The Hindu Business Line : Minister for high rises to offset swelling population

NEW DELHI: Concerned over high density of population in the cities, the Urban Development Minister, Mr S Jaipal Reddy on Monday said there was a need to go in for high rise buildings.

“We need to go in for high rise buildings in cities...There is high density of population in urban areas,” he said at a workshop on centres of excellence of the ministry.

The minister said he was “zealously protecting” the Lutyen's Bungalow Zone (LBZ) in Delhi due to its heritage status and there was “pressure” on him to change the land use.

“But we cannot afford LBZ elsewhere in Delhi and the country,” he said, adding that one needs to go in for redevelopment in other areas of the city. LBZ, in the heart of Delhi, has ministerial bungalows on prime land. The ministry has 13 centres of excel lence across the country - nine for matters pertaining to urban development and four for urban transport.

Mr Reddy said a huge capacity building exercise was needed in the urban sector and added that the centres of excellence would generate capacity through ideas.

“It is an ambitious programme,” Mr Reddy said on the centres of excellence, which include the IITs in Delhi, Chennai and Guwahati and IIM Bangalore, apart from other institutes in the government and private sectors.

These centres would disseminate best practices in the area of municipal service delivery and reform, development of dynamic integrated land-use planning model, preparation of climate change adaption plan for cities and development of design guidelines fo r comprehensive decentralised waste water management system. - PTI

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