Located 78 km away from Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, Kanpur Metropolitan is the headquarters of the Kanpur circle and the District and is the main industrial, trade and education center of Central Uttar Pradesh. The city with 2.03 lakh populations in 1901 expanded to 21.11 lakh population in the year 1991, extending upto 29,659 hectare area as state’s largest metropolis of national importance.

Due to proximity to the state capital of Lucknow, the increase in population and the trend of physical development of the city is excessive in the last few decades. The lack of planning encouraged uncontrolled development which resulted in urban problems, such as high density of population in residential areas, increase in mixed and irregular land use.

For the well-planned control of the expansion of the town in future, the Uttar Pradesh government and the Town and Country Planning Department, Uttar Pradesh prepared the  “Kanpur Master plan 1991” under the Kanpur Regulation Zone. Which was approved by the Government Order No. 5679-A / 35 dated 06.04.1970 and after the establishment of the Kanpur Development Authority in 1974, it has been adopted as such.

Due to the timelessness of the Maha Yojana in the year 1991, the decision of its review was taken, and till the Master Plan will be ready, the Master Plan 1991 will remain Effective, an instruction was issued by the government. The practicality of some proposals of this period has almost come to an end, on the other hand, it had adverse effects on the targets set out in respect of decentralization of commerce and urban activities. In addition to this, the proposed economic activities and population targets at present for metropolitan Kanpur are also required for inclusion in the land use proposal.

In view of the above facts and for the purpose of planning unplanned development, promoting industries, eliminating urban and regional imbalances and ensuring the direction of planned development of the city, Kanpur Master Plan 2021 has been prepared by Kanpur Divisional Planning Section, Town and Village Planning Department, Uttar Pradesh. Keeping in view the city's growing population, which is expected to be around 45 lakhs by 2021, the Master Plan will fulfil all the needs of the city's growing population.

In the Built-up area, unlike the proposed land use in the Master Plan 1991, land was sanctioned without map. As per the orders issued from time to time by the Government on the finished up construction, the provision has been made in the land use proposal, for land use change fee, as per the rates prescribed in the mandate, for the development/construction done in the Green Plate.

In the Master Plan, keeping in view the increasing population pressure and lack of available community facilities, services in the densely populated areas of, Civil Lines, Arya Nagar, swaroop  Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Harsh Nagar, Azad Nagar, Tilak Nagar and Sarvodaya Nagar, Multi-storey buildings have been banned in these areas, and only 12.5 meters, three storey buildings are Permissible. The width of the main roads of the city has been kept at a minimum of 36.0 meters and in the Master Plan the width of the proposed road is kept for easy operation of traffic at 45, 60, 75 and 150 meters respectively. A dam road has been proposed from the barrage built on river Ganga, which will meet the Mandhna bhauti Bypass near Mandhana village. In view of the possibility of the urban population in the year 2021 reaching 45 lakhs, the outer was also proposed. With the construction of these two bypass, inter-state and inter-district road transport and bus traffic will not be admitted in the city and will be moved from the outside.

The Proposal for basic facilities of transportation i.e., truck terminals, bus terminals and traffic at the meeting point of the proposed Bypass routes respectively; Lucknow-Kanpur (NH-25), Kolkata-Delhi route (NH0-2), Hamirpur road, Kalpi Road has been done.