The state government has approved master plan of Srinagar, which will serve as blueprint for development of the city till 2035.
The development plan of the summer capital was cleared by the state administrative council (SAC) during its meeting held at Raj Bhavan in Jammu on Wednesday.
“It (the master plan) has been approved by the SAC,” one of the advisors of the Governor, wishing not to be named, told Greater Kashmir.
The master plan-2035 is third such developmental plan drafted for the city in the last 45 years to achieve its sustainable physical and economic growth. The inordinate delay in finalisation of the master plan had triggered protests from former legislators of Srinagar in the Assembly.
The master plan has a planning area of 766 sq. km which includes areas falling within limits of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and that of urban local bodies of Budgam, Ganderbal, Pampore and Khrew and 160 villages in Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, Pulwama, Bandipora and Baramulla districts.
“The master plan has been prepared for threshold population of around three million people of the city,” said an official of housing & urban development department.
With focus on sustainable development and calibrated to ground realities, the document makes a departure from previous land use policy, development regulations and mixed land use regulations.
It lays down planning guidelines, policies, developmental code and space requirements for various socio-economic activities, supporting the city population during the plan period.
It is also the basis for all infrastructure requirements and serves as a basic patter of framework within which zonal plans of local area would be formulated. One of the key propositions in the draft master plan was to shift administrative offices, including civil secretariat, and various other institutions to peripheries of the city.
The draft plan suggested shifting of the civil secretariat to Nowgam, near railway station and using secretariat building for accommodating all divisional and district offices. But the suggestion was dropped by the government on the basis of feedback received from “different stakeholders”.