UP4051- Directed Research Projects

Faculty: Ashwani Kumar

While many cities are enthusiastically envision the vibrant urban economy through allocating lands
for secondary and service sector, the existing planning frameworks (URDPFI, Town & Country
Planning Act etc.) and industrial, infrastructure and logistics polices are still not able to develop the
industrial areas with needed infrastructure and facilities within plans. As the result most of the
industrial areas have become the logistical nightmares, inefficient industrial processes, with visibly
polluted, dumps of wastes and disasters prone.

This is in spite that the country has undergone two generation of the industrial revolutions. The first
generation of revolution occurred when the government owned public sector undertakings (in steel,
petroleum, cement, fertilizers, chemical sectors) heavily invested in the industrial development in
independent industries, clusters, industrial townships or industrial estates promoted by the Industrial
Development Corporations (IDCs). Latet, the second generation industrialization attracted the greater
participation of private sector enterprises in newly emerged sectors such as logistics, airspace,
aviation, hospitality, telecommunication, etc with different scale and nature of development brought
under aegis of new and modern concepts such as EPIPs, Special Economic Zones(SEZ), Special
Industrial Regions (SIRs), Industrial Corridors (ICs) etc.
During the challenge of global economic recession, these initiatives together led the growth of the
Indian economy from sub-trillion to more than two trillion USD by 2020. However, the downs-side of
the industrial development practices is marked heavily with many issues such as insufficient spatial
planning, operating & management practices; ineffective monitoring and regulating the industrial
development; exploitation of the natural resources; environmental pollution (air, water land and soil);
and the social & livelihood aspects; and the inter-sectoral impacts.
When the country now envisages to expand the economy further to five trillion economy USD in next
few decades, there is great concerns of the balancing and integrating the industrial development with
the growth of cities and urban areas, conserving the natural resources and ecology; protecting
livelihood and land rights of the local & indigenous community; and yet developing the world class
infrastructure. The digital movement and the health concerns today are added new dimension on
envisioning the future industries and industrial estates.
The concept of sustainable Industrial development is already existing as promoted by the national
agencies of CPCB (IEP program) and Sustainable Industrial Development of GIZ for more than 2
decades now which needs to be explored. Further, UN promoted Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) have also provided the opportunity for Inclusive and sustainable industrialization under its goalnumber 9 (Industries, innovations and Infrastructure) to achieve growing economy and resilient
community.
Further, the industrial growth has very strong links with the urban growth, as observed throughout the
post-independence development. Industries either triggers the growth or provide livelihood
opportunities to city dwellers and opens new avenues for economic growth of region. The industrial
development needs to be integrated with urban development plans. Here the present practices of
development plan do not bring out the blue print of the proposed industrial areas and mostly their
implications on city are realized later when it’s more difficult.
The planning of such areas along as part of the development plans need an insightful knowledge of the
new technologies, logistics need of international trade; efficient and rational use of natural resources
(land, water and minerals); and management of the wastes. Therefore, this DRP will attempt review
the urban planning practices, tools and approaches being adopted by the cities and will attempt to
suggest the needed practices to accommodate the environmental sustainability and climate resilience
industrial development as integral part of the Development Plan.