Regional Plan

Regional plan is a process to achieve the desired development through a scientific and systematic way by a definitive action of integrating sectoral, spatial and economic goals at various levels from rural to urban settlements. It directs the type of spatial and sectoral development in terms of resources or activities in space through zoning within a defined region. It also acts as a link between broader National/ State level development objectives and local/regional level aspirations, which encompasses locating of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in space interms of intensity and spatial spread, envisages planning of settlement hierarchies in terms of demographics and infrastructure for a fixed plan period. The plan period may vary from 10 to 20 years.

Within a state, a region may be a district or group of districts and within a district, sub-region consist of cluster of Taluks/Blocks. A region is an area having some specific attributes and it can be physical region, resource region, political/administrative region, economic region, functional/formal region, spatial region, climatic and agro climatic region, tourist region, coastal region, fast-growing region, hill region and such others. The regions were delineated by taking into considerations of natural or artificial features/parameters, viz. demography, economic dependency, traffic links, governance, social linkages, environmental features (forests, wildlife or climate), physiography, investments, resource, religion, language etc.

The contents of Regional Plan includes:

• Existing profile of the region – Importance, historic evolution, profile of demographic, physiographic, Urbanisation, social, environment and economic sectors of the region
• Analysis of general profile and regional resources – physical setting, geography of the region, settlement pattern, demography, carrying capacity, vulnerability, transportation, infrastructure linkages of both physical and social, environment, stakeholder mapping etc.
• Vision and formation of development strategies
• Projects requirements and major proposals of various sectors
• Delineation of Zones and Sub-Zones – development priority zones, rural and agricultural zones, preservation and conservation zones, transition & buffer zones and no development zones
• Mechanism of Plan Implementation – funding mechanism, institutional arrangement, phasing and action plan
• Zoning Regulations

The Tamil Nadu Government have chosen the parameter of administrative boundaries for delineating a region, from which it notifies 12 Regional Planning Areas based on above parameters under section 10 (5) of Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971 vide G.O.(Ms).111 dated 04.10.2021 . There are 38 districts in Tamil Nadu. All these districts have been brought under the regional planning area. Regional plans are prepared by taking into consideration of various aspects such as sustainability, urbanization, environment, infrastructure linkages, disaster management, inclusivity, eliminating imbalanced development etc. Constitution of regional planning authority to prepare and implement regional plan is under progress. The Notified 12 regional planning areas in Tamil Nadu state are as given below: