Gujarat Govt Passes Key Town Planning Amendment Bill
The Gujarat state assembly passed a key amendment bill on June 30 this year. The bill is Gujarat Town Planning and Urban Development (Amendment) Bill-2014, in which the amendments were made in section 5 of the 1976 act. The amendments in the bill are focused towards more planned development of cities in Gujarat.
Amendments to the town planning bill
The amendment in the previous town planning and urban development bill proposes to include provisions for the local area plans (LAP). The key focus of the local area plans is to ensure local densification and urban transport while providing easy access to workplace. The amendments were proposed in section 5 of the existing act. This amendment allows the urban development authority to carve a specific section of land from the present town planning scheme to create a customised LAP.
The bill also proposes that before notifying an area for LAP, the government must issue a public notice via gazette notification. In areas that do not have a town planning system, before proposing an LAP, the government’s permission has to be taken.
Few other important additions include height caps for buildings, defining the number of floors and elevations for buildings, provisions of pick-up and drop-off points as well as volumetric FSI. It also proposes to limit the period for inviting objections and suggestions during the preliminary planning stages to six months. The bill allows the LAP created by the town planning body to address various issues such as transportation, access routes, greening, drinking water and storm water drainage, waste disposal and other civic necessities. Currently, the Sabarmati riverfront and the CBD on Ashram Road are a couple of best examples that include all these concepts.
The bill was proposed keeping in mind, the upcoming central business district (CBD) and transit-oriented zone in Ahmedabad. The LAP may be expected to be extended to other urban centres in Gujarat. With better urban planning, more land parcel will be available for development, which will consequentially improve the economic as well as the residential activity in the cities.
