BHOPAL: The House on Tuesday passed the Metro Area Bill seeking to declare Bhopal and Indore, along with adjoining districts, as metropolitan areas on the same lines as the National Capital Region (NCR).
Initiating the debate, urban development minister Kailash Vijayvargiya said the Metropolitan Area Bill was part of a long-term strategy to address development challenges likely to emerge over the next 25 years.
Notably, the NCR comprises Delhi and its adjoining areas of UP, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Referring to PM Narendra Modi’s vision to make India a developed nation by the year 2047, Vijayvargiya said the vision can’t be achieved if the states also do their bit to contribute in realising this dream.
Even as Vijayvargiya was speaking on planning for next 25 years to ensure sustainable development of both the urban and rural areas proposed to be brought under the metropolitan areas, Congress MLA Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat said long-term planning was alright but the minister should first bring out the Master Plan for Bhopal and Indore.
Speaker Narendra Singh Tomar, however, said there was nothing wrong in thinking of the future even if the Master Plan of Bhopal and Indore had been delayed.
Vijayvargiya, while referring to challenges likely to be confronted in the next 25 years, said roads, water, transport, industrial & technological development, employment and even farming will have to be planned in advance and the Metropolitan Area Bill was only aimed in this direction. “The manner in which population is rising, there can be a food crisis in the coming year if the farming techniques are not upgraded,” he said.
Vijayvargiya further said the govt was beginning with Bhopal and Indore and other major cities like Gwalior and Jabalpur will be included in the metropolitan area plan in course of time.
He said that a high-level committee headed by the CM will be formed to execute the plan for next 25 years to ensure sustainable development of the area.
Congress MLA and former urban development minister Jaivardhan Singh, who spoke after the minister, said the NCR has been a roaring success in terms of development of the areas particularly Noida and Gurgaon, where a lot of investment both domestic and foreign has taken place but there have been very apparent failures as well particularly on the front of environment.
While implementing the metro area plan in MP, the Congress leader said the state govt should keep both the aspects in mind.
He further said another thing very apparent in the NCR region is the fact that every inch of the land in the region has been occupied, and this was a major reason for turning the region as one of the most polluted in the world.
Singh said the metro area project in MP has immense potential if the state government pays attention to four areas — industrial & technological advancement, steps to turn the area into education hub, easy transport and environment protection.
Singh also referred to the inability of the BJP govt to finalise the Bhopal Master Plan since 2005, and said when the Congress was in power for a brief period, the Bhopal Master Plan was finalised and brought out but then the govt fell and the master plan also fell through.
