Generating two crore jobs in 20 years is what the “Regional Plan 2041” of the National Capital Region (NCR) will envisage. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Monday asked the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) to prepare a blueprint for the plan by mid-2021 keeping in mind the transport, hospital, hospitality, education, environment, water, sewerage, solid waste and power sectors where the jobs will mostly be created.
“The development of these sectors will increase rural income and reduce poverty,” member secretary NCPRB Archana Agarwal said, adding a regional plan with next horizon year 2041 is required to be prepared now.
The regional plan 2021 was notified on September 17, 2005, and is presently in force.
Officials said that the Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) project will generate huge employments in Delhi and its neighboring States. The RRTS project is worth Rs 30,274 crore and will be implemented in phases, based upon its corridors and sections. The country’s first regional rapid rail corridor will come up on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut route, which will eventually bring down the travel time between Delhi and Meerut to just 55 minutes. “All rapid rail trains will have the ‘made in India’ mark, which means generation of employment,” said officials of NCRPB.
The construction of Eastern Peripheral Expressway and Western Peripheral Expressway has already generated thousands of jobs in the areas. It has given direct and indirect employment to over 10,000 skilled and unskilled workers.
MoHUA Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra asked the NCRPB to notify the regional plan by mid-2021 and focus on how to make cities citizen-centric, liveable, environmentally sustainable and disaster resilience. “The 2041 regional plan should also make the National Conservation Zone more effective, look at ways to integrate rural and urban, utilise opportunities provided by the Transit Oriented Development policy and redevelopment. Only plans with crucial factors like economic ability and sustainability can succeed,” Mishra added.
Land is the biggest challenge today and planners should think of ways to make optimum use of existing land, he said. Asked if the 2021 plan has been met with success, he said that a “lot has been achieved — both the Eastern and Western Peripheral Roads are ready, civil construction work is on with regard to the Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (Delhi-Meerut RRTS), a lot of progress has been achieved on the Delhi to Panipat, Delhi-Alwar RRTS projects also. These are expected to be sanctioned soon.
The NCRPB area is a distinct setup having the National Capital Territory of Delhi as its core. The NCR covers over 55,083 sqkms of area with around 60 million population. The NCR areas include Gurugram, Faridabad, Rohtak, Sonepat, Rewari, Jhajjar, Mewat, Palwal, Panipat, Mahendregarh, Jind, Karnal, Bhiwani and Charkhi Dadri districts of Haryana, Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan and Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Bulandsahr, Baghpat, Hapur, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli of Uttar Pradesh.
