Mumbai: It will soon be possible to check the entire development plan of the city online. This means you can check whether the apartment you are buying is on legitimate plot of land or which plot of land in your neighbourhood is reserved as a playground.
Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Thursday issued a directive that all development plans of municipal bodies should be digitised and put on the internet for greater transparency.
The Urban Development Department (UDD) has called for a meeting on Saturday of the director of town planning and civic body officials to set the ball rolling for the digitisation project.
While city and town development plans — laying out of different zones, reservations, amenities — are supposed to be in the public domain, it has so far not been easily accessible for the citizens. It involves making umpteen trips to the civic body and getting a manual copy of the development plan, which is difficult to replicate.
Also, lack of transparency has led to ad hoc changes in the plans with reservations for playgrounds, open spaces being converted for residential or commercial uses. Putting the plan on the Internet will also mean there could be a check on corrupt practices.
The citizens are usually not aware which plots are for no-development zone and which are earmarked for construction.
“The plan should be easily available. We will take help from Nagpur-based Maharashtra Remote Sensing Applications Centre for the project,” said TC Benjamin, principal secretary of UDD.
“The plan sheets will be scanned and while digitising the plan will be superimposed by city survey maps to get an accurate image,” he said. He added that the project will be completed within a year and will include all municipal councils and corporations in the state. The city is going by the development plan of 1991.
