Patna is all set to get the "metropolitan" tag.

The state capital would have its first metropolitan committee in place by March. The state election commission wants to hold an election for committee members by the end of this month.

The constitution of metropolitan committee would pave the way for implementation of the much-awaited master plan of the state capital, which envisages expansion of the city from existing 250sqkm to 1,144sqkm.

The metropolitan tag means that it would be a bigger city with a bigger delimitation, which would ensure planned development of the city. Till now, the development works in Patna have been done largely in unregulated manner because of no master plan, which requires creation of metropolitan committee. That the master plan is awaiting final approval for over a year, creating of this committee holds significance.

The 30-member Patna metropolitan committee would be elected by 110 elected representatives, including ward councillors and mukhiyas in the civic bodies and panchayats in and around the city that would form the part of Patna metropolitan area.

"We intend to hold the committee's election by the end of this month. We have sought details from Patna district administration regarding the reservation to be given to different categories, including scheduled castes (SC), extremely backward class and other backward classes among others in the committee," said Durgesh Nandan, secretary, state election commission.

Apart from the elected representatives, the committee would also have senior government officials, including secretaries of various departments and Patna district magistrate among others.

The commission is holding polls for the committee based on request for the same made by the urban development and housing department in November-December. "Following the constitution of the committee, the proposed master plan would be put before it for seeking its approval, which would pave way for taking it to the cabinet for final approval," said a senior official in the urban development and housing department.

The committee would look after development of the city over the 20-year plan period.

The new master plan for Patna is in a state of inertia for two years. The urban development and housing department in February 2011 had entrusted the task of making survey and providing technical assistance for the preparation of the draft master plan for Patna to Centre for Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad.

The draft master plan of the city was released by former urban development and housing department minister Samrat Choudhary on October 19, 2014. Later, it was approved by Bihar Planning and Development Board on August 11 last year but the final approval on it was denied by the cabinet because it did not have the approval from Patna Metropolitan Area Committee.

Later, in a review meeting of the urban development department held on December 22 last year, chief minister Nitish Kumar asked officials to get the master plan approved by the cabinet within three months.