Hindustan Times | Expert committee on urban development submits draft report to Hardeep Singh Puri

Apr 05,2023

A high-level committee on urban development constituted last year to recommend urban planning reforms submitted its draft recommendations on urban planning reforms to the housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday. Senior officials said that the ministry will study the report and revert with its inputs to the committee.

Keshav Verma, chairman of the committee, along with PSN Rao of School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) handed over the report to Puri on Tuesday.

“The govt led by PM @narendramodi Ji unleashed the most comprehensive, planned urbanisation program undertaken anywhere in the world in 2015. The High Level Committee is another step to redefine the urban space & spur the next level of reforms in the sector,” Puri said in a post on Twitter on Tuesday

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the plan to appoint a high-level committee of experts in her budget speech for financial year 2022-23. In June last year, the ministry constituted a 10-member committee to identify gaps in urban planning, work out short and long-term measures and come out with state or UT specific reports highlighting the way forward to strengthen urban planning.

A senior ministry official said: “This is the first draft of the recommendations. We are in the process of analysing it and will share our views with the committee. The committee will then finalise the report.”

The 10-member committee is headed by former chairman of Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Keshav Varma. Another six-member team has been constituted to assist the committee.

The committee includes principal economic advisor Sanjeev Sanyal, NITI Aayog adviser Kundan Kumar, Srinivas Chary (director of Centre for Urban Governance, Environment, Energy and Infrastructure Development at the Administrative Staff College of India), MoHUA additional secretary D Thara, School of Planning and Architecture director PSN Rao.

The committee will also carry out a gap analysis by assessing the implementation status of recommendations of past committees, suggest measures to resolve issues related to the preparation of master plans in cities, draw up a roadmap for bringing about urban planning reforms in states, etc, said a senior ministry official.

While preparing the recommendations, the committee held several stakeholder consultations, including with state governments.