About This Syllabus
The Bihar Public Service Commission has issued the syllabus of the Town Planning paper as Annexure 2 of the Assistant Town Planner recruitment (Advertisement No. 89/2025). It is spread over 14 units that move from basic design and urban design to infrastructure, transport, housing, planning techniques and the legal and administrative framework of urban planning in Bihar. The topics below follow the official BPSC PDF unit by unit.
1. Basic Planning and Design
- Visual composition in 2D and 3D
- Computer applications in planning
- Anthropometrics, organisation of space and space standards
- Horizontal and vertical circulation
- Universal design
2. Urban Design, Landscape and Conservation
- Historical and modern examples of urban design
- Elements of the urban built environment: urban form, spaces, structure, pattern, fabric, texture and grain
- Concepts, theories, principles, tools and techniques of urban design
- Public spaces: character, spatial qualities and sense of place
- Urban design interventions for sustainable development and transportation
- Development controls: FAR, densities and building byelaws
- Urban renewal, conservation and heritage conservation
- Historical public spaces and gardens, landscape design and site planning
3. Planning Process
- Salient concepts, theories and principles of urban planning
- Concepts of cities such as the Eco-City and the Smart City
- Ideas of trend-setting planners and designers; Ekistics
- Urban sociology
- Social, economic and environmental cost-benefit analysis
- Methods of non-spatial and spatial data analysis
4. Services and Infrastructure Planning
- Water supply and distribution systems; water harvesting systems
- Principles, planning and design of storm water drainage
- Sewage disposal methods
- Solid waste management: collection, transportation and disposal; recycling and reuse of solid waste
5. Regional and Settlement Planning
- Regional delineation and settlement hierarchy
- Schemes and programmes of the central government
- Transit Oriented Development (TOD), Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and Special Residential Zones (SRZ)
- Slums, squatters and informal housing
- Standards for housing and community facilities; housing for special areas and needs
6. Environmental Planning
- Natural and man-made ecosystems; ecological principles
- Environmental considerations in planning and design
- Environmental pollution: types, causes, controls and abatement strategies
- Sustainable development goals and strategies
- Climate change and the built environment; climate-responsive design
7. Urban Land, Financing, Governance and Project Management
- Land pooling schemes and development mechanisms: land amalgamation, reorganisation, reconstitution and consolidation
- Land economics: value capture financing, floor space index optimisation and transferable development rights as incentive tools
- Greenfield development; urban redevelopment and retrofitting
- Asset monetisation and brownfield development
- Preparation of the pre-feasibility report, feasibility report and detailed project report (DPR)
8. Transportation Planning
- Process and principles of transportation planning and traffic engineering
- Hierarchy of roads and level of service
- Public transport and mass rapid transport systems; mass transportation planning
- Planning for walkability; non-motorised transport (NMT); pedestrian and slow-moving traffic planning
- Green belts, road marking and street lighting
- Road capacity and travel demand forecasting
- Traffic survey methods, traffic flow analysis, and traffic analysis and design considerations
- Traffic and transport management and control in urban areas; Intelligent Transportation Systems
- Inter-relationship of land use, transportation and urban form
- Design of roads, intersections, grade separators and parking areas
- Para-transit and other modes of transport
9. Housing
- Housing typologies
- Concepts, principles and examples of the neighbourhood
- Residential densities and affordable housing
- Real estate valuation
- National Housing Policy
10. Planning Techniques and Management
- Population projection
- Tools and techniques of physical, topographical, land use and socio-economic surveys
- Urban economics; the law of demand and supply of land and its use in planning
- Graphic presentation of spatial data
- Local self-governance and Panchayati Raj institutions
- Planning legislation and implementation, such as the Land Acquisition Act and PPP
- Application of GIS and remote sensing in urban and regional planning
- Decision support systems and land information systems
- Urban geography and econometrics
- Management of infrastructure projects; demography and equity in planning
11. Legislative Framework in Planning with Respect to Bihar
- 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts
- Bihar Urban Planning and Development Act and Rules
- Bihar Building Bye Laws
- Development control and urban regulatory concepts
- Area Development Scheme and Transit Oriented Development policy
- Function of the arbitrator and the tribunal for appeal
12. Urbanisation, Government Schemes and Missions in the Context of Bihar
- Development guidelines such as URDPFI
- Government schemes: Smart City Mission, AMRUT and HRIDAY
13. Functions of Government Organisations for Planning and Governance in Urban Areas
- Urban governance
- People's participation and its impact on planning and policy formulation
- Role of elected representatives in urban governance
14. Formulation and Implementation of Development Plans
- Types and hierarchy of plans
- Plan formulation, plan modification, and review and monitoring of plans
- People's participation
- Resource mobilisation for implementing a development plan
- Land assembly techniques
Exam Pattern and Marking
The syllabus annexure lists only the topics of the Town Planning paper. It does not state the number of questions, total marks, duration, negative marking or qualifying marks, so take these from BPSC Advertisement No. 89/2025 and the commission's later exam notices.
Preparation Pointers
- Transportation Planning (Unit 8) and Planning Techniques and Management (Unit 10) carry the longest topic lists in the syllabus.
- Units 11 and 12 are specific to Bihar: study the Bihar Urban Planning and Development Act and Rules, the Bihar Building Bye Laws, URDPFI guidelines and the Smart City, AMRUT and HRIDAY missions.
- Planning finance and project topics (land pooling, value capture financing, TDR, DPR preparation) appear in Unit 7 and link with plan implementation in Unit 14.