Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has set the ball rolling as to preparation of new Develop-ment Plan (DP) for the city. As part of the procedure, the civic body on Monday issued notification about its intent to start the process for updating the DP, which lays down the path for development index for the next two decades. The Section 21 (2) and Section 23 process as per Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Rules, 1966, signals the move to start preparing the new Master Plan on part of NMC - one that would define the development process in second capital of the State, stated Ruturaj Jadhav, Assistant Director, Town Planning, NMC. Officials in NMC said compared to previous years, the new DP would be finalised very fast as technology ensured faster approvals.

 

A DP of urban centre is updated every 20 years and at NMC, previous plan was published in 2001. So, by 2021, the new DP should have been notified, but the process got delayed due to pandemic and other unavoidable reasons. Developers and planners were worried at the inordinate delay on the part of civic body in publishing the revised DP as the same provided a roadmap for future development in city. The current times are very fluid and hence, the DP would define the way city would grow, especially against the backdrop of rising concerns over degradation on environment front.

 

A DP is basically a go-by document wherein reservations for varied purposes like playgrounds, gardens, housing, low-cost housing development, business area, public amenities, water bodies, etc. are mentioned in the city map. Every street, the highways, State’s major roads, are marked on the map, as also the every single public utility and their respective location. As of now, there are multiple agencies who are vested with sanctioning authority for construction like NMC, NIT and now, Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) and also, Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC). So, the purpose of issuing notification in local newspapers is to allow all the stakeholders to go through the digital data with NMC and in case there are any suggestions or objections as to overlapping of respective boundaries, then same has to raised within a period of 60-days. Officials said, sometimes, the boundaries marked in the proposed map may differ with the documents in possession of other units or there might be some change post survey of the area and hence, same can be rectified after going through the documents and changes can be made before finalisation of DP, if necessary. On May 14, 2025, Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari gave the nod for preparation of DP of Nagpur City, including for Narsala and Hudkeshwar, the two villages that were included in NMC boundary. The two villages in the southern part of the city were merged into NMC in year 2013. 

 

 

As per the notification, there are about 57 Mouza now in the NMC limits. The notification issued by Municipal Commissioner Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari mentioned that Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation (Smart City) area is excluded from the proposed DP process. This is so for the Central Government-sponsored scheme for development of green and sustainable city infrastructure. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) was established and same is entrusted with the task of carrying out development in its jurisdiction. The area for which MMRCL has been notified development authority by Maharashtra Government is mentioned in detail for information of citizens by the NMC in the notification issued on Monday.