Master Plan for Delhi 1957 Volume

VOLUME - II MASTER PLAN FOR DELHI 1957 PART - I ( PREAMBLE & CHAPTERS ONE TO FIVE ) Prepared by the Delhi Development Authority Under the Delhi Development Act,1957 MASTER PLAN FOR DELHI Volume Two PART - 1 Preamble 1. Chapter One Origin and Growth of Delhi. 2. Chapter Two Regional Study. 3. Chapter Three Population. 4. Chapter Four The Economy of Delhi. 5. Chapter Five Land Use Survey and Analysis. PREAMBLE Planning as a concept and as policy needs no eludication 13.3 per cent. But the urban population increased by about in the India of today. However, strangely enough, planning three times that. Urban places of up to 100,000 population methods have not yet been applied to reforming the physical increased by 23.2 per cent, but much more spectacular and environment within which planned economic growth and alarming was the increase in cities of 100,000 and over, where social development are to take place. Except for the design of the population rose by 125 per cent.* new towns, for the dramatic new steel mills and the capital of Delhi’s growth in this period was especially drastic for newly created states, our old cities growing at a vertiginous well known reasons: the lakhs of mass refugee migration from rate have been left to sprawl over the land. Finally, four years Pakistan; the massive growth of Government employment ago the Government recognized that its own seat, Delhi, from colonial law-and-order State to the Capital of a with its population doubled since 1941, was in dire need of great country dedicated to the planned welfare State; the some drastic surgery, dynamic proposals to accommodate proliferation of Embassies, business representatives from its expected growth, as a major city of India, and as a major India and all over the world, of National Associations and world capital. As a result the preparation of a master plan for Institutes; all this piled on top of natural growth and regular Delhi and its region was undertaken. Thus Delhi will be the in-migration-especially drawn by all these factors. first to have a comprehensive urban development plan with metropolitan and regional proposals. It is hoped that the Unless therefore the plan is for the Region, so that the preparation of this plan will point the way towards solving smaller cities, the larger villages all around offer employment the growth problems that are besetting other urban areas in opportunities and reasonable living conditions to share the the country. In this respect the proposed plan becomes an all burden of rapidly increasing population and of in-migration, India prototype. Delhi will be swamped, and even the most desperate attempts to cope with the problem here will still fall further and further A Regional Plan –why? behind. In short, to solve the miseries and short-coming of the The Delhi citizen or the visitor to Delhi daily sees and city itself, one must think and operate and control in terms deeply feels the need for intelligent planning and action. He of the metropolitan urban–rural integration. Or to put it experiences the delays and tensions and hazards of chaotic another way, Regional counter-magnets must be created for traffic. He sees the miserable hovels of Jamuna Bazaar and a the vast numbers of in migrants. dozen other squatters colonies, the incredible overcrowding Thus the most self–centered Delhi-ite, to cure the and lack of sanitation in the old city, where in some wards ills of his own Mohalla or of this own housing colony or of people are huddled 1000 to the acre, In contrast to a New his one traffic–beleaguered streets, or the impossibility of Delhi density of at places, as low as 3 families per acre. He renting a proper offices, must agree to the urgent necessity of knows how difficult and expensive it is to find a dwelling for Regional planning. He must interest himself in the Rural and himself, and often when he does find one, he suffers from lack Regional aspect of the Delhi Plan, as well as in the much more of water supply , or of drainage, or connected sewerage. precise and recognizable features which apply in his own neighborhood and place of work. But what may not at first sight be so clear is that to remedy those desperate conditions we must not work only at The plan which attempts to foresee and deal with the these immediate tasks. Unless we plan at a much larger scale development of Delhi up to 1981. has estimated Delhi’s; as well as, on a Regional scale, then the immediate remedies population than at five million. But this projection of will inevitable fail. Even if we plan and build large quantities of population is not by any means on; the high side; was in fact good housing in Delhi, and even if we simultaneously supply chosen more nearly on’ the low side’ of a number of standard the water and the Sewerage and the shopping, we will still fail to methods of projection. Also, demographic projection for so catch up. For the possibly major problem of every metropolis long a period are far from infallible. If this low side projection everywhere is in-migration from rural areas and from smaller towns, and this problem is especially acute in Delhi. From *The preliminary figures of the 1961 census also reveal that the 1941 to 1951 the total population of India increased by urbanization has been maintained at a high level. R.G.Gupta Master Plan For Delhi 1957, Volume-II, PART - 1 City/Policy Planner VI is indeed to prove out, Large numbers of rural in-migrants cultural centre, the Heart of a Great Nation , and the work –a must be attracted elsewhere. Indeed, it is not only a question –day Metropolis. of rural in- migrants. Projections for the other group of Delhi as a city is unique in other ways. It is relay a number districts , such as Meerut , Bulandshaher, Karnal and Gurgaon of cities quite separate in character, origin, and to a great with towns such as panipat and Hapur themselves show a extent a function. It is the overcrowed old walled City, with big rate of increase if they, or at least some of the cities in the its overspill into crowded and haphazard Paharganj, Naya large region, are not reasonably planned and developed, Delhi Bazaar, Sadar Bazaar with no open spaces and almost no will be receiving in-migrants from these, and these towns in proper community facilities. It is the dignity of Civil Lines to turn will suffer depletion, even incipient decay, if they are not the North, with its great University, and its own overspill of equipped to attract virile enterprise. colonies largely refugee in origin. It is the prestige-ful official For working purpose, the 1981 urban population for New Delhi its westernized Connaught shopping centre, urban Delhi excluding Narela has been estimated at 46 lacs’ which it was sought to keep entirely aloof from the old areas. and the population for the Delhi Metropolitan Ares has been It has its own recent overspill of “colonies” refuges and other, estimated at about 60 lacs. to the south and west, without utilities, without shops, with unpaved roads, with no or makeshift schools. There are also more immediate reasons for planning the Region. The automobile, the truck, the bus have “erased” The task is not to loss these special positive and functional the political boundaries of cities. Regulations within the city characters by trying to erase them and superimpose a simply lead to unbridled haphazard development just over uniform character. The task is to set and to implement the border, as witness the burgeoning shambles on the Grand minimum acceptable basic living standards for all, more Trunk from the borders of Delhi Territory to Ghaziabad; closely to equalize living conditions and community facilities, and the same ribbon development is now beginning on the to improve and sanitize and thin out the old City without Mathura Road southward. sacrificing its essential character and virtues, some of which are actually modern, and sought by latter-day cities. Families Thus the problem shared by Delhi and its surrounding must no longer need to queue up at public taps in back lanes for cities is a mutual one, not merely a worry for Delhi. their water requirements. Better solutions must be found for its intensive business activities, huddled in among small back The city of Delhi - New Delhi - Some overall shops and living quarters. But while internal circulations must Urban Features: be somewhat improved, it must not be pierced by through roads or wide circulation roads. One must remember that The Delhi Regional plan is particularly significant for two the centers of modern cities are right now sending great sums reasons. It deals with a specific problem - namely, the ordering to rearrange themselves for the automobile free existence. of the future of the Delhi area for the maximum benefit of THE PLAN, to a large extent, attempts to retain this happy its residents and those whose business brings them benefit situation. of its residents and those whose business brings them of the National Capital from time to time. This in itself is adequate In the New Delhi area, further development is essential to reason for its having been prepared at this crucial time when obtain balanced economic in land and services in the heart the Delhi area is about to experience a growth that probably of the Government complex in which more people can live will reach fifty lakh or more in population in twenty years.

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