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Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs and Power Manohar Lal unveiled the Delhi Master Plan 2047 (MPD-2047) on 20 August 2026, in the presence of Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
The plan envisages around 40 lakh new affordable housing units, including about 18 lakh along metro corridors in Transit-Oriented Development zones and about 7 lakh from relaxed redevelopment norms.
The Land Pooling Policy is commissioned for nearly 200 sq km of planned urban expansion creating around 12 lakh new homes and a 600 km road network, with DDA building 30-metre and wider roads upfront.
MPD-2047 uses two approaches — area-based redevelopment for brownfield areas and Right-of-Way-based planning for greenfield areas — and regularises residential buildings in 1,511 unauthorised colonies on an 'as is where is' basis, covering around 45 lakh residents.
It also provides for conservation of about 1,500 heritage assets with a first-ever 50 TDR heritage incentive, restoration of nearly 1,700 hectares of Yamuna floodplain through 13 projects, and a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority for integrated transport planning.
Concentrate housing, jobs and amenities within walking distance of mass transit so that public transport corridors carry the growth instead of private vehicles
Key: MPD-2047 incorporates a TOD policy to strengthen public transport corridors, and locates around 18 lakh of its affordable housing units in TOD zones along metro corridors, with more along High Density Corridors
Assemble fragmented private land into planned, serviced urban sectors without outright acquisition, returning a developed share to the landowner
Key: Commissioned for nearly 200 sq km of expansion yielding around 12 lakh homes and 600 km of roads. It is government-led and infrastructure-first, with DDA laying 30-metre and wider roads upfront; implementation models include Town Planning Schemes, and schemes of at least 20 hectares are used for faster rollout. Sector 8B in Zone P-II, in Gadi Khasro and Ibrahimpur villages, is the first notified sector ready for implementation
Rebuild existing colonies at higher density in place, rather than relocating residents
Key: Resident Welfare Associations are to be encouraged to register and adopt a redevelopment framework on the lines of the in-situ redevelopment policy. Plot-based redevelopment is encouraged by waiving the earlier area-level requirement of 4 hectares
Make the conservation of a heritage building financially viable for its owner
Key: About 1,500 heritage assets are to get Cultural Resource Management Plans, adaptive reuse as hotels, museums, offices, libraries and cultural spaces is facilitated, and a Heritage Incentive of 50 TDR is introduced for the first time
Put planning, development, implementation and enforcement of transport policy in Delhi under a single authority
Key: Paired with multi-modal transit hubs linking Metro, RRTS, buses, intermediate public transport, walking and cycling; development of UER-I, UER-II and UER-III for intra-city and inter-State connectivity; and a Unified Parking Planning Framework
Give legal property security to residents of colonies that grew outside the plan
Key: Residential buildings in 1,511 unauthorised colonies are to be regularised on an 'as is where is' basis with no requirement of layout plans, covering around 45 lakh residents
The anchor agency for the Master Plan for Delhi; it prepares and implements master and zonal development plans and, under MPD-2047, will lay 30-metre and wider roads upfront in land pooling areas
The Union department that carries the capital's development portfolio; its Secretary was present at the unveiling of MPD-2047
Prepares the plan for the development of the National Capital Region, coordinates and monitors its implementation, and evolves harmonised policies for land use control and infrastructure development so that the region does not grow haphazardly. The NCR is centred on Delhi and takes in adjacent districts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan
Provides for the planned development of Delhi, establishes the Delhi Development Authority, and lays down the procedure for preparing and implementing master and zonal development plans. Every Master Plan for Delhi, from the first in 1962 to MPD-2047, derives its authority from this Act.
Constitutes the NCRPB for planning the wider National Capital Region. Delhi's master plan therefore sits inside a second, regional planning layer covering districts of three neighbouring States — which is why Delhi's growth cannot be planned in isolation from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Inserted by the Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991 and effective from 1 February 1992, it renamed the Union Territory of Delhi as the National Capital Territory of Delhi, designated its administrator the Lieutenant Governor and provided for a Legislative Assembly. It followed the recommendation of the S. Balakrishnan Committee set up in 1987. This is why a Union Minister, a Lieutenant Governor and a Chief Minister all appear at the unveiling of a single city plan.
A master plan cannot build anything itself; it changes what private owners are permitted to build, and lets the market do the rest. Floor Area Ratio (FAR) is the ratio of total built floor area to plot area — raise the FAR and the same plot can legally hold more floors, which is how MPD-2047 converts a housing target into an incentive: 15% additional FAR for workers' housing on large industrial plots, a 50% FAR incentive for rental housing, FAR up to 400 along the High Density Corridor on UER-II. Transferable Development Rights (TDR) solve a different problem: an owner who must not build — because the building is heritage, or the land is needed for a road — is issued development rights usable on another site, so conservation stops being a pure loss. MPD-2047's 'Heritage Incentive - 50 TDR' is the first application of this to Delhi's heritage assets. Land pooling addresses the third problem, that greenfield expansion requires assembling thousands of small private holdings. Instead of acquiring land, the agency pools it, lays out roads and services, and returns a smaller but serviced and far more valuable parcel to each owner. The plan's 'infrastructure-first' formulation — DDA building the 30-metre and wider roads before development — is what makes pooling credible to landowners.
Simple Analogy: FAR is the ceiling on how tall a stack of paper you may put on a given desk. TDR is being told you cannot stack on this desk, but here is a voucher to stack higher on another one. Land pooling is everyone on a street agreeing to hand their garden to a common planner, who lays out a proper road and hands each of them back a slightly smaller garden that is now worth far more because it has a road.
| Aspect | Brownfield areas | Greenfield areas |
|---|---|---|
| Approach used | Area-based redevelopment | Right-of-Way (RoW)-based planning |
| What it means | Rebuilding and densifying land that is already built up | Laying out a connected road network first and letting development follow it |
| Main instruments | Transit-Oriented Development, mixed-use development, infrastructure augmentation, incentivised FAR, plot-based redevelopment | Land Pooling, Low-Density Areas, Town Planning Schemes, High-Density Corridors |
| Illustrative provisions | Redevelopment minimum area cut from 40,000 sq m to 3,000 sq m; commercial redevelopment minimum plot 1,000 sq m; waiver of the 4 hectare area-level requirement | Nearly 200 sq km of expansion, 12 lakh homes, 600 km of roads; schemes of minimum 20 hectares; FAR up to 400 on the UER-II corridor |
| Typical outcome sought | Around 7 lakh additional dwelling units plus 18 lakh in TOD zones | Around 12 lakh new homes |
The Delhi Development Act is enacted, creating the Delhi Development Authority and the master plan process
The first Master Plan for Delhi is promulgated under the 1957 Act
Article 239AA is inserted by the Sixty-ninth Constitutional Amendment, making Delhi the National Capital Territory with a Legislative Assembly (effective 1 February 1992)
The Master Plan for Delhi 2021 is notified; Delhi's plans are prepared for twenty-year perspective periods
A draft Master Plan for Delhi 2041 is placed in the public domain
The Delhi Master Plan 2047 (MPD-2047) is unveiled by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
The plan pairs floodplain restoration — nearly 1,700 hectares through 13 projects — with expansion of sewage treatment plants and sewerage infrastructure, treating river water quality as an urban infrastructure problem rather than only an environmental one.
UER-I, UER-II and UER-III are positioned as both intra-city and inter-State links, and the 250 m wide High Density Corridor with FAR up to 400 runs along UER-II — a direct instance of building density onto a new transport spine rather than beside an existing one.
Cutting 133 use premises to 45 and moving to a negative list means the plan tells you what you may not do rather than enumerating what you may — a deregulation technique now common across Indian regulatory reform.
The plan promotes net zero development through energy-efficient buildings, low-carbon planning, rooftop solar, rainwater harvesting, water recycling, waste-to-resource initiatives and green mobility, tying city planning to India's climate commitments.
Core capital development includes the redevelopment of Kartavya Path and the roughly 1.25 lakh sq m Yuge Yugeen National Museum, placing the capital's ceremonial core inside the same statutory plan as its housing and transport.
GS Paper 1 > Urbanisation, Their Problems and Their Remedies; GS Paper 2 > Government Policies and Interventions
General Awareness > Current Affairs and Indian Polity
General Awareness > Current Affairs
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Urbanisation and urban planning instruments such as TOD, FAR and land pooling recur in UPSC Prelims and Mains; Delhi-specific polity questions on Article 239AA are a Prelims staple.
The ratio of total built floor area permitted on a plot to the plot's own area; raising it permits more construction on the same land.
Development rights issued to an owner who is prevented from building on a site — for heritage or public-purpose reasons — and usable at another location; MPD-2047 introduces a 50 TDR heritage incentive for the first time.
Assembling fragmented private holdings, laying out roads and services, and returning a smaller developed parcel to each owner instead of acquiring the land outright.
Brownfield areas are already built up and are handled by area-based redevelopment; greenfield areas are undeveloped and are planned around a road Right-of-Way network.
The width of land reserved for a road and its associated infrastructure; MPD-2047 permits mixed use along RoW of 30.0 m and above.