UHD selected Rajasthan's 100 villages for housing plan

The Urban Development and Housing (UDH) Department has selected 100 villages, with a minimum population of 10,000, across the state for their centralised planning. The department will research the growth and infrastructural needs of these areas in the next 15 years and draft a plan for land use to ensure their overall development. "The plan will chalk out the future land use in these areas. It will also describe if a particular piece of land can be used for commercial activity. It will also define green belts, where construction will not be allowed," said a senior town planner of Jaipur Development Authority (JDA), who has been assigned the draft work of the Master Plan. He added that the aim behind drafting the Master Plan is proper development of rural areas. "It has been noticed that some parts of a village, which are close to roads, state or national highways, are developed easily, but the rest of the village remains severely underdeveloped. With the Mater Plan, we will ensure that the entire village is uniformly developed," he added. However, the engineer clarified that rural areas of Jaipur district are not part of the first phase of planning. "Jaipur's rural areas will be developed in the second phase of planning," said the town planner.