Engineering & Built Environment
Urban Planner
शहरी योजनाकार
Plans how towns and cities grow — where homes, roads, transport, parks and services should go — so places work better for the people who live there.
See when you could start working, and what it could payWhat people in India report they earn
See urban planner salaries shared by employees: Glassdoor India(opens in a new tab) · Indeed India(opens in a new tab).
These figures are self-reported on those sites and aren't checked by Edukrish. Pay varies a lot by city, employer and experience.
- Class 11–12 stream
- Science (PCM), Science (PCMB)
- Key subjects
- Geography, Mathematics, Economics
- Often valued in this work
- Impact on others, Leadership & recognition, Stability
What the work looks like
- Studying maps, census data and land use
- Preparing master plans and development proposals
- Consulting residents, officials and engineers
The realities
Combines analysis, design and public consultation; projects run for years and depend on government decisions. Many roles are with development authorities, municipal bodies and consultancies.
The usual route in India
Bachelor of Planning (B.Plan, 4 years) after Class 12 with Mathematics, or a B.Arch or B.Tech Civil degree followed by a two-year Master of Planning (M.Plan).
Entrance exams and tests
- JEE Main (Paper 2B, B.Planning) — dates and details
- NATA (for the B.Arch route) — dates and details
- GATE and university tests (for M.Plan)
Linked exams open their official dates and sources.
Other ways in
Some M.Plan programmes also admit students with a master's in Geography, Economics or Sociology; check each institute's eligibility.
Colleges with courses for this career
From courses we've collected from official college websites. Not a ranking, and not every college that offers it.
- Malaviya National Institute of Technology
M.Plan Urban Planning
- School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal
B. Plan.
- School of Planning and Architecture New Delhi
Bachelor of Planning
- Vellore Institute of Technology
B.Arch
- Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur
Urban Planning
Sources and checks
Not yet expert-checked: Written by the Edukrish team and not yet reviewed by a counsellor or subject expert. Verify important details with official sources.Written by the Edukrish team and not yet reviewed by a counsellor or subject expert. Exam names, eligibility and routes change, so always confirm with the official body before deciding.
Last updated
Quick answers
- How long does it take to become a urban planner in India?
- On the usual route (Bachelor of Planning (B.Plan, 4 years)), about 4 years after Class 12. A student in Class 12 in 2026–27 could start working around 2031; a student in Class 8 around 2035. A preparation year, a master's or a repeated year moves this later.
- How much does a urban planner earn?
- Edukrish doesn't publish an India salary figure for this career yet, because reliable occupation-level data that can be reused doesn't exist publicly. In the United States, median pay for urban and regional planners was $89,320 a year in 2025; the lowest-paid 10% earned under $60,010 and the top 10% over $134,490 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
- Will AI take over the work of a urban planner?
- The ILO's 2025 index of generative-AI exposure says this occupation group ("Town and traffic planners") has minimal exposure: of its 8 typical tasks, 1 is moderately exposed and 7 have low exposure; none is highly exposed. Exposure measures what the technology could do today, not job losses; it usually changes which tasks people spend time on.
Your future as a urban planner
When you could start working, what the work could look like by then, and what it could pay.
Pay data for
- You could start working
- 2033in about 7 years · as assistant / junior planner
- Pay in India
- We show India pay only where there's an official public figure, such as government pay scales. This career doesn't have one yet.
Your pay over the career
Shown only where reliable data exists.
No reliable pay data for India yet
- India's official survey data (PLFS) can be used commercially only under a licence, and salary websites don't allow reuse. Rather than show a guess, we leave India pay out until there's a figure we're allowed to use.
Your path from today
Four-year planning degree after Class 12 with Mathematics, through JEE Main Paper 2B.
Today
Class 10 · 2026–27
Finish Class 12
May 2029
B.Plan
Aug 2029 – Jun 2033
First role: Assistant / junior planner
Jul 2033
Growing in the role
2038 (5 years in)
Senior roles, for some
2043+ (10 years in)
A plan, not a promise: a repeated year, a break or a change of course moves these dates.
How the career can grow
Illustrative steps; the years vary by employer and person. Many people stay at a specialist level by choice.
Assistant / junior planner
Often 0–2 years in · from about 2033
Learns the work on real projects, with close guidance.
Planner
Often 3–5 years in · from about 2036
Owns pieces of work end to end and needs less supervision.
Senior planner
Often 6–9 years in · from about 2039
Handles complex work, sets direction for a project and guides newer colleagues.
Chief planner or planning manager
Often 10–14 years in · from about 2043
Leads larger areas or teams, or becomes the go-to expert in a specialism.
Head of planning or director
Often 15+ years in · from about 2048
Shapes strategy for a department or organisation. Only some people reach this level.
Demand and how the work may change
Official US outlook, 2025–2035
Employment growth: Average (3% to 4%) · about 3,200 openings a year.
There's no reliable job-postings data for India yet, so these signals come from the US.
Exposure to generative AI (ILO, 2025)
Limited exposure: generative AI can help with some tasks; most still rely on people.
- Very low
- Low
- Medium
- High
How many of the 8 typical tasks of “town and traffic planners” current generative AI could technically do. Exposure is not the same as job loss: it often changes which tasks people spend their time on. By 2033 the tools will be different again, so treat this as direction, not a forecast.
Who hires people in this career
- Development authorities and municipal bodies
- Planning and infrastructure consultancies
- Housing and real-estate developers
- Transport and urban-mobility projects
- Research and policy organisations
Kinds of employers today, written by our team. We name companies only with dated hiring evidence, and never suggest a company will be hiring in 2033.
How we work this out: sources, assumptions and limits
Why “no reliable pay data yet”
- India's official survey data (PLFS) can be used commercially only under a licence, and salary websites don't allow reuse. Rather than show a guess, we leave India pay out until there's a figure we're allowed to use.
Timeline assumptions
- Today is in the 2026–27 school year (April to March).
- One class per year, with no repeated year.
- Class 12 results arrive around May; college intakes start on the months shown.
- Admission in the first year you apply.
- Courses take their standard length; a failed year or a break adds time.
- The first job starts about a month after the last stage ends.
Sources
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. US public domain.
- Employment Projections 2025–35 — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. US public domain.
- Generative AI and jobs: refined global index of occupational exposure — International Labour Organization (Working Paper 140, 2025). CC BY 4.0.
- Social Security Trustees Report 2025 (economic assumptions) — US Social Security Administration. US public domain.
- Flexible inflation target, April 2026 – March 2031 — Government of India / Reserve Bank of India. Official government publication (facts).
- Average hourly earnings by industry and CPI (back-test data) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). US public domain (BLS data).
- PLFS unit-level data (2025 calendar year) — MoSPI (microdata.gov.in). GSDD 2026: free for non-commercial use; commercial use needs MoSPI authorisation and a fee.
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