The Maharashtra government recently revised town planning norms to boost growth of smaller townships along the borders of major cities and urban hubs.
Amendments have been made in the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act, 1966 to facilitate decisions that would help set up such cluster townships.
Senior officials said a similar amendment had been made by the Gujarat government in 1999 and had been successful.
“A number of developers and builders propose private townships. This is a sort of government’s answer to that, where private landowners can be grouped together.”
After such plots are grouped together, a comprehensive development plan would be chalked out and civic infrastructure and amenities will be provided on the basis of the plan. While landowners will have to pay the planning authority a percentage of the incremental cost of the land after development, the development authority will retain right over 15% of the developed land.
The new amendment states that the development plan of the township has to be ready within three and a half years. Moreover, a draft of the plan has to be ready within nine months (with a three month extension) after the intention of setting up a township is announced.
The state has also allotted three months for the plan to be approved. After the draft is approved, the land would be transferred to the development authority to build the civic infrastructure.
“The new regulations would give a boost to setting up more urban hubs and townships with planned development,” he said.
