Delhi-NCR plan moots 5-8 new towns, 30-min travel time

NEW DELHI: The Regional Plan 2041, set to be adopted next week by NCR Planning Board (NCRPB), proposes developing 5-8 new townships in the region and advocates “30 minutes NCR” — keeping travel time between cities, including Delhi, to half an hour through a network of high-speed trains.

The plan, shared with states before Board’s June 16 meeting, proposes both brown-field redevelopment of settlements and greenfield creation of new ones to decongest Delhi.

“Exploration of possibilities of establishing 5-8 new greenfield townships is proposed, based on productive economic impulses in UP, Haryana and Rajasthan sub regions. All new settlements, including brown-field, shall have modern smart civic amenities infrastructure like those developed in Auric of DMICDC,” the plan has proposed.

Auric’ is the abbreviation of Aurangabad Industrial City, a greenfield industrial smart city spread over 10,000 acres in Maharashtra. It is a part of the Delhi–Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project (DMIC), which plans to develop an industrial zone spanning across six states between Delhi and Mumbai.

The regional plan suggests that NCR states could undertake “new selfcontained and self-sufficient smart township development” as growth nodes along key transport corridors, including existing and proposed expressways, orbital rail corridors and other locations either on less developed land or as extension of the existing settlements, based on transit-oriented development approach.

It has taken note of UP govt’s plan to develop Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Area as a greenfield city with 20 lakh population and Haryana’s plans to develop areas around KMP Expressway or WPE as ‘Panchgrams’. These will be detailed in its sub-regional plan as new greenfield townships.

Proposing high-speed connectivity across the region, the regional plan said it is necessary to minimise journey time across NCR and bring it under 30 minutes through superfast trains and heli-taxis; and within 60 minutes by other trains and 2-3 hours by car. “Delhi should have 30-minute connectivity through superfast trains with major cities of NCR,” it said.

On the roadmap, the plan has proposed exploring feasibility of a “30-minute fast high quality limited-stop masstransit rail system” from nearest NCR boundaries to Delhi.

The plan has also advocated institutions across NCR to create required housing facilities preferably on their institutional plots so as to cater to their housing needs through residential apartments, hostels and transit housing.

“About 15-20% of the land allotted to the institution may be eligible for residential use for all people working or studying in such institution,” it has prescribed.

Taking note of projections that Delhi-NCR will overtake Tokyo and become the world’s most populous urban agglomeration by 2030, the plan has estimated that accommodating over three crore additional citizens over the next 15 years and upgrading infrastructure for the existing population, over Rs 20 lakh crore investment would be required.