Relevance of Town Planning schemes to the
changing urban land dynamics
The concept of land pooling and readjustment has been practiced in many states in India (including Gujarat) as the ‘Town Planning Scheme model’. Among other uses, the TPS model has been regarded as a viable model to provide infrastructure and reserve land for public use. Though TPS is a well accepted land development model in India, the process (duration of finalizing the TPS, the plot level financial adjustments, relevance of the TPS implemented with delay, lack of TPS being dynamic and change to the needs of local area) are some of inherent issues which need to be addressed.
Urban areas have a dynamic character and the pressure on services is always increasing as some changes in land use are taking place. Moreover, with the introduction of Metros, BRTS and other such infrastructure and subsequent higher FSI allowed, the is a visible negative impact as the original TPS did not envisage these changes. Evidently, there is a need for the planners to relook at the TPS mechanism and make it dynamic so that it’s able to respond to the changing local area requirements.
