Area under NCR could shrink 24% if Haryana’s proposal approved

The NCR region could shrink by as much as 24% if Haryana’s move to remove five districts gets a nod from the NCR Planning Board.

According to a Times of India report, Haryana has proposed to remove five districts from the region's administrative boundary, including Karnal, Mahendragarh, Charkhi-Dadri, Jind, and Bhiwani, and three tehsils from Panipat and Rohtak.

According to the data, while Haryana's indicated area in the NCR was 13,413 square kilometers in the Regional Plan 2021, the real size expanded to 25,327 square kilometers due to the establishment of extra districts by 2018.

During this time, five more districts were added to the NCR: Mahendragarh, Bhiwani, Charkhi-Dadri, Karnal, and Jind. Similarly, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts in Uttar Pradesh, as well as Bharatpur district in Rajasthan, were added to the region.

Officials recognised that in the past, there was a push to include more districts in the NCR for "political" reasons rather than for the sake of sound regional planning and growth.

According to sources, the Board will consider two sets of proposed Regional Plan 2041 on Tuesday for the first time.

One proposal will be based on the present NCR area, while the other will be based on the projected reduction. They stated that either of them will be approved by the Board.

Taking lessons from the past, the proposed Regional Plan suggests that NCR cities be designed with optimal high rise and high density standards.