The Template Is Half Empty

A DRAFT MASTER PLAN IS OPPOSED BY POWERFUL LOBBIES OF POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS

- Rahul Noronha

It is something the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh has been struggling with for 15 years. Bhopal, the hill-ringed state capital that was once known as one of India's greenest cities, has witnessed the same unchecked boom that has bespoiled urban landscapes elsewhere. And if that cries out for a Master Plan-a grid of rules to tame the metastasising concrete-the failure to notify one has not shown the government in a flattering light. In June, hope sprang anew as the Shivraj dispensation initiated the process of bringing in a plan, but even this might turn out to be a false dawn. Sceptics feel the plan may not go through in the shape envisaged now. Reason: some of its provisions ruffle the feathers of the state's rich and powerful.

Voted as one of India's most scenic and liveable cities in multiple government and private surveys, Bhopal has been growing haphazardly, and that too in an ecologically dangerous manner, since the mid-2000s. Mostly because the Master Plan in force has outlived its validity by almost 20 years. A city's Master Plan is the guiding document that allows or disallows various types of land use-be it residential, commercial, industrial or institutional-besides regulating building heights and earmarking parking and other open spaces. Bhopal's past reputation had been no accident: meticulously laid out after it became the state capital in 1956, careful planning and near-total zero tolerance for illegal constructions or violation of land use norms were integral in creating that. These are now disappearing fast. Various government agencies have been turning a blind eye to violations of the old plan. Each minor transgression was a step towards ruination.