हिंदी
Modernise Urban Laws to Match Haryana’s Growth, Agree Top Planners, Builders and Bureaucrats
Chandigarh, 2 May 2026
Senior administrators, urban planners and real estate leaders on Saturday reached a collective consensus that the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975 must be urgently modernised and strengthened to keep pace with the state’s rapidly expanding urban landscape and evolving developmental needs.
The consensus emerged at a high-level roundtable discussion organised by the Institute of Town Planners, India – Haryana Regional Chapter (ITPI–HRC) in Panchkula, held to mark 51 years of the landmark legislation that laid the foundation for planned urban development in Haryana through private sector participation.
Haryana Chief Secretary Sh. Anurag Rastogi, who attended the event as Chief Guest, said urban policies and regulatory frameworks must continuously evolve to address emerging challenges of sustainability, infrastructure resilience, rapid urban expansion and changing citizen expectations. He said the 1975 Act had significantly contributed to planned urban growth, infrastructure creation and economic development in the state over five decades but underlined that the time had come to take it to the next level.
Sh. Rastogi further stressed that coordinated efforts among government institutions, planners and industry stakeholders were essential to ensure balanced, inclusive and future-ready urban development across Haryana.
The daylong roundtable was structured across three dedicated sessions. The Leaders Roundtable featured Chief Secretary Rastogi alongside T.L. Satyaprakash, Joint Secretary, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India; Amit Khatri, Director, Town and Country Planning, Haryana; and former senior officials S.S. Dhillon and T.C. Gupta. The session was moderated by former Chief Town Planner Jaswant Singh.
The Real Estate Industry Roundtable brought together leading developers including Gaurav Jain of Samyak Infra, Gautam Bhalla of Vatika Ltd., Rishi Raj of Conscient Ltd., Manish Swaroop of Signature Global India, Pankaj Bajaj of Eldeco Group and Abhijeet Singh of M3M India, moderated by Rohit Sharma of DLF Ltd.
The Planners Roundtable included serving and retired town planners Rajvir Singh, K. Anirudh Sharma, Narender Solanki and Professor Anil Kashyap, Founding Chancellor of NICMAR University, moderated by V.K. Goyal, former Member, HRERA.
Participants across all three sessions deliberated extensively on strengthening the Act’s provisions to tackle contemporary urban challenges, promote sustainable development, improve infrastructure resilience and put in place effective regulatory mechanisms for the future.
Established in 2006, ITPI–HRC has been actively promoting planned and sustainable urban and regional development across Haryana.
