Cities’ peripherals to be developed under local area planning

Hyderabad: In order to address the congestion problem in the cities of the State and to reduce the burden on the urban infrastructure, local area planning (LAP) would be taken up under the AMRUT scheme.The sub scheme under the AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) would cover cities Hyderabad, Warangal and Karimnagar which have been witnessing enormous population growth. Under the scheme, the town planning officials would be trained to prepare local area plans to develop these cities in peripheral areas.

Warangal with a population of 6.15 lakh, Karimnagar with 2.61 lakh and Hyderabad with 67.31 lakh population have been throwing challenge to the municipal corporations and to the State government to provide basic amenities. Burden on the infrastructure in these cities is very high and has been increasing year by year.

According to the officials, increasing urban population will result in increased demand for built up space in cities. This demand can be addressed by peripheral urban expansion and exploring the scope of redevelopment - replacement of existing low-rise development by high-rise development with higher densities coupled with infrastructure up-gradation.

The anticipated additional population in cities and towns in future will certainly lead to increased pressure for development of existing infrastructure. The numerous unauthorised developments in the urban peripheries have been throwing challenge to policy makers. Most inner city areas lack public spaces.

Based on the need for redevelopment and urban expansion, it is imperative that cities and towns would require both financial and technical assistance to undertake plan preparation through area-based strategy, local area plans, land pooling and town planning scheme. The cities and towns covered under the scheme would be eligible for availing funds.

Objectives of the sub-scheme is establishing a planned framework for redevelopment of the existing areas that require intervention through Local Area Plans (LAP) for planned expansion in urban areas through Town Planning Schemes (TPS).
All the capital cities of the States and Union territories which are not already covered under the Smart Cities Mission would be covered under the new initiative.

By NM Satheesh