By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 18, 2017: THE Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, Mr Hardeep Puri, have directed review of FSI and FAR norms in mega cities to ensure better utilization of scarce urban land resources in the context of rapid urbanization in the country. He addressed senior officials from different states and chief executives of Metro Rail Corporations from across the country at a National Dissemination Workshop on New Metro Rail Policy here on Saturday. The Minister released the new policy which was approved by the Union Cabinet last month.

Mr Puri referred to the recommendation of NITI Ayog for relaxation of Floor Space Index (FSI) and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) norms in urban areas to give a push to urban development and asked the Ministry officials to take up a  time bound review of these norms in all the 53 cities with a population of one million and above each. He also suggested a similar review for State Capitals with less than million population each in due course.  The review to be taken up in consultation with States and cities  is to cover an assessment of the existing norms and to what extent it could be enhanced.  The Minister also directed to identify short and long term interventions to be taken up in respect of improving infrastructure pertaining to ensuring water supply and sewerage systems, road spaces etc.

Expressing concern over poor public transport infrastructure in cities, he stressed on the need for integrated land use and transport planning with the objective of promoting compact and dense urban development to minimize the use of personal motorized transport.

Referring to NITI Ayog Report, the Minister said "In 1984, Shanghai had only 3.65 sq.mt of space per person. Through liberal use of FSI, despite increase in population since 1984, the city had increased the available space to 34 sq.mt per person. In contrast, in 2009, Mumbai on average had just 4.50 sq.mt of space per person". The Minister further noted that increasing the availability of land in urban areas is critical to meet the demand for affordable housing under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).

He noted that compact, dense and vertical urban densification is beneficial to both the citizens given the rising demand for urban spaces and urban mass transit systems being developed and proposed to be developed.