phases of growth and development , each comprising of five
year module, can be considered as one of the options for effective
implementation of Master Plan. Since population projections for the

3. city are made based on 5 years period and all plans are formulated
for time spanning over five years, accordingly, considering its distinct
advantages it will be logical to divide the city development into a five
year module, based on the population to be catered and
infrastructures, services, amenities etc. required to support the
population to be housed.
 Embedding Layering ; Since cities, in majority of cases, record
growth in layers, accordingly preparing/implementing Master Plans
should also consider the layers of growth & development of the city.
Development options could also be layered accordingly, with core
area considered as first layer; area between core and urban limits as
the second layer; area between urban limits and urbanisable limits
as the third layer and area between urbanisable limits and planning
limits could be made as the fourth layer. Layers could also have
sub-layers, depending on the peculiar circumstances existing at the
local level, for effective development and implementation of the plan.
 Promoting Self- Sufficiency; For effective implementation, all
identified phases/layers of city development must be made self-
sufficient and self-contained in all day-to-day basic needs , services,
amenities etc. quantified in the Master Plan.
 Rationalising planning and development norms and Standards;
As determinant of cost and quality of development, norms and
standards defined in the Master Plan, for basic services, social and
physical amenities , have critical role and relevance in the
determining the cost of development. Unrealistic norms can make
the development very expensive and may lead to unauthorized
growth and development . Accordingly, providing rational and
realistic norms and standards will remain critical for promoting
planned development and implementation of the Master Plans.
 Creating a dedicated agency for Implementation; Considering the
fact that implementation of plans remains a specialized and
complex task, involving lot of activities, actions and decisions,
accordingly it will be prudent to create a dedicated agency for
ensuring effective implementation of plan at the local level.
Dedicated agency created for plan implementation, must be

4. equipped with adequate resources, both financial and technical, duly
supported by appropriate legal authority and power to
implement/enforce the master plans, effectively and efficiently.
Accountability must also be adequately embedded in the
operations/activities/decisions of the identifies agency, so as to
bring transparency and objectivity in plan implementation. Detailed
operational guidelines need to be put in place for rationalising the
process of plan implementation.
 Opting for Congruity; Contiguity to existing development should
remain the basic principle of plan implementation so as to ensure
compact development and to make development cost-effective.
 Prioritizing Development; Prioritising development, should form
integral part of plan implementation. Realistic and rational
prioritization of development, based on local requirement and needs,
will help in effective implementation of the master plan.
Development of area, falling within urban limits, needs to be put
on first priority of development, by ensuring development of all
vacant, unused, under-used, vacant, derelict area falling within
urban limits, on defined norms and standards , for effective
implementation of master plans and making optimum use of
services and amenities existing in the city.
 Ensuring Co-ordination; Unauthorised sub-division of land,
unregulated change of land use and unauthorized development
remain the greatest challenge to the rational implementation of the
Master Plans. Appropriate mechanism needs to be put in place for
checking such unregulated sub-division/development. Close and
effective co-ordination, between planning, project sanctioning, plan
approvals and local implementing agencies would be critical , in
order to ensure effective plan implementation. Sanctions granted by
the competent authorities must be made available to planning,
development and implementation agencies in order to ensure that
only approved projects are taken up on ground.
 Leveraging Technology; Leveraging technology remains critical for
monitoring development being taken up on the ground and for

5. effective plan implementation. GIS based maps have been
considered useful and valuable tools for plan implementation.
 Generating Resources; Plan implementation would invariably
depend upon the availability of financial resources with the
implementing agencies. Using innovative mechanisms of levying
External Development Charges(EDC), Internal Development
Charges(IDC), Betterment charges, Licensing fee, Building Plan
approval fee, Charges for change of land use etc. have been
considered valuable for generating financial resources for
development of city/local level services, amenities, infrastructures
etc. These charges are levied , on prorate base, as part of the project
approval, which are ultimately passed on the plot holders , as part of
the cost of land. PPP option could be another model for leveraging
private resource for urban development and creating city/local level
infrastructures/services.
 Involving Stakeholders; Plan implementation would invariably
require the support of local communities and other stakeholders.
Accordingly, it will be critical to involve local communities. Role of
landowners in urban areas will be valuable in plan implementation
based on making them aware about the implications of
unauthorizes/ illegal sub-division of land and unauthorized
construction.
 Framing detailed implementation guidelines; In order to ensure
holistic implementation of the Master Plan, it will be valuable to frame
detailed guidelines, providing does and don’ts, while evaluating
projects, granting approvals and undertaking implementation of the
master plans.
 Creating ownership for Master Plans; In the ongoing era of
multiple agencies involved in preparation of the Master Plan and its
implementation, it will be vital and important that a clear
ownership/authorship is created for the planning and implementation
process. If Master Plans are prepared by T&CPO and are
implemented by the ULBs/ UDA , then it must be ensured that clear
ownership of Master Plans to be prepared and implemented must
be created. If implementation of Master Plan within urban limits are

6. vested with ULBs then state could consider the option of
transferring the power of development and plan implementation
related to urbanisable area also to the ULBs in order to ensure
uniformity of development and plan implementation. In other cases
where implementation within urban limits is vested with ULBs and of
the urbanisable area within the UDA, then an effective& efficient
mechanism for co-ordination between two agencies must be set up
for proper plan implementation. It will be critical that for rational
growth and development of the city , plan preparation and plan
implementation must be vested with the same agency /ownership.
Divorcing planning from implementation has been recognized to be
major root-cause of non- implementation of the Master Plans in the
country.
 Involving social media; In the current era of technology, and
easy access to mobiles and TVs, role and relevance of social media
has assumed added importance in communicating and influencing
individuals and communities at large. According, power and reach of
the social media needs to be made optimum use of in reaching
communities and stakeholders regarding planning and
implementation of the Master Plans, by holding interviews,
discussions, showcasing projects and disseminating news of local
growth and development.
 Grievance Redressal; In order to effectively implement the Master
Plan, it will be valuable to create a dedicated grievance redressal cell
for speedier resolution of people complaints and addressing public
enquiries regarding Master Plan.
 Periodic Review; Periodic review of the Master Plan at the local
level involving all the local agencies/stakeholders must be made
integral part of Master Plan implementation, in order to rationalise
and to put implementation process on the right track.
 Integrating development with implementation; For ensuring
proper implementation of the Master Plans, it will be important that
all central/state/local level development schemes are made integral
part of the area defined for development, so as to effectively
integrate the process of local development with implementation of

7. the Master Plans. No approval or siting of the development scheme
should be permitted in violation of the provisions of Master Plans.
 Creating inbuilt Flexibility; Rigidity embedded in the Master Plans
have invariably led to promoting violations and non- implementation
of the Master Plans. In order to minimize/overcome/dilute the
challenge of rigidity, it will be important to bring in flexibility , by
broad-basing the scope and intent of the development controls and
zoning regulations, defined in the Master Plans, by ensuring
applicability of mixed land use and permitting compatible land uses
in the development process. Avoiding pure-land use planning, will
remain vital and critical, for effective implementation and diluting the
rigidity of the Maste Plans.
 Promoting Development; Existing planning system remains largely
prescriptive and restrictive; with the result that Master Plans
prepared under the system have emerged as controllers of
development rather than promoters of development. Effective
implementation of Master plan would require, changing the negative
intent/ perception of the communities about the plan. For generating
respect for the Master plan and promote its wider acceptability, It
would be critical to promote the usability of Master Plans as a plan
committed to promote public good, make human living more
qualitative and ensure universal accessibility to basic amenities of
life to the poorest of poor citizens to lead a dignified life.