The Hindu : New Delhi News : Likely to fail, say experts

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Sunday, Jan 21, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Likely to fail, say experts

Staff Reporter

`Ground realities not taken into account'

NEW DELHI: Experts on various aspects of town planning warned during a discussion on Master Plan for Delhi-2021 here over the weekend that with ground realities not being taken into account the Plan was likely to fail. They also expressed concern over MPD-2021 catering to the needs of the rich and ignoring the poor.

Speaking at the discussion organised at India International Centre here, Professor Dinesh Mohan of the Indian Institute of Technology said the MPD was not a Plan for the people and the city but one for the contractors. "All that is mentioned in the MPD is widening of roads and expressways. But the pedestrians, the cyclists and public transport have not been taken into account," said Prof. Mohan.

Interestingly, Prof. Mohan pointed out that making wider roads or flyovers was not going to curb the traffic rush. "People will desist from using personal vehicles and use public transport only when they face problems with their cars or motorcycles while commuting," he said. "If those with cars do not give space for the pedestrians and the cyclists, they are not going to use the same space and cause problems for car owners," he added.

Earlier, Dunu Roy of Hazards Centre said the definition of the legal and illegal becomes vague given the fact that the State failed to achieve even 50 per cent of its land development targets in the last 40 years and more. He also pointed out that, over the last three Master Plans, the flood plains of the Yamuna had been shrinking in the maps raising a question mark over its existence in future.

Veteran architect K.T. Raveendran said the assessment of MPD-2021 that the population of Delhi would go up to 22 million by 2021 and that people could be housed with a density of 225 persons per square hectare did not sound rational given the ground realities.

The current policies indicated that the "non-formal sector was being wished away", he added.

Pointing out flaws in urban health care planning, Professor Imrana Qadeer of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) said the entire approach of increasing the bed capacity alone would only give fillip to corporatisation of hospitals rather than improve the quality of health care.

Speaking in his capacity as a Member of Parliament and a concerned citizen, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Oceanography Kapil Sibal warned that in the enthusiasm to hold Commonwealth Games-2010 successfully, the planners should not forget the bigger picture. "The MPD-1982 was delayed and then never drafted because everybody got too busy planning for the Asian Games," said Mr. Sibal.

Later talking to media persons, Mr. Sibal said he would take the suggestions made by the experts to the Urban Development Minister and to the Group of Ministers.

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