FOR RESTRICTED CIRCULATION
NEW TOWNS IN INDIA A REPORT ON A STUDY OF SELECTED NEW TOWNS IN THE EASTERN REGION
BY K.C. SIVARAMAKRISHNAN
A HOMI BHABHA FELLOWSHIP AWARD PROJECT WITH SUPPORT FROM THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CALCUTTA
1976-77
C O N T E N T S Page 1. PREFACE
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(i)
1.1 Map on Class I and New Towns in India. 1.2 Annexure to Map 2. CHAPTER ONE – Introduction
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2.1 Map No. 1 - Location of the New Towns under Study 3. CHAPTER TWO - The Six Towns
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13
3.1 Map of ROURKELA
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15
3.2 Map of BHILAI
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21
3.3 Map of DURGAPUR
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27
3.4 Map of BOKARO
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37
3.5 Map of BHUBANESWAR
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41
3.6 Map of JAMSHEDPUR
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45
4. CHAPTER THREE - The Physical Issues
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5. CHAPTER FOUR - Social & Common Issues
96
6. CHAPTER FIVE - The Governance of the New Towns
134
7. APPENDIX - List of Items and Tables
167
***
P R E F A C E It was a winter afternoon some eighteen years ago and we were in Durgapur - a group of youngmen on a pilgrimage to India's new temples as part of our training to serve the government. The sal leaves were brown with the dust of construction. Chimneys were rising skywards. Vast stretches of space were being drawn into canopies of steel. In the evening lights went up in the neat row of houses nestling in a small clearing of the jungle. One more city, one more dream for the nation, was taking shape. The romance of that moment lingered and when I returned to Durgapur eight years later to serve its Development Authority the interest grew. A six year spell of struggle with the travails of Calcutta has only reinforced that interest and faith in the New Towns. The award of a Homi Bhabha Fellowship and a grant from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta have made this study possible. I am grateful to the Fellowship Council and in particular to its Honorary Executive Director, Dr. V.K. Narayana Menon. His patience with the ways of a civil servant has been consistent; his understanding, unfailing. Dr. Kamla Chowdhry Dr. Asok Mitra, Dr. S.C. Dube and Shri J.B. DeSouza had commended this study to the Council. I trust the report merits their faith. Shri Hiten Bhaya, formerly Chairman, Hindustan Steel and now Director, IIMC, has been a constant source of guidance and help. I believe the tale of the New Towns
(ii) is a strong interest which we share. In the conduct of the study I have learnt much from my colleagues at the I.I.M.C. Prof. Satyesh Chakrabarty has been the mentor of the project and I shall remember his support at every step of this study. I am also thankful to Prof. R.P. Aiyar, previously Acting Director -IIMC, Prof. Sanat Bose and Prof. Suren Munshi for their valuable assistance. A great many people have contributed in many ways to this project. I should acknowledge my gratitude – to Shri K.J.M. Shetty and Shri R.S. Bhatnagar in the Ministry of Steel, Shri Saxena of Hindustan Steel, Shri S.K. Nanda, SAIL; Shri S.K. Sinha, Deputy Director, Census, West Bengal; and the Census authorities of Bihar, Orissa and M.P. for valuable assistance in compilation of data; – to Shri P.K. Paul, General Manager; Shri J.N. Gaur, Town Administrator and Shri Sarbadhikari of Durgapur Steel; Shri S.R. Jain, General Manager and Shri T.D. Bhatia, Town Administrator of Bhilai Steel; Dr. P.L. Agarwal, General Manager and Shri P.C. Hota, Town Administrator of Rourkela Steel; Shri S. Samarapungavan, General Manager; Shri K.D. Jha, Town Administrator and Shri B.K. Gupta, Dy. Chief Planner of Bokaro Steel; for their assistance and the generous time given to the project-team during its many visits to these towns; – to Shri Bodhanwalla, General Manager and Shri Jankinath, Director of Town Services, Jamshedpur, for their abiding interest and abundant support for the study from the beginning; – to Shri A.L. Nair, Commissioner, Urban Development and Shri D.R.K. Pattanayak, Chief Town Planner, Orissa; Shri R.L. Bawa, Director of Town Planning, Bihar; Shri M.N. Buch, Commissioner, Housing & Urban Development, M.P.; Shri H.P. Roy, Chief Executive Officer, Durgapur Development Authority, and other officers in the concerned State Governments for assistance in the compilation of data; and
(iii) - to Dr. Barun De and his colleagues in the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, for their valuable suggestions in the initial stages of this study. A study of this kind cannot be an individual's effort. The study team comprising Sm. Meena Subramaniam, Arun Kumar Sinha, Devananda Chatterjee, P.C. Kumar and Pradip Kumar Moitra, has worked with great devotion. It has been a pleasure working together with this team. As the target date for submission of the report drew near, concern shifted from contents to size. Shri G.C. Das surpassed all his past records in typing the entire manuscript with speed and diligence Shri Haridas Saha has typed the appendices. Mohd. Ilias, Shri Patras Singh, Shri Ajit Bhattacharjee, Shri Swapan Kumar Saha and Shri Sonilal have been responsible for cyclostyling and getting the paper ready for circulation. I am thankful to them.
I.I.M.C. Calcutta 30th June, 1977
(K.C. Sivaramakrishnan)
Annexure to the Map on Class-I and New Towns in India. Part I : List of towns with population one lakh and above Jammu and Kashmir 1. Jammu Punjab 1. Amritsar 2. Jullundur 3. Ludhiana 4. Patiala 5. Ambala Cantt. U.P. 1. Dehra Dun
11. Allahabad
2. Saharanpur
12. Varanasi
3. Moradabad
13. Mirzapur
4. Rampur
14. Jhansi
5. Bareilly
15. Meerut
6. Aligarh
16. Shahjahanpur
7. Mathura
17. Ferozabad
8. Agra
18. Ghaziabad
9. Gorakhpur
19. Muzaffarnagar
10. Kanpur
20. Fategarh-Farukhabad 21. Faizabad
Rajasthan 1. Bikaner
4. Kota
2. Jodhpur
5. Udaipur
3. Ajmer
6. Alwar
Madhya Pradesh 1. Gwalior
6. Raipur
2. Sagar
7. Bilaspur
3. Ujjain
8. Burhampur
4. Jabalpur
9. Ratlam
5. Indore
(ii) Gujarat 1. Jamnagar
5. Surat
2. Rajkot
6. Nadiad
3. Baroda
7. Porbandar
4. Bhavnagar Bihar 1. Muzaffarpur
5. Ranchi
2. Darbhanga
6. Monghyr
3. Bhagalpur 4. Gaya Assam 1. Gauhati Orissa 1. Cuttack 2. Sambalpur 3. Berhampur Maharashtra 1. Nagpur
10. Ulhasnagar
2. Amaravati
11. Thana
3. Akola
12. Sangli
4. Malegaon
13. Aurangabad
5. Nasik
14. Dhulia
6. Ahmednagar
15. Nanded
7. Poona
16. Jalgaon
8. Sholapur
17. Bhusawal
9. Kolhapur Andhra Pradesh 1. Warangal
7. Guntur
2. Vishakhapatnam
8. Machilipatnam
3. Rajahmundhry
9. Nellore
4. Kakinada
10. Nizamabad
5. Eluru
11. Tenali
6. Vijayawada
(iii) Karnataka 1. Belgaum
6. Gulbarga
2. Hubli
7. Bellary
3. Kolar
8. Davangere
4. Mangalore
9. Bijapur
5. Mysore
10. Shimoga
Tamilnadu 1. Vellore
9. Tirunelveli
2. Salem
10. Erode
3. Coimbatore
11. Tiruppur
4. Tiruchirapalli
12. Dindigul
5. Thanjavur
13. Kanchipuram
6. Madurai
14. Kumbakonam
7. Tuticorin
15. Cuddalore
8. Nagercoil Kerala 1. Calicut 2. Alleppey 3. Quilon West Bengal 1. Asansol 2. Kharagpur 3. Burdwan
(iv) Part II - List of Urban Agglomerations comprising New Towns. 1. Bangalore Urban Agglomeration a) H.A.L. Sanitary Board b) Devarajeevanhalli c) H.A.L. Township d) Jalahalli e) H.M.T. Township f) I.T.I. N.A.C. (Dooravaninagar) g) B.E.L. Township h) Kadugodanahalli 2. Dhanbad U.A. — a) Bhuli b) Kerkend c) Sindri d) Jorupokhara e) Tisra f) Loyabad g) Bhagatdih h) Sijua i) Pathardih 3. Jamshedpur U.A. — a) Adityapur b) Bagbera c) Kalimati d) Railway Colony 4. Madras U.A. a) Avadi (Caruthipatti) b) Ambattur
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION What are New Towns ? 1.1. It is necessary to define at the outset what is meant by a New Town. In the usage of the census the definition adopted for an urban area is as follows:-1 (a) All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment or notified town area; (b) All other places which satisfy the following criteria : (i) a minimum population of 5000; (ii) at least 75% of the male working population being non-agricultural and (iii) a density of population of at least 400 per sq. km., i.e. 1000 per sq. mile. In the parlance of the census, New Towns is a label conferred on an area when it fulfils for the first time these criteria and can be identified as urban. Similarly, when an area which earlier had satisfied the criteria for being classified as urban, changes its characteristics the census de-classifies such an area as well. Thus in 1971 census 593 New Towns were added and 110 areas were de-classified as urban.2 1.2: For the purpose of this study, however, a New Town is taken as a town newly built. While in most cases this would mean a town constructed on a green field site or on a site practically uninhabited before, in some cases this would also include New Towns built in places of small village settlements. In this sense of the term New Towns are not an unknown feature in this country. The seven different capital cities built in Delhi including the New Delhi of Edwin Lutyons are perhaps the oldest and continuous exercise in New Towns building. Fatehpur Sikri of Akbar and Jaipur of Sawai Mansingh are some of the historical examples. These cities, however, were all designed
: 2 : and built for the privileged - the rulers or the army. In each the layout and the pattern of settlement were exclusive and not for copy. Today they are built mainly to serve as bases for industry, homes for displaced persons, campuses for learning and seats of government. 2. The origins of India's New Towns: 2.1: The Railway towns of British India can be regarded as the beginning of India's New Towns as the term is usually understood, "There are two Indias" Digby had observed in 1901 "the Anglosthan of the Presidency and chief provincial cities, of the land where investments have been made, the land within fifty miles of the railway lines and the rest of the country is Hindostan".3 Within the Anglosthan and the fifty mile belt grew the railway colonies. In some cases they were only a collection of employees quarters and station buildings but several of them became sizeable settlements with bazaars, temples, churches, schools, playgrounds, cinemas, clubs and all other paraphernalia. In many parts of the country then railway settlements formed the nuclei of urbanization though the Railway companies were themselves not aware of it. Kharagpur or Asansol in eastern India, Tundla or Itarsi in the north, Manmad or Bhusaval in the west and Arkonam or Waltair in the south are now familiar names of cities which originated as railway towns. By 1941, there were over thirty such settlements with population well above 10,000 in each (see table in Appendix). Though one might have wished the contrary these Railway Towns have been the precursors of New Town development in India after independence. The form and sustenance of many postindependent New Towns are much the same as the railway towns built several decades earlier. Jamshedpur and Bhadravati, the two steel towns founded in 1908 and 1921 respectively have in some ways been the exception.
: 3 : 2.2: The partition of the country followed by the influx of refugees and their resettlement marked the beginning of New Towns in post-independent India. Faridabad near Delhi, Nilokheri in Punjab, Gandhidham in Gujerat and Asokenagar in West Bengal are some of these refugee resettlement towns. There were also a dozen or so "model towns" mainly in the Punjab area that came up in the forties, as planned extensions to existing cities. Most of these were suburbs which were incorporated into the main city in due course and in that sense cannot be regarded as New Towns of significance. Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and much later Gandhinagar are the capital cities built after independence. The building of New Towns as a major urban phenomenon in India, however, commences with the construction of several industrial townships all over the country. The setting up of the Damodar Valley Corporation and the construction of a series of power stations provided a generous stimulus for new industrial centres in the valley. Similar multipurpose projects like Bhakra Nangal, Tungabhadra and Hirakud were launched elsewhere in the country, which offered new locations for industry. It was also part of the Plan strategy to locate new industries away from large cities. The Third Five Year Plan, in particular, emphasized the preference for backward areas in the location of public sector projects. It was felt the lack of facilities in such places was not irremediable. There was also a latent hope that the effects of such berge projects would trickle down to the surrounding areas.4 This was the general background in which over a hundred New Towns were set up in the country after independence. A list of these with population changes where data is available may be seen in the appendix. 3. Types of New Towns : 3.1 : The categorisation of these towns is not easy. A functionwise classification will need to note that the functional objectives thought of earlier have changed considerably in later
: 4 : years. For instance, Faridabad built for refugee resettlement is now regarded mainly as an industrial area. Chandigarh built as a State capital is now a major focus of industry and higher education. Towns built for specific industry are also showing significant occupational changes as in Rourkela or Durgapur. Golany5 offers an exhaustive classification of New Towns dividing them broadly as (a)settlements with economic self-containment and (b)settlements without economic self-containment. Company towns, development towns and regional growth centres which are free standing and with an economic base of their own would be in the first category. Company towns, in turn, might be of many types, such as, natural resources town, single product town,project construction town, military town, resort town, etc. In the second category, i.e., settlements without economic self-containment would be satellite towns, metro towns or suburbs, or New Town in town (usually large renewal areas within an established city). The difficulty with such a classification is to determine what is economic self-containment. Jalahalli near Bangalore where the Hindustan Machine Tools have an industrial complex has an economic base of its own but for several city level services is a part of the Bangalore metropolitan area. So is Kalyani within the Calcutta metropolitan area. 3.2: In the circumstances, a size-cum-location based classification has been adopted for the purpose of this study. Accordingly the New Towns have been classified into three categories. In the first category are the New Towns which have more than 100,000 people and as per Census ranks as Class I cities. In some cases, these New Towns have encompassed some of the adjuncts which existed before and are now treated as urban agglomerations. For example, the Durg-Bhilainagar urban agglomeration covers the Bhilai New Town as also Drug. Bokaro Steel City, Chandigarh and Rourkela are the other cases where the New Towns between 1961 and
: 5 : 1971 have emerged as urban agglomerations. Durgapur and Bhilai are Class I towns though they are not treated as urban agglomerations as such. In all we have 5 New Towns in the first category built up after independence. In the second category are 52 New Towns which form part of other larger cities. In such cases, the New Towns have come up as a suburb, adjunct or other type of extension to the existing city. The townships like Bhuli or Sindri within Dhanbad urban agglomeration, Jagannathnagar within Ranchi, the Hindustan Aeronautics, H.M.T., Bharat Earth Movers, or Indian Telephone Industry's townships within Bangalore, Khadak-vasla or Pimpri in the case of Poona or Kalyani and New Barrackpore in the case of Calcutta are some examples in this category. In the third category may be placed another 50 New Towns which have less than 100,000 people and which also do not form part of any other city or urban agglomeration. These are more or less free standing New Towns. Some examples are Chittaranjan in West Bengal, Neyveli in Tamil Nadu, Nangal in Punjab, Paradip in Orissa, etc. The list in the appendix identifies the New Towns in the different categories along with particulars of their location, area, population, etc. It may be noted these New Towns have come up in all parts of the country. If settlements above 5000 people alone are considered Bihar has 22 of them, Karnataka 14, Madhya Pradesh 11, Gujerat 10, and Orissa has 9 while Maharashtra, Tamilnadu and West Bengal have 7 each and so on. It will also be seen that most of the industrial townships are company towns (about 60 of the 100). 4. Scope of the Study: 4.1: Within the time and resources available for the study it has not been possible to undertake any comprehensive review of all the New Towns. Such a review, a broad-brush one at that perforce, is unlikely to serve any purpose. It was, therefore, felt that it would be more useful to select a few towns which
: 6 : because of their size, pattern of growth, functional mix, socio-economic characteristics, etc., would enable a more focussed study and analysis of some important issues of policy significance. The coverage in this study is, therefore, limited to 5 major New Towns, viz., Rourkela, Bhilai, Durgapur, Bokaro Steel City and Bhubaneswar. For certain points of comparison, the town of Jamshedpur, though built mainly before independence has been included since it is the longest and possibly the most significant experience the country has in the setting up and running of an industrial New Town. Chandigarh, though falling within the category of New Town agglomerations and Class-I cities that have been identified, has been excluded mainly because it has been extensively studied and a number of monographs and publications have been brought out on different aspects of Chandigarh's planning and development. Furthermore, the New Towns covered in the study are all located in the eastern region sharing some physical and socioeconomic characteristics as also some political and administrative traditions. These, it was hoped, would make a comparative assessment more realistic. Some other points that weighed in the choice of these towns are as follows: 4.2: Though set up only after independence, these towns have grown considerably in their sizes. Their rate of growth is very much above the State average. Rourkela has nearly doubled from about 90,000 people in 1961 to 1,73,000 in 1971. The Bhilai agglomeration has expanded from 1,33,000 to 2,45,000. Durgapur has grown nearly 5 times from about 42,000 in 1961 to 2,07,000 in 1971. Bhubaneswar has increased from about 38,000 to 1,05,000. Such a rapid expansion indicates a significant volume of economic activity and movement of people which permits useful study.
: 7 : 4.3: Whatever their initial objectives the functional mix of these towns has also undergone some significant change. About 60% of the employment in Rourkela for instance, about 41% in Bhilai and about 32% in Durgapur are in the tertiary sector. The change in the functional mix contain important implications for the pattern of growth in these towns and merit careful study. 4.4: Of the 6 towns covered in the study, barring Bhubaneswar, the others are mainly based on steel industry. The question may then be asked whether it is valid to restrict a New Towns study to the steel towns only. While steel is a basic industry a town based on that need not be any different from another based on, let us say, heavy engineering. The size of investment, the number employed and the time span of course determine several aspects of a New Town. For precisely the same reason there is merit in focussing the study on these towns because they have commanded physical and financial resources as also considerable political and executive attention to a degree not witnessed in other New Towns. In that sense the so-called steel towns are the largest and more determined efforts in the establishment of New Towns. The experience here has directly influenced the formulation and subsequent modifications of the norms and standards adopted by the Government for public sector industrial townships. Since the majority of India's New Towns fall in this category it is appropriate to study the largest among these. 5. Why this study ? 5.1: In undertaking the study the main purpose has been to identify and highlight issues of policysignificance in the planning, building and running of New Towns. With over 100 settlements to-date, New Towns of India are a major Indian experience. Though the initial planning for a few, such as Chandigarh or Bhubaneswar were inspired by foreigners by and large the design, construction and upkeep of India's New Towns
: 9 : has involved a whole generation of Indian Planners and Architects, Indian Engineers and Indian Administrators. As in other fields the experience has been characterised by many hopes and fears, weaknesses, successes and failures, but together the experience is of sufficient importance to merit study and documentation. However, the subject has received little attention so far. Apart from reports of some committees like the Committee on Plan Projects and some working groups of officials, the author has come across only one comparative assessment of India's New Towns (Ved Prakash) limited to physical aspects and constructional costs as surveyed in 1963-64. 5.2: Several points emerge from even a preliminary assessment about the New Towns. One is that the premises or basic objectives for their creation do not seem very clear. In most cases the building of an industry has been taken to be the main objective and the settlement itself has been treated as an adjunct rather than as a core activity. Search for the basic premises which would determine the size and nature of the town building effort has been little. Where some goals were indicated these appear to have emerged from the highly personalized views of the handful of persons in charge of building the plant or the township at the time. Density, house types and location of community facilities were often determined in this manner. Neither the physical nor the socio-economic issues of raising and nurturing a town seem to have been recognised. The confusions resulting from this serious lack of comprehension have persisted. The setting up of vast labour campus carefully removed from the township sites on the facile hope that being temporary they would vanish on a designated date is one such confusion. In town after town the so-called temporary camps have endured and expanded. Large sums of money invested by the construction agencies have gone to waste and failed to elicit investment response from the dwellers in the absence of
: 9 : tenure and prospect for the future. Attempts to view a townscape in artificially segregated portions like employees and non-employees, insiders and outsiders, project town and civil town etc. persist. For instance, the plans for a forthcoming steel city Vijaynagar have been drawn in three fragments - the labour colonies close to the plant, the so-called steel town and then a civil town in another location. 5.3: The norms and standards adopted for the New Towns have emerged through a halting pattern rather than a conscious evolutionary process. Initially the standards adopted for physical and social facilities were just lifted from the planning manuals of western countries. For instance, in determining the sizes of a neighbourhood and the facilities to be provided there, there was very little attempt to assess the actual requirements of an Indian community. In the case of utilities, the standards adopted had no relation to the affordability of the services by the citizens. Since the initial costs were treated as part of the industry's capital cost there was no compulsion either to critically review the norms and standards from an economic point of view. Much later the high capital and consequently high running costs prompted enquiries, such as, the one by the Committee on Plan Projects and then at successive stages by the Bureau of Public Enterprises. Arising from these exercises ceiling costs were fixed for several items which, in turn, led to some rigidity. While the first costs were sizeably reduced there was still no attempt to match them with resources to be raised from the citizens for the upkeep of the services. The maintenance of these Towns has thus become very expensive, and the subsidies on this account are increasing. While finances of most cities in the developing countries are in a bad way, the position in a New Town despite the newness seems worse.
: 10 : 5.4: Despite the scale of effort and investment that went into the building of the New Towns they are regarded as dull and unexciting places. There is nothing in the New Town of the hum and excitement that an older though unplanned town in India possesses. The poor comprehension of the social issues in an urban community have been further complicated by the rapid growth of the New Towns and the inability to cope with the heterogeneity brought in by migration from different parts of the country. The hand of the industry continues to be dominant and omnipresent often to the detriment of the industry itself. The Indian New Town is often described as an "employee town" rather than a "citizen town". One should add, the question has also been asked whether the employees want to be citizens at all. 5.5: Most New Towns have been built on greenfield situations where little existed before. The land-scale and the environment have been reshaped almost totally. Streams of migrants have come into the town from within as also outside the state. Patterns of livelihood have changed and major shifts have been occasioned in the life of the people in the surrounding areas. All these changes have also brought in their wake, major problems of administration as well. One would expect that these are matters which would have merited some consistent attention from the respective State Governments. Unfortunately, the evidence available indicates more of an ambivalence than a genuine appreciation of the problems involved on the part of the state governments. In many issues the interest of the central and the state governments have been shown quite wrongly to be at variance. In the process the New Town managements are quite often caught between the people and the governments. To illustrate, a major fear, that has characterised the New Towns managements stems from a lack of confidence in local self-government institutions. A false sense of property or ownership on the part of the project often held
: 11 : up by the Centre has led industrial managements to confuse their roles in building the industry which is its basic responsibility and nurturing the human settlement that the plant has occasioned. Though an opportunity was available in the New Town to cut free of past prejudices and archaic forms of urban administration the opportunity was not seized. These among others are some of the issues considered in this report. It is our belief that in each, valuable lessons are to be learnt from the past and alternative options exist for the future. As yet, all of India's New Towns account for a population of about 3.6 million which is about 8% of the increase in the country's urban population from 62 million in 1961 to 109 in 1971. The bulk of this increase has come from metropolitan and other large cities. Anguish about city size has been a recurring feature in many societies and ours is no exception. New Towns for old, has been one of the desires professed in establishing India's new settlements. The performance of these settlements in the past decade is the major concern of this report. 6. Methodology and Arrangement of the Report: 6.1: The study is based mainly on secondary data, such as, planning and project reports prepared at the commencement of the townships and various official and other subsequent documents. To assess the role of voluntary organizations in the New Town communities a limited survey of social/cultural organizations numbering about 180 in Jamshedpur and about 140 in Durgapur has been done. Apart from the study of the documents the study team consisting of a Sociologist, an Economist, a Geographer and an Architect also visited the towns for discussions with the planners, engineers and officials concerned with the development and maintenance of these New Towns. The Project Director has also had extensive discussions with the managements of the major
: 12 : industries located in these New Towns, the officials in the HSL, SAIL and TISCO, the officials in the Ministries and organizations of the Government of India and Departments of the State Governments concerned as also the municipal authorities. The issues identified during the study were outlined in an Issues Paper which was discussed at a meeting in April 1977 in which a wide cross-section of New Town planners, administrators, economists, representatives of national planning and development organizations, etc., participated. A full list of the participants is given in the annexure. The issues presented in the paper were refined to a considerable extent during the discussions and the present report incorporates their outcome. 6.2: The issues considered in this report are presented in three major parts, viz., physical, social and administrative. Certain issues have been left out, such as, the economic impact of the New Towns on the surrounding regions. Though it was intended to include this aspect in the study a number of methodological and organizational difficulties were encountered such as, identification of an impact region, types of economic activities to be studied, indices to be developed for measuring impact, requirements of large-scale field surveys, etc. Some earlier studies undertaken in this regard, such as, the study by the A.N. Sinha Institute of Economics in the Patna University, for Rourkela revealed highly diffused impact patterns in a much wider area beyond what is contiguous to the New Town. Within the limitations of time and resources it was not found possible to consider this aspect within the present study. 6.3: The origin and growth of the six major towns considered in the study i.e. Rourkela, Bhilai, Durgapur, Bokaro, Bhubaneswar and Jamshedpur are described in the next chapter in that order. Chapter III deals with the physical issues, Chapter IV with the social issues and Chapter V with the administrative aspects. The conclusions of the study and possible options for the future are presented within each chapter. Chapter VI contains a general summary of the report.
CHAPTER - II : : 13THE : SIX TOWNS 1. Rourkela : 1.1: In the grand design for economic growth and modernization of India the steel industry was a major element. The establishment of a steel plant in the public sector was a favoured item with the late Prime Minister, Nehru. In 1948 Sir Padamsee Ginwala reported that a base seven years hence, the country's steel demand would be close to 3 million tons. T.T. Krishnamachari, then Industry Minister forecast in 1954 that by 1960 the demand would exceed 6 million tons. An urgent search for steel plant locations and the technical support for building them followed. Two German firms renowned for iron and steel technology, M/s. Fried Krupp of Essen and M/s. Demag A.G. of Duisburg, came forward to assist. Following an agreement signed with the two firms, a new company, M/s. Indien Gemeinschaft Krupp Demag GmbH was floated as consultants for the design and construction of India's first steel plant after independence. In 1955, the consultants submitted a report identifying Rourkela, a small hamlet by the side of the Brahmani river below the confluence of Koel and Sanko as suitable for setting up of a plant that could make a million tons of steel. 1.2: Located 480 km. west of Calcutta on the railway line to Bombay, Rourkela was one of the ideal locations in Chhotanagpur for a major steel industry. Iron, coal, manganese, and limestone were all to be found in close vicinity, and access by rail was assured. The consulting firm, IGKD was also designated to plan the township. Commencing with the premise that the township should provide 15,000 dwellings for the workers of the steel plant plus space for the shelter of others who would come to serve this city, the Consultants estimated its size at about 100,000. Claiming the application of the latest standards in
: 14 : township planning and practice, the consultants observed "It is demanded that the families be given exclusively detached one family houses each, with at least two dwelling rooms and the requisite courtyard". An area of about 20 sq. miles was earmarked for building the town north of a series of hills that would separate the steel plant from the township and thus provide some protection against the smoke and soot. Through two cuttings in the hill range, a ringroad was to be laid connecting the steel-works and the township. Another premise that guided the layout was that people "Who have grown up under rural conditions have the understandable desire to live in a kind of community which helps them to avoid a feeling of forlornness and uprootedness. This and the wish to obtain a clear organic arrangement of the town as well as a necessity to de-centralize certain cultural and other public facilities makes it advisable to subdivide the township into separate quarters or satellites." Later these came to be known as sectors, each intended for 5,000 to 6,000 people with one or two schools, a public hall, a number of shops and some handicraft workshops. In all 20 sectors were planned, each connected to the ringroad, which was to be the main artery "With the capacity to assimilate the whole of the traffic even with increased modernization. At the same time, its course was such as to compel all traffic to use it". A great part of the population was expected to use bicycles or move on foot; hence pedestrian and bicycle paths were to be provided alongside the ringroad and also in the sectors. The conception of a city centre was unclear. The Consultants had considered three alternative plans - one for a city with a geographic focus on the ringroad, another for a twin-city with the ringroad for bilateral communications and the third for a linear city based on the ringroad itself. It was the third alternative that came to be chosen and, as such,
: 15 :
: 15 : a city centre was not given much prominence in the initial plans. There was, however, a general identification of the site where the road to the old Hamirpur mission intersected the ringroad where such a centre could come up. Subsequent experience indicated that such a centre would indeed be a compelling requirement, though it has been slow in taking shape. 1.3: As town plans went, the efforts of the Consultants seemed good. The object of their planning work had been "to consider all the factors, technical, economical and sociological, which determined the layout of a modern town, to define the importance of each of these factors with a view to providing the most economical and most suitable pattern of a township. The present plan should not be altered in its fundamentals as otherwise an inorganic and amorphous structure might result". A few detailed plans of different scales and elevations were also provided by the Consultants to facilitate detailed planning in the sectors. Hindustan Steel, which had been set up in 1954 by the Government of India as the public sector undertaking to build and run the steel plant decided to commence development on 11 out of the 20 sectors. Unfortunately, in the desire to expedite matter the detailed planning for these sectors were farmed out to as many as 5 different Architectural Firms in the country. The HSL Design Office also participated in the planning exercises. Leaving aside the disparities that cropped up inevitably in matters like density, neighbourhood layout, housing standards, etc., since many parties were involved, HSL's decisions also caused two important deviations from the basic plan of the consultants. The first related to the location of a township for the fertilizer plant. While the fertilizer unit was conceived during the project stage itself, as a needed facility to utilise the by-products, the decision to locate a separate township for it, south of the factory, was against the basic concept of locating
: 16 : the residential settlements only north of the steel plant and the hills, on environmental considerations. Though the township for the fertilizer factory is a small one its location has prompted some reflexes of growth which it has not been possible to integrate in the main townscape. The second major deviation has been in respect of the crucial landspace located between the railway line and the hills. In the plan of the Consultants this area was to be utilised for setting light industries, small trades, handicrafts, supply services, etc., as are concomitant of the contemplated township. Unfortunately again, neither the IGKD nor the other consulting firms engaged, paid any attention to the detailing of the plans for developing this landspace. Given its proximity to the steel plant itself the site was prone to the pressures of growths and, in fact, when the work on the steel plant commenced in 1955 it is this area which came to be occupied by contractors, their labour as also other service populations. In six years the area was packed with more than 35,000 people and squatter settlements of all kinds were completed. A few years later an elaborate planning exercise had to be initiated to somehow prevent the area from getting worse, but more of this later. 1.4: The construction of the township commenced in 1956. Out of about 50 sq. miles proposed for acquisition for both the plant and the township nearly half was for the township alone. Acquisition was initiated under Orissa (Development of Industries, Irrigation, Agricultural, Capital Construction and the Resettlement of Displaced Persons) Act, 1948. This itself was a major departure from the usual practice of acquiring land under the time-honoured though slow provisions of the 1894 Land Acquisition Act. The Orissa Act had been tried earlier in Bhubaneswar as also for the Hirakud Dam construction. But upon being applied
: 17 : in Rourkela several complications arose, such as, the rights of subsequent disposal by the HSL, the compensation payable, etc. Later the acquisition had to be substantially revalidated under the 1894 Act. Still the complications and the resistance to acquisition were such as to prompt the State Government to decide against all further acquisition of land after 1959. By then about 3,000 out of the proposed 7,500 houses had been built. The beginnings of a hospital, four schools, the water-supply system, a waste disposal plant and the network of roads had also come into existence. While the first immigrants had been a wayside restaurant operator, a carpenter to make benches, tables and bedsteads and a milkman with a herd of buffalos, the flow picked up rapidly. By 1961, the steel township alone had a population of 37,830. With the surrounding areas, Rourkela's overall population was 90,287. One more Class I city was going to be added shortly in the census list. 1.5: The 1-million-ton stage was reached in 1962. By then plans had been initiated for an expansion of the plant's capacity. By 1969, the enlarged capacity of 1.8 million was available and with that had come a sizeable increase in the employees. The township witnessed further investments and by 1971 the figure had come close to Rs. 20 crores which still was less than 10% of the investment of the plant. The details of the houses constructed and the cost of various components of the township at the 1-million-ton stage and beyond may be seen in the appendix. 1.6: Part of the original idea had been to set up an elected body like a municipality for each of the township sectors which could administer the neighbourhood amenities like the health centre, the school or the market. This was "to give the steel worker an interest outside his own field of work". Yet subsequent
: 18 : events were far different. In 1955, a Notified Area Authority was set up for all of Rourkela covering an area of about 37 sq. miles under the Orissa Municipal Act (Act XXIII of 1950). But by 1961, the contradictions between steel town and the rest of Rourkela, that is, between the 'pucca' and 'not so pucca' of the emerging city had begun to build up. The steel plant management in its keenness to preserve the exclusiveness of its township as also to avoid the pressures coming from other parts to extend to them the township services proposed a bifurcation of the Notified area. After some debate the state government agreed to this. The axe fell in 1963 and the Notified Area was bifurcated into two parts : one being the steel township comprising that as also the steel plant, the fertiliser plant and the fertiliser colony. The Civil Townships 7 sq. miles are enveloped on all sides by the steel townships 30 odd sq. miles. The Civil Township has all the problem areas, the congested strip bazaar, the squatter settlements, the bustees on the southern slope of the hills and other badly organized developments. As of 1971, the Civil Townships population was 47,076 compared to 125,426 in the Steel Township. Obviously, at the services provided for the two areas there is sharp contrast. In the steel township most services are provided by the management under a Town Administrator, and the employee resident there, bears an annual tax burden of about 39 paise only since most services are provided by the steel management. If a steel employee is not so fortunate and happens to live in the Civil Township area his tax incidence would be Rs. 4.39. In composition the two N.A.C.'s are quite different. The steel N.A.C. has the company Town Administrator as the Chairman with eight other H.S.L. officials as members. The Civil N.A.C. has the Additional District Magistrate of Rourkela as Chairman, 5 state
: 19 : officials, 8 non-officials and oddly, 3 officials from HSL. Quite often the two NAC's have shared a health officer, an engineer and occasionally an executive officer as well but never a common chairman. A Special Planning Authority created in 1961 under the Orissa Town Planning and Improvement Trust Act (1956) commenced a master plan exercise confined to the Civil Township area only without any of the advantages of the land space and openness available in the steel township. The I.I.T. Kharagpur published in 1964 a master plan for the limited area which the N.A.C. is struggling along to implement in stages. In the meantime the strange phenomenon of two cities in one, continues. 2. Bhilai: 2.1: Heralded "as a significant symbol of a new age in India embedded in the national consciousness" Bhilai is the second of the three public sector steel plants to be launched by the Government after independence. In view of its proximity to iron ore resources Bhilai has been considered as a possible location even before the IndoSoviet Agreement in 1955 confirmed the site. Located about 1100 km. from Bombay and 866 km from Howrah, Bhilai is in the Chattisgarh region of Madhya Pradesh comprising the districts of Raigarh, Bilaspur, Raipur, Durg and northern Bastar. Despite its claim as the rice bowl of the state the region was characterised by its low agricultural yield due to poor irrigation, poor cultivation and inadequacy of market and transport. But the region had also a vast reserve in minerals. With coal at Korba, Anuppur and Bargaon, limestone at Nandini and iron ore at northern Bastar, the proposed steel plant at Bhilai was conceived as the catalyst that would change the region. In fact, M.P. Government had wanted a steel plant to be located here
: 20 : for long and in its eagerness had notified nearly 8000 acres comprised in 11 villages as early as 1949 to be acquired for the proposed steel plant. When the decision to locate the plant did come, these 8000 acres were transferred free of cost by the State Government and became the nucleus for commencing construction. 2.2: Unlike Rourkela, the Soviet collaboration was limited to the plant while the design of the township was left to Hindustan Steel. D.S. Bajpai and Piloo Mody of Bombay were engaged as consultants. The plan that emerged was a kind of rectilinear grid, strung between Durg on the west and the steel plant to the east. Three roads running east to west in parallel were to be the main arteries of the township. These arteries were broken by north-south roads at intervals and in all, the town plan provided for 12 sectors out of which 10 were to be residential, one was for the hospital and one for the city centre which was located at a mid-point at the southern extreme of the township. Unlike Rourkela, Bhilai had a medium-sized town in Durg in its proximity. By 1951, Durg was a municipal town and district headquarters of over 20,000 people. The so-called civil lines constituted the more open part of the town which also adjoined the site chosen for the township. In fact, the first residential support for the steel complex was the Durg Circuit House and the tents pitched in its compound, when according to the chronicles of the time, a firm basis for Indo-Soviet collaboration was forged amidst scorpions, centipedes and storms that regularly uprooted the tents. Later a Bhilai House as a large dormitory and 32 bungalows took shape nearby. Still, despite beginnings in such close proximity, the plan for the Bhilai township did not provide for
: 21 : any strong links with the Durg town. Such undeveloped space as available to the east of the Durg town was not incorporated in the plans for Bhilainagar. 2.3: Bhilainagar was planned to be built on the south of the Howrah-Bombay railway line. This was obviously dictated by the location of the steel plant itself being on the southern side. Yet in actual event, sizeable developments were commenced, by the steel plant construction agencies and others on the northern side of the railway line. Several labour camps were set up adjoining the railway line and the highway to Raipur for the construction labour. In fact, Bhilaigaon from which the name is derived is itself located on the north of the line. Between 1956 and 1959, 5 large camps were set up in Khursipar, Supela and Bhilaigaon. By 1960-61, 6300 quarters had been constructed in these camps by the steel plant, its contractors had built another 10,000 and for 5000 more the steel authorities had helped with construction materials. Compared to this, on the south of the railway line, in Bhilainagar proper, there were 12,500 quarters. The 1961 census noted that the population in these camps was about 25,000. By 1971, this had increased to 67,000. In fact, as of 1971 out of about 174,000 population in the Bhilainagar part of the agglomeration, the people living north of the railway line and in the semi-pucca or squatter settlements abatting the earlier camps are more in number than those living in the township as such. 2.4. The major reason for the rapid growth of the area north of the railway line has been its proximity to the steel plant and the railways marshalling yard which are major work centres. The civic and commercial centres planned for the township was also at
: 22 : its southern extreme and was quite slow in developing. Retail commercial activities and later on some wholesale support for them started first in Kursipar/Supela and have steadily grown in area and volume of business. The road to Nandini limestone quarries as also the ACC Cement Plant at Jamul has been a further impetus to this area. A host of cinemas also sprang up in the vicinity and at one time Kursipar was known as the Hollywood of Bhilai. Even now with 12 permanent cinema halls in the area it can still claim that distinction. As a result of all these the commercial focus of Bhilainagar has come to be north of the railway line and not south of it as envisaged by the planners. 2.5: As for the construction of the plant and the township, in addition to the 8000 acres acquired and transferred by the State Government another 20,000 acres were acquired afresh. About Rs. 1.5 crores were paid as compensation and a number of villages which fell within acquisition were shifted in masses to the townships periphery. The initial plan for the township had been for 7500 houses; with supporting facilities in keeping with plans drawn up for the million-tons stage as in other plants. By 1961, all the units in the one-milliontons stage were completed. The expenditure incurred on the township till this stage as also the various components of the township construction may be seen in the appendix. By then plans for expansion of the steel plant to 2.5 million capacity had been initiated which was achieved by 1967. A further expansion to 4 million tons is now under way. At the time of this report Bhilai remains the largest of the steel plants in operation in the country.
: 23 : 2.6: Though excluded lay design, in the plans for the township, Durg and other surrounding areas have drawn much support from the townships growth. From a mere 20,000 in 1951, Durg's population rose rapidly to 47,000 in 1961 and to about 68,000 in 1971. Trade and commerce, transport and other services accounts for 13,000 jobs in 1971 compared to about 9,000, 10 years earlier. New residential areas have come up and the bazaar in Durg has become the principal focus for the whole agglomeration despite earlier hopes that the Bhilainagar civic centre would assume this function. The municipal limits of Durg were enlarged from 5.3 sq. miles to 8 sq. miles in 1971. A polytechnic and a Government's Arts and Science College have been added in which nearly half the students are from Bhilai. North of the railway line apart from the labour camps and the ever-spreading squatter settlements new residential areas have come up, such as, Rajendranagar while on the road to Jamul the space between the cement works and Bhilai is being filled by light industry. East of the steel plant at Kumhari a major foundry has given rise to a small industrial complex. Taking the outgrowths of Durg as also Bhilai into account the urban agglomeration today accounts for nearly 55 sq. miles and 2,45,124 people compared to 1,33,230 in 1961. 2.7: Despite this vast change in the landscape, on the administrative side matters have remained still. Apart from the marginal enlargement of Durg municipal limits the major part of the agglomeration, i.e., the Bhilainagar township itself as also its outgrowths have not been incorporated into any municipality. Within Bhilainagar the Chief Town Administrator of the Steel Plant is responsible for the township's maintenance
: 24 : as also most of its construction aspects. In 1966, the IIT, Kharagpur, at the instance of the Steel Plant prepared a master plan for the urban area as a whole for the first time. The plan conceded that development had become disparate already and felt the railway line had been a major barrier to the integration of the city. Proposing a circulation system using four over bridges to connect Bhilainagar with the north and recognising the Kursipar area had already acquired the characteristics of a Central Business District, the IIT plan called for a Development Corporation to be set up preferably by the state government with participation of the Centre, the steel plant and local interests which could implement an integrated programme of control and development. The time, however, was not ripe for such a body seven years later. 2.8: In 1973, the Madhya Pradesh Government, under the M.P. Nagar Tatha Gram Nibesh Adhiniyam (Act XXV of 1973) constituted a Special Area Development Authority (SADA) for Bhilai-Durg, with the Commissioner, Raipur Division, as Chairman and representatives of Bhilai Steel Plant, private industry, Durg Municipality, etc., as members. The SADA has jurisdiction over the entire urban agglomeration. Its mandate covers plan preparation and enforcement, formulation and execution of development schemes as also the usual municipal functions of upkeep of city facilities and taxation thereof. A general development plan under the provision of the M.P. Town Planning Act is under preparation. Pending this SADA has taken the initiative of developing some housing and commercial areas in Durg. Negotiations have also progressed with the steel plant for the surrender of some land north of the railway line to SADA where similar housing and
: 25 : commercial activities are proposed. As yet SADA has no direct responsibility for any of the municipal type functions within Bhilainagar though in law SADA's writ covers the township as well. In the absence of an overall plan of action for the urban agglomeration there is a tendency to divide responsibilities between the SADA and the steel plant management on the basis of north and south of the railway line respectively. The steel authorities also intend to add four more sectors to the township to support the plant's expansion and make additions to its civic centre. SADA has its own plans for renewing and enlarging Kursipar and Supela. As yet, there are opportunities to achieve a functional balance between the different parts of the Durg-Bhilai urban agglomeration. But it is an open question whether the instrumentalities for bringing about these changes would be settled first between SADA and the Steel Plant. If not, Bhilai's future would continue to be undermined in the conflicts between the fragments of the city. 3. Durgapur: 3.1: People are usually not aware that Durgapur is more than a steel plant and its township. With an investment exceeding Rs. 600 crores Durgapur is the home of a dozen large and medium industries and nearly a hundred small industries. It is probably the largest concentration of heavy industry to be set up anew in the country. With a population of about 2,06,000 Durgapur is also a new town in the Class I category. 3.2: Durgapur was opened up when the plans for the Damodar Valley region took shape. The taming of the Damodar river and its tributaries and the creation of large capacities of thermal
: 26 : power gave a generous stimulus to the region. As part of the project a 2,271 ft, barrage across the Damodar river was commenced at Durgapur in 1952 and completed in 1955. The main purpose of the barrage was to divert the water received from the Panchet and Mython dams upstream and divert the flow to Bankura, Burdwan and Hooghly districts for irrigation purposes. The left bank irrigation canal was also to serve as a navigation facility down to the river Hooghly. Located as it was at the fringe of the famed Ranigunj coalfields Durgapur was also one of the good locations for a steel plant. The Eric Coates Mission in August 1955, after seeing two sites at Bokaro and two at Sindri, finally chose Durgapur as the location for the third steel plant in the public sector which was to be built on a turn-key basis by a consortium of British steel-making and engineering firm. The high capacity transport facility available through a four-track railway line, the Grand Trunk Road as also the navigation canal, the availability of land close to coal but not coal-bearing itself and the proximity to Calcutta as a major point of consumption for the plant's products, were the reasons which prompted the decision. A package deal with the British was concluded by the Government of India in October 1956 and construction on the steel plant at a site between the Grand Trunk Road and the eastern railway line was commenced soon thereafter. 3.3: By then, some other major investment decisions had been taken for Durgapur. One was the Damodar Valley Corporation's own plans to locate a thermal power plant. Another was Dr. B.C. Roy's long-cherished design for an industrial complex comprising a thermal power plant, a coke oven plant to supply the much needed metallurgical coke for Bengal's engineering industry,
: 27 :
: 27 : a chemicals plant to utilise the by-products from the coke oven and a gas-grid that would feed 5 million cft. of gas to Calcutta. Dr. B.C. Roy's plans went far beyond just industrial investments. To accomplish his dream he established a Durgapur Industries Board as a semiautonomous unit of the State Government and charged it with the task of setting up the coke oven and thermal power plants as also acquiring and developing land on a large scale to attract more industries. The Durgapur Industries Board is probably the first multi-purpose industrial promotion venture in the country, launched by a State Government when industrial development corporations or similar promotional bodies were unknown in the state sector. By 1959, decisions had also been taken to locate an Alloy Steels Plant, a large plant for manufacturing of coal mining machinery (subsequently Mining and Allied Machinery Corporation) and an ophthalmic glass plant in the public sector of the Government of India. The Associated Cement Companies in collaboration with some British firms also decided to set up another heavy engineering plant in the private sector for manufacturing pressure vessels and equipment for thermal power plants, and cement manufacture. Other engineering units to produce automobile wheels, electrical wire, heavy castings, etc., followed. By 1961, nearly 50 large, medium and small industries had made Durgapur their home. The Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute and the Regional Engineering College were two other major institutions were also to be located in Durgapur. 3.4: Despite such an encouraging start the dream of an integrated industrial city did not materialise. A major reason for this was the decision of the larger industries in locating their respective plants and townships. Having chosen a 10 sq. mile
: 28 : chunk of land on an east-west axis for the plant, between the Eastern Railway line and the G.T. Road, authorities had considered two alternative locations for the township. One was to set it up south of the river Damodar with a bridge to connect and the other was a site north of the G.T. Road. Eventually, a 17 sq. mile site north of the Grand Trunk Road between mileposts 113 and 117 was chosen because of "the high ground, east of drainage, good soil and absence of any serious rehabilitation problems". Since the steel township is by far the largest in the Durgapur settlement we may consider briefly the salient features of its plant. As in Bhilai the responsibility for planning and designing, the township was assumed by the Hindustan Steel and farmed out to the consulting firm of Stein, Polk and Chatterjee. In preparing the plan, the consultants stated they took special care "to avoid certain omissions present in some town plans, such as, (i) urban monotony and unimaginative rows of housing, (ii) low standards of environment that tend to depress and limit personnel and family life, (iii) the omission of community facilities which would be simple in character in the form of space designed for multiple purposes and (iv) the provision for health and recreation facilities". In planning for the township the consultants also took note of "the joys of a modest family garden or the pleasant evening stroll". "The new population they felt would largely be composed of young people who usually are idealistic and flexible and who seek better ways and often have the disposition and energy to pursue them". The marked contrast between these professed intentions and what actually emerged as the township would be considered in detail later, but at this stage we may point out briefly some important developments that took place.
: 29 : The layout initially prepared by the planners covered about 9,000 of the 10,000 acres leaving the rest as a green along the G.T. Road. The road system was based on a north-south Central Avenue to collect traffic and bring it nearer the eastern entrance of the steel plant but the main works gate came to be located in the western corner 6 miles away. Housing for higher-income employees not depending on public transport came to be built first and, therefore, nearer the plant while the bulk of the employees depending on public transport had to be housed farther away. The average travel distance between the steel plant and the township was about 8 to 9 miles and so from the beginning the steel plant authorities had to make arrangements to transport its workers in all three shifts in its own fleet of buses, an arrangement that has proved to be most vulnerable as subsequent experience has shown. 3.5: Adjoining the steel plant township the Mining and Allied Machinery Corporation decided to set up another self-contained township. Neither the steel nor the MAMC township plans provided for any linkages between the two and, though next to each other, did not even consider the possibility of some common services. The colony of the private undertaking ACC-VickersBabcock which was located farther east of the MAMC township, by far the most pleasing of the other townships, again became an exercise in isolation and containment. While these townships had come up in the north of the G.T. Road, to its south the Durgapur Industries Board took over the construction camp of the DVC which had been put up for the barrage, expanded it and made it into another so-called selfcontained township. For its thermal power plant the DVC added one more township. The Durgapur Development Authority which had been set up in 1958 itself to
: 30 : ensure the planned and co-ordinated development of the Durgapur complex did not regard these disparate developments as serious. On the contrary it confirmed the trend by deciding to set up another township of its own, farther east of AVB to provide residential support to medium and small industries. Thus by 1961, Durgapur had already begun to sprawl for a length of some 11 miles along the G.T. Road from mileposts 110 to 120 with a mixture of industry and residential settlements to the south and some large townships to the north each separated from the other by a buffer zone, usually a stretch of Sal forest that succumbed to predatory woodcutting in later years. While the 1961 census identified two distinct settlements, viz., the steel town and the coke oven colony each 9 miles from the other and returned for both a population of 41,696 in 1971, the Census took note of the whole connurbation since constituted into a Notified Area with a population of 2,06,638. Still, one common notified area notwithstanding, Durgapur has remained, as so aptly described, a collection of half-a-dozen townships in search of a city. 3.6: A major reason for this sprawling pattern of growth has been the absence of an overall plan to begin with. Though the State Government had set up the Durgapur Development Authority under a special Act, i.e. the Durgapur Development and Control and Building Operations Act, 1958 with the avowed purposes of promoting planned development, either due to the reluctance of major projects to submit to any coordination of the Authority or due to the failure of the Authority itself to perceive clearly its statutory obligations, the first exercise in evolving a development plan for the complex began only in 1961. By then the more important locational decisions had been taken. With an
: 31 : increasing number of job-seekers coming into Durgapur everyday the problem of finding shelter for them became more urgent and planning with all its time-consuming implications was kept in abeyance. Each undertaking proceeded to build its housing in haste and on poorly prepared layout plans. Each of the township layout was planned on a mandate that it would be self-contained though in reality it could not be so. The most severe consequences of this isolated planning has been on traffic and transportation within the complex. In the absence of alternate road systems linking the different townships and industries the burden of local traffic also was thrown on the G.T. Road which was a national highway and which deteriorated rapidly in the process. The conflicts .between local and regional traffic also the nature of the local traffic having to cross the G.T. Road frequently rendered the stretch of this highway passing through Durgapur one of the most accident-prone spots with deaths averaging one every month between 1962 and 1965. The scattered location of the residential and workers' settlements also increased the non-paying or "dead" distance for transport and other services and rendered them more expensive. In the buffer zones left between the townships squatter settlements and commercial slums were established quickly since none of the project townships would accept the service population or non-employees. The most striking example of this is Benachiti which has mushroomed into Durgapur's largest commercial centre, thanks to its location midway between the steel plant and the township. The growth and its pattern in Benachiti contain a printed lesson in the dynamics of trading support for a New Town. This will be examined in detail later. 3.7: The region around Durgapur has also witnessed considerable change. Ranigunge and Asansol 12 and 20 miles west of Durgapur were earlier regarded as mining and commercial centres. Initially much of Durgapur's commercial needs especially wholesale, were
: 32 : made by these two centres. Durgapur's general administration was also conducted from Asansol. As facilities have expanded in Durgapur some of the reliance has been reduced though Ranigunge continues to maintain its traditional position as a supply basis especially for food items. To the east of Durgapur the group of villages adjoining each other, i.e., Panagarh, Debipur and Kanksa have grown sizeably from about 7400 people in 1951 to about 14,600 in 1971. Immediately west of Durgapur one of Asia's largest marshalling yards has come up in Ondal which in turn has prompted some linear developments alongside the G.T. Road, such as, Dignala with over 6000 people. South of Durgapur and the river Damodar, Bankura has continued to maintain its predominantly rural character. 3.8: The belated start the D.D.A. made in planning commenced with an exercise for the region. As in Rourkela and Bhilai, here again IIT Kharagpur was invited to make a plan in 1960 and three years later the Institute presented the Durgapur Regional Master Plan. The plan dealt with a large region of 1214 sq. miles comprising 10 thanas in the three districts of Burdwan, Bankura and Birbhum with 7 lakhs population. The plan envisaged a regional structure with Durgapur as the principal centre. It sought to identify the types of industries that should come up in Durgapur and what its linkages would be. Control of development in the entire region was advocated to encourage and stimulate urban support activities. The D.D.A. was advised to convert itself into a regional planning authority. In 1964 the Institute came up with first detailed component of the Regional Plan i.e. the Durgapur urban plan. Since the different townships had taken shape by then, the plan merely confirmed their existence and
: 33 : suggested a further northward expansion of the residential zone. Obviously the DDA was in no position to implement any of these proposals. Though conceived as a statutory body in practice it functioned only as an adjunct to the Durgapur Industries Board, in practice. When that Board was converted into a company i.e. Durgapur Projects Limited, DDA's dependence on the DPL for all its planning and engineering services continued. In 1966 the DDA and the Asansol Planning Organization collaborated to publish an Interim Development Plan for Durgapur. Projecting a population of 5.18 lakhs by 1981 the plan's main feature was a system of arterial and link roads to tie up the desperate elements of the complex. The plan recognised and confirmed the broad zoning of the complex into predominantly industrial area south of the G.T. Road and predominantly residential area north of it. To provide focus for the complex through city level facilities the plan suggested limited enlargement and renewal of Benachiti for commercial activities and the setting up of a new civic centre for administrative functions in the DDA township on the eastern extreme. In April 1968, this interim plan was revised through a Perspective Structure document. This envisaged the community of one million in Durgapur by the turn of the century, and suggested the phasing of the road system which would provide the needed integration. Instead of two centres, the 1968 plan also advocated the establishment of a major City Centre which would integrate Government and business offices with commercial, recreational and other city level facilities in a planned manner. Thanks to a change of attitude on the part of the steel plant authorities to make available the requisite land, it was possible to commence work on the city centre in the central portion of Durgapur by 1970.
: 34 : 3.9: Apart from this major development and the construction of some of the roads to link up the different townships, efforts to shape Durgapur into a city have not progressed much. The recession of 1966 hit the industries in Durgapur hard. New industries did not come in and extension plans for the existing ones did not fructify. The most serious among these was the decision not to expand the Durgapur Steel Plant. Employment in the registered factories which had risen rapidly to about 34,000, by 1961, has remained there since then. In 1960, the idea of setting up some kind of local self-government institution for Durgapur was mooted. Initially, it was felt that the DDA itself could be suitably expanded and modified to perform municipal functions but this idea was later given up. In 1961, the West Bengal Government declared its intention to constitute a Notified Area Authority. The major industrial projects in the area, especially Durgapur Steel objected to the proposal initially and suggested that if a Notified Area Authority was at all necessary the steel plant and its township could be constituted into a separate Notified Area. The West Bengal Government did not agree to this suggestion and proceeded to establish the Notified Area Authority early in 1962 for a jurisdiction of about 60 sq. miles comprising all the industrial projects and their townships. The major industries of the townships were identified as separate holdings e.g. steel plant as one holding, the steel township as another holding, etc. The projects were made liable to the holding tax only but not to other rates, such as, water rate, conservancy rate and lighting, since the townships were providing such services themselves. This decision to sustain a single Notified Area Authority for the entire industrial complex is
: 35 : in marked contrast to the decision in Rourkela to bifurcate one Notified Area into two and the decision in Bhilai not to set up any such authority. After a hesitant start and some retrogade decisions on taxation, the Notified Area Authority now operates an annual budget of Rs. 35 lakhs and is one of the more important urban local bodies in the State. 3.10: In 1969, Durgapur and its surrounding areas were also constituted into a separate sub-division. Several other State and Central Government offices were also set up in the city. A Government college and a State Hospital were added. By 1975, some of these offices had begun to move into the newly-constructed city centre. The 1971 census returned a population of 206,638 for the Notified Area as a whole out of which the Steel township accounts for 76,921, the various other industrial townships for 44,432 and the non-township areas 85,285. Here again, as in other towns, the 'kutcha' is more numerous than the 'pucca'. 4. Bokaro Steel City: 4.1. We now move to Bokaro, the home of the fourth and the largest steel complex in the country under creation. While coal mining in the region of Bokaro i.e., Jharia has been a major activity for over 100 years, Bokaro itself began to acquire industrial importance since the DVC began its work. A thermal power plant was set up by the DVC at Bokaro on the northern banks of the Damodar river in 1956. Chandrapura, another major thermal power plant, followed a few years later in the vicinity. Bokaro had been a favoured location for establishing a steel plant for a long time and, as mentioned earlier, when the Erik Coates Mission was considering alternative locations for the third steel plant to be set up with British assistance Bokaro also
: 36 : had been one of the sites considered. In 1959, the Government of India decided to locate the fourth steel plant at Bokaro. Initially American assistance was sought for the project, but the request got mixed up with the shifting stance of aid politics in USA. The request was then withdrawn and the project lay in cold storage for a while. On 25th January, 1965, an agreement was concluded with the USSR Government for establishing a steel plant of 1.7 million tons capacity in the first stage. The earlier project report prepared by the Indian consultants, Messrs Dastur & Company, was revised by Gipromez in its detailed project report of 1966. Construction commenced in 1968, and as the work progressed, in February 1970, another agreement was signed with the Soviet Union for expanding the plant to 4 million tons. When this capacity is achieved Bokaro will be the largest steel complex in India and one of the largest in Asia. The massive Soviet assistance notwithstanding Bokaro is also claimed to be a "swadeshi" steel plant with nearly 60% of the machinery and components made from indigenous sources. 4.2: The site chosen for the steel complex is about 44 km. south-west of Dhanbad town and is close to the National Highway No. 32 linking Dhanbad and Tatanagar. The plant and the city are bounded by river Damodar in the north and one of its tributaries, the Ganga to the east and the south and the Muri-Chandrapura Gomoh broadgauge line on the west. The State highway known as Ramgarh-Chas Road connects the steel city with the National Highway No. 33 to the east and National Highway No. 33 to the west which joins Delhi-Calcutta National Highway No. 2. 4.3: In the case of Bokaro the planning for the steel city had been a thoughtful exercise right from the beginning. Pending details of the plant's dimensions a general sketch plan for the steel city had been prepared in 1962 which was scrutinised and endorsed by an allIndia panel of 4 distinguished planners.
