One task at a time for ward officials working on revised draft DP 2034

MUMBAI: The draft Development Plan (DP) 2034 revision team has chosen a piece meal approach while assigning tasks to ward level officials.
Considering the enormous errors which had crept in the earlier published draft DP 2034, the BMC is being very cautious before coming out with a revised plan. In a meeting held recently, the assistant municipal commissioners of the 24 administrative wards were informed to begin work with correction of the designation errors only after which the next task will be assigned to them.This is an attempt to avoid any confusion at the ward level by burdening them at one time itself, which the senior authorities fear could lead to them making errors.
The BMC chief would be meeting state government officials this week most likely to seek an amendment under Section 26 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act (MRTP) which requires the planning authority to prepare a draft Development Plan, not later than two years from the date of notice published.
“A meeting with the state government officials is scheduled for earlier this week. The extension has to come through. The kind of mistakes the revision team is noticing while they dig in is humungous and therefore we are almost re-doing the whole plan. We have involved the assistant municipal commissioners of the wards as they are the ones who know what is happening at the ground level. Besides since we are well aware that the ward officials too are not technically qualified they have been given planners,” said a senior civic official associated with the revision process.
The urban planners in each of the wards began their work from last week. An assistant municipal commissioner said that they have been asked to complete the task of verification of designations within a fortnight. “The ward level staff is working on verifying if the designation given in the 1991 DP plan and the ground reality matches. We then need to provide appropriate remarks. However we have been strictly not to get into reservations as all,” said the official.
The revision team is known to be working simultaneously with the revamping of the draft Development Control Regulations (DCR’s) as well.
Meanwhile while Mehta chose not to comment on the extension of the draft DP 2034 he said, “The task involved is complex and therefore needs to be done with a lot of prudence. We would be meeting senior government authorities over the draft DP 2034 this week.