As part of the urban planning reforms announced by Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the 2022 budget, an additional 5,000 urban planners will be trained in the next five years, according to an article in the Hindustan Times. An eight-member expert committee, constituted by the Indian Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), will prepare a strategy for training the urban planners in “emerging innovative concepts of urban planning”.
The Ministry has planned two programmes, a five-day course and a month-long session. “The aim is to bridge the gaps in capacity building and make town planners, especially in small cities, aware of the new planning schemes and tools which they can use as per the local condition and requirements,” said town and country planner R Sriniwas, one of the committee members.
According to the article, the key focus of the training programme will be the implementation of town planning schemes. The aims include improving existing areas through local area planning and promoting transit-oriented development, including heritage conservation in local planning. There will also be a focus on the rejuvenation of water bodies and green spaces under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT 2.0).
Urban planner Sabyasachi Das, former planning commissioner at Delhi Development Authority, praised the government for thinking about training more urban planners. However, he said in the article, “there should also be some incentive for urban planners to use these new planning approaches to address the local problems.”
