New housing, town centres, rail stations and jobs have been unveiled in a draft plan for Melbourne's growth suburbs over the next 30 years.
The plan, released by the Victorian government on Wednesday, guides growth in urban areas as Melbourne copes with an anticipated increase of two million people over the next 30 to 40 years.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy says the growth corridors and the development within them represent the largest current construction project in Australia.
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"Melbourne's population is still growing strongly," he said.
"If we remove all the components of overseas migration services our city would still be growing faster than it was in the 1990s.
"This means we need to manage the growth of the city well.
"The government needs to plan in advance for our growth corridors."
The plan, begun under the previous Labor government, focuses on growth corridors in Melbourne's west, north, southeast and Sunbury.
Under the blueprint, 50,000 new housing lots will be released by March 2012.
The government says jobs and activity centres will also be created in outer urban areas to ensure residents don't need to commute to the CBD.
New rail lines to Avalon airport and Melbourne airport are also being investigated.
Mr Guy said the plan would take pressure off inappropriate development in existing suburbs and keep house prices in check.
It also allowed for higher density living in urban and outer urban Melbourne.
He has also pledged that all new areas will have public transport nearby, with most to have a rail line within three kilometres and a bus stop within 400 metres.
"We are already doing the work now about getting some of that infrastructure earlier in place so that our outer urban areas can grow and grow sustainably," he said.
But opposition planning spokesman Brian Tee slammed the blueprint, saying it pushed for housing developments without committing funding for infrastructure and services to support them.
"Where are these people going to go?" he told reporters.
"We've got a million people and no funding for schools, no funding for roads. Not even one new bus service has been funded.
"This is not a plan for growth, this is a plan for gridlock."
Mr Tee said Mr Guy was disingenuous to claim law changes allowed the developers' growth areas tax to be used to fund infrastructure.
He said it was designed for developers to contribute only up to 20 per cent of infrastructure costs and they could redirect their obligations to pay for things like landscaping to market their developments.
The draft Growth Corridor Plans will be released for comment until December 20.
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