To have a compact area so that the development can be planned in a better manner, the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) approved the draft regional plan-2041 policy and is considering a reduction in the area under the National Capital Region (NCR). NCR is a region envisaged in 1985 for coordinated urban development in and around Delhi, now planning to limit it to within 100 km radius from Rajghat, Delhi.

The NCR outlining plan has been in the pipeline since 2017. Over the years, new areas have been added to the NCR owing to which its area has increased from 30,000 sq. km to over 55,083 sq. km. The NCR presently consists of 24 districts in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, and the entire Delhi. If this idea of a reduction in the area gets implemented, parts of Panipat in Haryana and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh will be dropped from the new NCR map.

The Haryana government is pushing for a one-third reduction in its area under the NCR as 57 percent area of the state falls under the NCR.

NCR presently includes 150-175 km, which consists of 45.98% of the land, i.e.,14 districts (a total of 25,327 sq/km) in Haryana, 26.92%, i.e., 8 districts in Uttar Pradesh, 24.48% that means 2 districts in Rajasthan, and 2.68% of Delhi including their rural areas.

Earlier, the Haryana government proposed the area reduction scheme to the NCRPB, submitting a different option for revised delineation of NCR after considering the urbanization in the state. It asked for reducing the Haryana sub-region to 8,281.60 sq km from the present-day 25,327 sq km, subject to verification of record.

Later, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar requested Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav to allow the implementation of pollution-controlled provisions that are district-specific rather than NCR-specific.

Officials said the proposal to reduce the state’s area was prepared to keep in view that the inclusion of areas extending to even far-flung districts such as Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Mahendergarh, Jind, and Karnal, was not serving any purpose in terms of reducing the urbanization pressure on the national capital. Once the Regional Plan-2041 is approved, then areas beyond 100 km are not likely to be the main part of the NCR region.

According to the sources, Gurugram, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida, and some areas of Meerut among others will remain part of NCR as they fall under a 100 km radius.

In June last year, when the country was facing the mounting cases of Covid19, the viability of the NCR was questioned, as it failed to share or pool health care infrastructure, without a common strategy to challenge the pandemic situation. This impelled the Supreme Court to order the Centre to organise a meeting of member states – Delhi, UP, Haryana and Rajasthan – in order to evolve a “common programme and common portal” for easing interstate movement in the NCR.

Today many rural areas are part of NCR and the tehsils, including rural areas, coming under the 100km radius will surely be included in NCR. But it would be a final call of state government to decide whether tehsil, which are partly covered under the new NCR boundary, should be part of the NCR or not.

Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning at the School of Planning and Architecture, said, “The proposed plan will include all the major NCR towns and settlements. It is rural areas in these towns that will be excluded. It will benefit the rural areas, as the state governments can plan for their development in a better manner. The area in the 100km radius can be developed as a core area.”