History of the 'Perspective Master Plan'
I. Executive Summary: From March till July '99 extensive work was coordinated by the Land Use Coordination (LUC) team, through several seminars and a series of meetings. A document called: 'Master Plan, a profile' was prepared. This got the approval of the Residents Assembly in July '99. In August that year, the Governing Board approved it and recommended to seek the advice of town planners in Madras and Delhi before presenting it to the GoI.
II. Master Plan album: After four months of consultation outside and inside Auroville, the 'Auroville Universal Township Master Plan', a refinement of the previous summary, was finalised. It was approved by the Residents Assembly and the Governing Board in December '99.
III. Presentation of the Master Plan album to Delhi authorities: In February and April 2000 two delegations of LUC visited Delhi and met the Ministers, Secretaries and Advisers of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) and Ministry of Urban Development.
IV. First visit of Mr. Meshram and Mr. Chotani (Chief Planners of the Government's Town & Country Planning Organisation, TCPO) to Auroville, 4th & 5th May 2000. Meeting with town planners from Pondicherry and Chennai, Mr. Bala Baskar and Dr. Kireet Joshi of the Auroville Foundation. Useful remarks and questions about more detailed information were made/asked. It became clear that the Master Plan had to adopt a legal format. Mr. Meshram offered his help in the elaboration of the refined document.
V. Second meeting in Delhi (Mr. Meshram & Mr. Chotani (TCPO), Mrs. Jyoti Madhok (Governing Board member) and Frederick Buxloh (Aurovilian), 4th September 2000. Request for more detailed information.
VI. Second visit of Mr. Meshram and Mr. Chotani, and guidelines given. On their second visit, Mr. Meshram and Mr. Chotani gave us a detailed structure for presentation of the document, to enable the Government of India to understand our concept. They also gave us a copy of the latest UDPFI Guidelines of the Ministry of Urban Affairs & Employment, GoI, to be followed in the presentation and format.
VII. During this stage, we augmented the document with additional information which previously had not been included, but which was required to fulfill the minimum acceptable standard for the Government of India. Hereafter, the document was offered to the community at large for its perusal and agreement.
VIII. During the meeting in Delhi of 15th February 2001 between officials of the GoI's Ministry of Human Resource Development and officials of the Town and Country Planning Organisation of the Ministry of Urban Development, members of the Governing Board of the Auroville Foundation and Auroville's Land Use Coordination, a message was given by Mr. Manohar Joshi, Minister of HRD, as well as by Mr. Jagmohan, Minister of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation of HRD, officialising the document as a partnership work between the Auroville Foundation and the TCPO.
IX. In subsequent meetings in Delhi on February 16th and 17th during which the Director of the UNESCO Division (of HRD) was also present, it was reconfirmed that the approval of the document was to be communicated to the Auroville Foundation in the form of minutes of the above mentioned meeting of February 15th. This was done, and the approval of the Auroville Master Plan became a reality.
Regional Development Plan
One of the major tasks of the Land Use Coordination team is to find means to secure the land necessary for the development of the Township, in such a way that land not yet in the ownership of the Auroville Foundation can be exclusively developed in accordance with the Auroville Master Plan. One way to achieve this goal is to seek the inclusion of our Township Development Plan in a proposed Regional Development Plan.
