Coimbatore set to get a revised Master Plan

The city is bursting at its seams and the footprints of development are found even beyond the suburbs around Coimbatore.

In such a scenario, the Directorate of Town and Country Planning has revised the Master Plan for the city and sent it to the Government for review consent.

The original plan was formed in the early 1990s. The revised plan has taken into account the ground level changes and considered the future needs of the city. It will be available for the public to give their suggestions and objections after the Government gives its consent.

The objections and suggestions will be studied and incorporated before the plan gets its final approval from the Government, according to the Director of the Town and Country Planning Pankaj Kumar Bansal.

An official of the department explains that the Master Plan forecasts a city's need for the next 20 years.

It estimates the current population and the population growth in another 20 years and decides the infrastructure and amenities needed.

This includes housing, roads, water supply and land use.

Field-level development in any city may not strictly reflect the Master Plan. Hence, the plan is revised every five years and the actual developments are incorporated in it.

The official says the Master Plan is important even to the common man as it provides details about infrastructure requirements such as roads and takes suggestions and objections from the public.

K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause, says the revised Master Plan for Coimbatore should focus on the new residential areas that have come up in the recent years and continue to come up now. Industries were also developing rapidly.

The growth of residential and industrial segments should be complementary. The Master Plan should also ensure that industrial development had adequate pollution control infrastructure.

“It should reflect reality and pave way for a planned future growth.”