2Plan Formulation

Spatial development planning is a continuous, time-oriented, cyclic process and should be seen and practised as a process where planning, implementation, monitoring, review and plan updating go on as a dynamic process. In this process, the decision to prepare a plan is outside the cycle of planning process. The following diagram portrays the general process of planning.

Following are the stages of planning process:

■ Determination of Aims and Objectives

■ Identification of site needs

■ Identification of projected needs

■ Plan formulation

■ Inclusive planning

■ Statutory obligations

■ Decentralisation of plan approval process

People's participation

■ Plan modification

■ Review and revision of plans.

The aim of the plan is a broad and general statement indicating the decisions of the policy makers, aspirations of the people and needs of the community. For example, ‘To provide job opportunities for all’ is a statement of aims.

Objectives are specific statements indicating the ways and means of achieving the set aims taking into account the potentials. For example, for the aim related to job opportunities, the objectives could be:

■ Provision of jobs through development of industries / commerce or trade;

■ Provision of incentives and inducements (specific) to industries;

■ Provisions of informal sector economic activity sites as part of commercial areas, and such others.

The aims and objectives formulation exercise comprises the following steps:

1. Identification of values cherished by and needs of various stakeholders including citizens, administrators, professionals, politicians, and other group of people.

2. Identification of aims incorporating the values.

3. Identification of criteria that further defines each aim to form basis for formulation of objectives.

4. Formulation of objectives, which could be further defined as design objectives and implementation objectives.

For comprehensive spatial planning and integration of the sectoral development, site specific needs are to be identified in the beginning of the planning process. The report of the Working Group on Urban Strategic Planning (12 $^\{th\}$ Five year plan), states that due to ‘Lack of Comprehensive Planning Approach, haphazard growth and proliferation of slums around industrial locations, peri-urban areas and randomly located new developments such as SEZs and township has taken place’.

Diverse ground conditions and interrelationships in settlements require different strategies for spatial planning. The growth potential and special functions performed by the urban centres such as marketing, industrial, tourism, pilgrim centres etc. need to be explicitly recognized.

At this stage of the planning process, the site needs should be identified based on the typology of urban development- such as port city, old city, industrial townships, peri-urban areas, corridor development, regional development and accordingly the vision needs to be prepared. Table 2.1 throws light on some site-specific features for studying urban and regional settlements while planning. The list is comprehensive but not exhaustive.

Table-Error! No text of specified style in document.1:Site Specific Needs of Few City Types

The stage of identification of site needs should be taken as baseline study phase. As this stage has implications on the following stages, a broad based study should be done for identification and incorporation of as much as elements that are specific to the settlement and are likely to have impact on the future development of the settlements to prepare sound proposals.