This is the centenary year of the first modern town planning legislation in Gujarat
State. Bombay Town Planning Act was first legislated in the year 1915 and the
first town planning scheme was prepared in the Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad in
the year 1917. We have a hundred years of history of developing common
infrastructure by land pooling and converting agricultural land into urbanised
land in peri-urban area of a city. When the whole country including the
parliament is debating the land acquisition act, Gujarat has shown a
collaborative and practical way of getting land for common purpose nearly
hundred years back.
In a typical town planning scheme, all land parcels of an area are pooled together
irrespective of their revenue boundaries. A town planning officer then plans
the area for roads, basic services provision and reserved land parcels and
returns about 60-50% of land to the land owners in the close vicinity of their
original area. Laying down infrastructure in the area brings dynamics of land
market and even after losing nearly half the land, the owner rips immense
benefits out of well-adjusted, well-shaped land parcel in return. The
government gets the benefit of planning the area properly with a land bank for
common infrastructure. In well-planned town planning schemes, both the government and the land owners are partners in
development – not adversaries like the land acquisition process.
The success of town planning schemes in Gujarat almost sounds like a fairy tale but
we should not kill a hen laying golden eggs. On one side, we have a real
challenge of making the town planning schemes more widespread, more effective
and quicker in implementation. On the other side, the town planning scheme
mechanism should not be used where it abuses the very spirit of it - seeing the
land owners as partners in development. When town planning scheme mechanism is
used in green-field sites like the Special Investment Regions (SIRs), the land
owners will tend to lose instead of gaining out of the promised development. The
government can only promise urbanisation in the SIRs but cannot jump start it.
In absence of urban land market rural lands, the rural land owners or the
farmers are exposed to huge risks and the government has a little liability. It
is unfair to use the town planning scheme mechanism in such situations.
So how should we celebrate the centenary year of modern town planning in Gujarat? First of all,
by documenting the good practices of town planning so that this can be emulated
in other states and in other cities. Secondly, by introspecting – city planning
has a lot of scope beyond mere land re-adjustment. We need better designed
streets, more open-green spaces, and better municipal services. A city is all
about her people not only its land. So we need better mechanism of planning
beyond land pooling. And finally, we must celebrate by future proofing – how do
we improve the town planning scheme mechanism so that it is more sustainable
mechanism and is abused less. Let’s celebrate 100 years of mutual benefits and
equitable profits of development.
(18th May, 2015: DNA Ahmedabad edition, Cities Supplement, Page 5)
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