Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has assured that a comprehensive urban development plan will be put in place for systematic development of tier 2 and 3 cities.

In the Budget 2022 speech, Finance Minister said that orderly urban development is important. This will help realize the Country’s economic potential including livelihood opportunities for the demographic dividend, she said.

“We need to nurture the megacities and their hinterlands to become current centres of economic growth. On the other hand, we need to facilitate tier 2 and 3 cities to take on the mantle in the future. This would require us to reimagine our cities into centres of sustainable living with opportunities for all, including women and youth”, she pointed out.

"For this to happen, urban planning cannot continue with a business-as-usual approach. We plan to steer a paradigm change. A high-level committee of reputed urban planners, urban economists and institutions will be formed to make recommendations on urban sector policies, capacity building, planning, implementation and governance", Ms. Sitharaman said.

Urban Planning Support to States: For urban capacity building, support will be provided to the states.

Modernization of building bye-laws, Town Planning Schemes (TPS), and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) will be implemented, Finance Minister assured.

The Central Government’s financial support for mass transit projects and AMRUT scheme will be leveraged for the formulation of action plans and their implementation for facilitating TOD and TPS by the states, Finance Minister stated.

Finance Minister further stated that AICTE has asked to take lead to improve syllabi, quality and access of urban planning courses in other institutions.