‘20-yr delay’: City growth chokes as master plan awaits region revamp

Bhopal: The master plan of Bhopal continues to remain on hold. The reason is that the draft was ready, but the government wanted to align it with the Bhopal Metropolitan Region.In the Bhopal Metropolitan Region introduced last year, the government has identified the areas to be covered, but the process is yet to move ahead.The Bhopal metropolitan area would cover 2,523 villages spread over 12,000 square kilometres, including Bhopal and adjoining districts — Raisen, Vidisha, Rajgarh, Sehore and Narmadapuram.The metropolitan region aims to develop Bhopal and adjoining districts on the lines of Delhi-NCR.The issue again surfaced as the Congress on Saturday demanded its release, saying it has been pending for over 20 years and people are suffering due to its absence for two decades.The govt stated in the state assembly in February that the plan was ready, but it may be reconsidered or redrafted to align with the proposed metropolitan region.Urban development and housing minister Kailash Vijayvargiya on Feb 24 said in the assembly, "My department prepared and completed it one and a half years ago, and the plan is ready."He further said he had discussed it with the chief minister, who suggested reconsidering it in view of the proposed metropolitan area. "Let us first see his vision; if he says to remake it, we will redraft it," he said in the House.This indicated that the plan is not likely to come soon.The MP cabinet on May 20 last year approved the Madhya Pradesh Metropolitan Region Planning and Development Act 2025 for formation of metropolitan planning committees and development authorities for Bhopal and Indore.The objective was to create integrated development plans suited to geographic and economic needs of each metropolitan area.The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in the MP assembly on February 20 also flagged the absence of a plan, noting that since 1975 only two Bhopal Development Plans have been approved — in 1991 and 2005 — leaving no model or basis for population growth planning.The CAG report on Management of Town and Country Planning of 2025 stated that the state government returned the draft Bhopal Development Plan-2031 in Feb 2024 after a lapse of 36 months. "No further development was observed so far as submission of the revised draft as per government of MP's instructions was concerned," the report said."The outdated Bhopal Development Plan 2005 continues to prevail. As a result, Bhopal Development Plan 2005 continued to be the benchmark which might not be relevant to cater to the present development needs," the report said.