Under the provisions of section 21 to 31 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966, for the areas covered under the jurisdiction of the local bodies such as the Municipal Corporation / Municipal Council / Nagar Panchayat, the provision is made to prepare a draft development plan showing the proposed land use and public facilities as per future population. The plans are approved by the Urban Development Department of the Government

     Presently, in the state of Maharashtra, there are 386 local authorities, including 27 municipalities, 17‘A’ class Municipal councils, 72 ‘B’ class Municipal councils, 144‘C’ class Municipal councils and 126 Nagar Panchayats. Out of these, the development plan of all the local authorities have been approved by the government at least once, except for the 122 new Nagar Panchayats and 16 Nagar Parishads. Apart from this, development plans have been prepared for some Grampanchayat areas, for which the Zilla Parishad is the Planning Authority. Due to the requirement of expertise in preparing development plan for the municipal corporation areas, special units have been created headed by Deputy Director, town planning.Some special planning authorities have also been established under the provision of section 40(1b), Area Development Authority under section 42 of the MR & TP Act, 1966. Such Planning Authorities too can prepare the development plan or planning proposals for their areas and implement it after getting the same sanctioned from the Govt.