Thirty to forty lakh new flats, a metro network stretched from 416 km to 695 km, and a pledge that every slum dweller will get a proper home — Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar laid out the sweeping ambition of the Delhi Master Plan 2047 on Thursday, 20 August 2026, calling it not just an urban expansion blueprint but a 'sankalp' — a solemn commitment — for every resident of the capital.

A Plan That Goes Beyond Zoning Maps

Khattar framed Delhi Master Plan 2047 in deliberately human terms, describing it as a roadmap for 'better housing, seamless transport, modern amenities and improved quality of life' for every Delhiite. The plan's scope is broad: it covers villages, unauthorised colonies, old residential neighbourhoods, and commercial market zones — essentially the full patchwork of informal and formal Delhi that no single planning instrument has tried to address all at once.

Central to the redevelopment push is a higher Floor Area Ratio (FAR) — the ratio of a building's total floor space to the plot size — which, when increased, allows denser construction and incentivises owners of ageing structures to rebuild. Simpler regulatory provisions are promised alongside, aimed at cutting the procedural friction that has historically stalled redevelopment in Delhi's older colonies.

'Jahan Jhuggi, Wahan Makaan' — The Slum Pledge at the Core

The minister specifically invoked the slogan 'jahan jhuggi, wahan makaan' (where the slum is, there the home will be) — a commitment to in-situ rehabilitation rather than displacement of informal settlers. This approach, where slum residents are rehoused on or near the same land rather than relocated to the urban periphery, has been a recurring aspiration in Delhi's planning history, though implementation has been uneven across successive plans.

The Master Plan for Delhi 2021, notified in 2007, similarly promoted higher FAR and in-situ slum rehabilitation, but the gap between plan targets and ground reality remained wide. The 2047 iteration is being positioned as the instrument that finally closes that gap, backed by what Khattar described as the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the cooperation of the Delhi government.

Metro at 695 km and the RRTS Expansion

On transport, the plan envisions extending Delhi's metro network from its current 416 km to 695 km — an addition of roughly 279 km of new lines. That would make Delhi's metro one of the largest urban rail networks in the world by route length. Alongside metro expansion, Khattar flagged the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) as a key lever for regional connectivity, linking Delhi to its satellite cities at higher speeds than conventional metro.

The RRTS corridors — connecting Delhi to Meerut, Gurugram, and Panipat in their various phases — are designed to ease the pressure on road and metro networks by pulling inter-city commuters onto a dedicated high-speed rail spine. Expanding that system is central to the plan's logic: you cannot house millions more people in Delhi without simultaneously building the transport infrastructure to move them.

If the targets hold, Delhi Master Plan 2047 will be the most ambitious urban planning exercise the capital has seen. The real test, as always, will be in the notifications, the land acquisition, and the construction timelines that follow the vision.