The number of metropolitan cities in India and the developing world are increasing, and city planners are increasingly faced with challenges of enhancing economic growth potential of cities and their regions. The author argues that the very real concerns of environmentally sustainable development, climate change, rural-urban dynamics in city regions, issues of peri - urban areas and inclusive development needs to be addressed adequately. Land use and mobility planning, delineation of urban growth boundaries, provision of social amenities and physical infrastructure and policy and institutional frameworks need to be increasingly geared to achieve desired economic, social and environmental outcomes. The paper takes the Structure Plan for Hyderabad Metropolitan Region as a case study to understand, how these issues can be addressed and what insights can be distilled for metropolitan cities in developing countries.