(Sample Material) Gist of Important Articles from IIPA Journal
Topic: Administration of Urban Development M.N. Buch
Understanding the Basic Town Planning Philosophy in India
The Master Plan for Delhi, which was, together with the effort of CMPO, the pioneering exercise in post-independence urban planning, gives the mindset of the Indian urban administrator and city planner. Given below are some quotations, some extracts, from the Delhi Master Plan, which would help us in understanding the basic town planning philosophy which prevails in India:
To sum up the present situation, haphazard and sub-standard development in the metropolitan area is going on at a rapid rate .... Industry is dotted over the crowded walled city where it is a source of nuisance .... Planned growth in the past has been very much hampered by lack of developed land and speculation in land .... Recognising this and also as a matter of major policy, the Government of India has notified for acquisition of about 35,000 acres of land.... One of the major principles is that in order to secure balanced development and minimise frictions, decentralisation of places of employment and the right relationship with residential areas is necessary .... Self-contained divisions, and decentralisation of employment centres are necessary .... A system of linked open spaces and district parks has been worked out in the entire urban area of Delhi .... It is essential to provide an inviolable green belt of agricultural land around the urbanisable land in 1981.. .. Harmonious growth and orderly functioning are the first steps in evolving an attractive city.
Harmony, beauty, functional division of land into different uses are all the principal considerations which even today govern town planning in India. In addition is an in-built arrogance as evidenced by the statement below, that a planner can dictate how the city will grow, instead of providing for the needs of a city whose growth is pre-determined by the structure of society itself. To quote from the Master Plan of Delhi, “The Plan has allocated land for industries, living, play and other major types of urban land uses in the most appropriate location for each use and inter-related to each other so as to produce orderliness and smooth functioning”.