Critical Evaluation of “Urban Open Spaces in Development Planâ€: A Case Study

Abstract

After independence, town planning experienced tremendous changes in its approach. Town and country planning laws were enacted by various states and accordingly preparing a development plan of town or cities became obligatory for municipal councils. Maharashtra state is said to be progressive in this regard and enactment of Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1996, made it possible to prepare a development plan for all towns having municipal corporations, councils, etc. By and large, almost for whole of Maharashtra, development plans are prepared for each municipal town/city. Most of them are at revision state and some are due for revision after the expiry of their implementation period. Development plans are nothing but preparation of the land use plans/maps which are needed to guide urban centers for their orderly development. One of the essential ingredients of a development plan is recreational spaces in the form of open spaces, parks, play grounds, children’s’ parks, etc., which are commonly known as “urban open spaces.” Organizations like municipal councils that initiate a project like development plan should have an influence on implementation of such ingredients, but implementation of land use reservation has greatly been observed as unsatisfactory in terms of their implementation. The performances of such “urban open spaces” in terms of their implementation are critically analyzed to find out the factors contributing to their poor performance. This paper also emphasizes to suggest measures for their better implementation. “B” and “C” class municipal councils of Yavatmal district of state of Maharashtra (India) have been taken as a case study.

Keywords: Development plan, recreational spaces, Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, district implementation machinery, implementation