Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, chaired the inaugural conclave on “National Capital Region -2041” organized by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB), here today. The theme of the conclave was “Planning for Tomorrow’s Greatest Capital Region”. The Conclave had participation from all NCR participating States, concerned Ministries/Departments of Government of India, Knowledge Institutions, Industries, Housing Associations, Subject Experts, Field Officers from various districts, and other stakeholders.Setting the agenda for the conclave, Shri D. S. Mishra said that the Regional Plan - 2041 should be a citizen-centric plan, with liveability as the hallmark, to ensure ease of living. He further said that only plans with crucial factors like economic ability and sustainability can succeed.Highlighting the Prime Minister’s statement made in a Conference on Smart Cities held in Pune, that said "if anything has the potential to mitigate poverty it is our cities", the Secretary stressed that the regional planning exercise presented a unique opportunity to realise these words. He further added that it was an interesting and challenging exercise and called for rigorous work from all stakeholders for an all-inclusive plan engaging all possible resources and tools at their disposal.He concluded saying the Regional Plan would have a serious impact on the entire region as it would drive and decide the magnitude/ direction in which the development will take place in the region.
He said that the Regional Plan- 2041 would be “a plan of our dreams and aspiration set in a practical context and that it must be published before mid-2021”.Earlier addressing the conclave, Smt. Archana Agrawal, Member Secretary, NCRPB mentioned that, currently the Regional Plan with the horizon year 2021 was in-force and a Regional Plan with next horizon year 2041 was required to be prepared now. She said that this conclave was first among many such consultations planned wherein more advanced stage of deliberations will take place.As part of the sessions, a multimedia presentation showing planning of global cities was followed by five technical sessions on various themes namely ‘Imagining the Future’, ‘Priorities of the States’, ‘Land Use, Allocation & Control’, ‘Harmonized Development’ and ‘Financial Structuring’. The technical sessions were chaired by Dr. Anna Roy, Senior Adviser, Niti Aayog, representatives of NCR, participating State Governments, Dr. S.K. Kulshreshta, Regional Planning Expert, Dr. Partha Mukhopadhyay from Centre for Policy Research, Shri Vinay K. Singh, Managing Director, NCRTC. Prof. PSN Rao, Director, School of Planning & Architecture, Delhi presented the concluding remarks of the technical sessions.It is envisaged that the engagement of experts from various organizations/stake holders will contribute to ensuring successful preparation of a multi-sectoral Regional Plan with perspective year 2041. Participants were also apprised about the facility for giving suggestions on preparation of Regional Plan-2041 through NCRPB’s website www.ncrpb.nic.in.