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Indian cities have had colonial legacy for town planning and formulation of Master plans for cities. Until recently, this process of formulation of Master plans was done manually or with the help of auto-CAD. But with the advancements in fields like remote sensing technology, its application in the field of urban planning and master plan formulation was realised, that allows precise planning and quick decision making, the use of GIS technology has become popular. Thus, Government of India launched a sub-scheme under AMRUT mission for formulation of GIS based Master plans for cities in India in 2015. The sub-scheme clearly outlines the preparation of base map etc, but not elaborate on the planning process involved in the formulation of GIS based maps.
The thesis, exploratory in nature, has tried to identify the current practises and problems in the formulation of GIS based Master plans for Indian cities. This thesis goes onto understanding the planning requirements for the city of Rameswaram. The thesis is based on secondary data. additionally, for identifying the issues in formulation of GIS based Master plans, the thesis has utilised stakeholder and expert consultation other than literature review. Given the thesis was carried out during the times of pandemic, the ground truthing exercise or direct survey was not possible and thus, based on secondary data only.
The identified issues were grouped into two broad categories of technical and institutional. After identifying these issues, the thesis in the end tries to give a suitable framework based on successful studies that can be used for formulation of GIS based Master plan for city of Rameswaram and similar cities in India. While doing so, the framework provided takes into account the sustainable tourism and resilient aspect of the coastal city of Rameswaram.
Keywords: GIS based Master Plans, Rameswaram, Cities, Master Plans, Sustainable.
