Bhopal Master Plan Draft Unveils Green FAR Concept & Urban Village Makeover To Drive Sustainable Growth

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The draft Bhopal Master Plan is going to come up with the concept of Green FAR (Floor Area Ratio). Under this, those planting trees in the catchment area of water bodies could get the benefit of an increased FAR. 

Apart from this, the master plan focuses on population disbursal, provisions meant for industries and urban village concept etc. Sources in the Town and Country Planning department said that 250 villages are coming in the category of urban village. The urban village concept stresses to give a makeover to the villages so that they shall not take the shape of slums in future.

Along with this, it envisages that skill development training shall be imparted to the people living in urban villages so that they can produce art works, including Kada, Sarota, agricultural equipment and even Zari work. The aim is to establish household small scale industries on the lines of countries like China and Japan etc.  

Moreover, the master plan also vouches to come up with an organic village concept wherein identified villages would manufacture organic manure. The number of such villages could be close to 63. As far as the base Floor Area Ratio (FAR) is concerned then it could be close to 1: 1.25. This means that on a 1,000 square feet plot, one can construct a house of 1,250 square feet. The proposed master plan also focuses equally to provide place for development of health facilities including hospitals.

For industrialisation, the outskirts of the city have been identified as the best locations. “The process of receiving suggestions is still underway and accordingly, changes can be made in the proposed master plan,” said a senior officer of Town and Country Planning. Sources added that Bhopal airport has given the proposal of expansion of the airport and it has been incorporated into the master plan.

Other government departments have also given the proposals and suitable proposals have been incorporated. The emphasis is over how to make Bhopal a green city.  “The first stage existing conditions have been analysed after taking proposals from the public in regard to the master plan,” said an officer. The Bhopal Master plan draft is awaiting clearance at government level.