town planning anna university material

HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PLANNING

COMPILED BY CT.LAKSHMANAN B.Arch., M.C.P.

AR 443 HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PLANNING 1.

INTRODUCTION 10 Elements of Human Settlements - Role of Man and Society in the growth and decay of human settlements.

2.

PLANNING CONCEPTS 10 Contribution to planning throught - Patric Geddes, Ebener Howard - CA Perry - Le Corbusior - Doxiadis - Mumford - Relevance to Indian Planning Practice.

3.

URBAN PLANNING 10 Various types of plans, Master plan, structure plan, comprehensive plan, subject plan, Zonal Development plan, their scope and content, planning process.

4.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES 8 IUDP, IDSMT, Megacity, FIRE, Sustainable City Programme - their context, concept, scope, content and funding mechanism.

5.

RURAL PLANNING 7 Rural settlement structure - Demographic dynamics - micro level planning: Scope and content. Total

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References: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

C.L.Doxiadis, Ekistics, 'An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements', Hutchinson, London, 1968. Madras Metropolitan Development Authority, 'Master Plan for Madras Metropolitan Area, Second Master Plan - 1995. Government of India, 'Report of the National Commission on Urbanisation', 1988. Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment, Government of India, New Delhi, 'Urban Development Plans: Formulation & Implementation' - Guidelines - 1996. Hansen N., 'Regional Policy and Regional Integration' Edward Elgar, UK, 1996. Centre for Human Settlements, Anna University, Chennai 'Development Plan for Uthokottai Taluk, Cheyyur Taluk', 1999. Andro D.Thomas, 'Housing and Urban Renewal, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1986.

Chapter 1

HUMAN SETTLEMENTS - GENERAL The definition of human settlement is as given below: “The fabric of human settlements consists of physical elements and services to which these elements provide the material support. The physical components comprise shelter, i.e. the superstructures of different shape, size, type and materials erected by mankind for security, privacy, and protection from the elements and for his singularity within a community; infrastructure, i.e. the complex networks designed to deliver or remove from the shelter people, goods, energy of information. Services cover those required by a community for the fulfillment of its functions as a social body, such as education, health, culture, welfare, recreation and nutrition.” Human settlements means the totality of the human community - whether city, town or village - with all the social, material, organizational, spiritual and cultural elements that sustain it. The fabric of human settlements consists of physical elements and services to which these elements provide the material support. The physical components comprise, ¾ Shelter, i.e. the superstructures of different shapes, size, type and materials erected by mankind for security, privacy and protection from the elements and for his singularity within a community; ¾ Infrastructure, i.e. the complex networks designed to deliver to or remove from the shelter people, goods, energy or information; ¾ Services cover those required by a community for the fulfillment of its functions as a social body, such as education, health, culture, welfare, recreation and nutrition. ELEMENTS OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

NATURE NETWORK

SHELL

MAN

SOCIETY

These elements always interact with one another. A human being has some invisible spheres around him. These spheres are the spheres of the senses like touch, smell, sight, hearing and also supernatural or spiritual. The spiritual sphere is directly proportional to his intellect. People interact with one another by direct interaction of these spheres. Human habitation requires a certain amount of overlapping of these spheres, and the planning of habitation would mean, social planning’. Human desires and endurances have remained the same throughout the years and manifestations of which have changed by evolution. GROWTH AND DECAY OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS - GENERAL Primitive man lived in caves, tree-holes and treetops and fed himself on plants, fruits roots, animals and water, directly collected from nature, without much effort on his part. When his number increased and his food requirements became enormous he came out of the forests to live in the plains, to cultivate and make more food materials. Availability of water was the main criterion for selecting land for cultivation and habitation.

Notes on Human settlements planning

Compiled by CT.LAKSHMANAN b.arch., m.c.p.

Chapter 1

This happened according to scientist, about 10,000 years back and that was the beginning of human settlements, when man made houses to live in and worked for his food. Thus it was a transition from cave to village. Protection from the vagaries of climate and wild animals was the main purpose of a house, rightly called a shelter. He built houses with whatever materials were available near about him, like mud, wood, reeds boughs, leaves and what not. For better protection and mutual help he used to live in groups, surrounded by the cultivated lands, which invariably were selected where water was available throughout the seasons. This gave rise to villages or small human settlements, all of them near perennial fresh water sources like rivers, and lakes. Villages were also located on sites offering natural protection of elevated hills & terrains, islands and peninsulas. Wherever natural protection was lacking barricades and moats surrounded them. Later, when transportation of men and materials became necessary, seacoasts and riverbanks were selected for settlements. As we learn from history, early civilization spread along the fertile valleys of the Nile, tigres, Euphrates, Indus rivers etc. where water, food and transportation were at hand. In all settlements, there were both natural and man-made elements like hills, valleys – buildings, roads etc. each settlement had its own definite boundaries. They were scattered throughout, especially along riverbanks and in plains, fed by rivers. Inter – relations and inter-actions between settlements, both near and far off, developed gradually and it gave rise to social, cultural, political, economic and many other institutions Conflict between men and environment started when man began to change the environment for better convenience and better comfort. This conflict is a continuous process, and is continuing with all its ramifications supported by science and technology. Man being aggressive in nature, did not easily adjust himself to be part of a self-disciplined community. Personal and group rivalries flared up within settlements. Survival of the fittest was the order of the day. The winner assumed the role of a leader and maintained discipline. When the leader gained more and more power and strength, several settlements came under him. He himself assumed titles of king or emperor. To protect himself and his kingdom, he wanted an army and a safe place to live. For this he established non-agricultural settlements, exclusively for himself, his army and the people around him. Such settlements were fortified and moats built all around, for additional protection from attacking enemies. People from the villages, whose main occupation was agriculture, began to migrate to such urban centers, to get better employment and better wages. Further, the developments came out of the forts and moats, to accommodate more people and this gave rise to bigger settlements, what we call towns and cities. Socio-economic and socio-cultural changes, as well as developments in science and technology influenced the life styles of the people and their quality of life. In the process, some settlements, perished, may be by war, floods or drying up of water sources and some other prospered becoming larger and larger, like our present day giant cities which we call metropolis, mega polis etc. this makes human settlements a part of history and every settlement has a history of its own. The fundamental human needs, wherever one lives and whichever natural environment one has, are food, clothing and shelter apart from air & water. Shelter use to get the lowest priority from the very beginning of man’s existence. Till the recent past, shelter, especially in small settlements, was not a serious problem as the shelter requirements were quite simple and limited. There was no difficulty in getting a piece of land, either owned or rented.



Chapter 1

They constructed their own houses with mutual help, making use of locally available materials and using their own houses with mutual help, making use of locally available materials and using their own labour. The harmful impact of intensive urbanization, consequent to the industrial revolution, accelerated deterioration of the living environment. But in spite of all the efforts to improve the living environment in human settlements, the challenge of poverty, congestion and insanitation still remains in cities throughout the world. Man had made unprecedented progress during the current century in the fields of industry, Education, Health, Communication, Transportation etc. as a result of spectacular achievements in science and technology. But it is a paradox that the majority of the world’s population still does not have a shelter providing minimum privacy, and protection against the elements. The struggle for shelter still continues. A significant reason, for this lag is the population explosion followed by urban explosion. EVOLUTION Of HUMAN SETTLEMENTS The evolution of human settlements is a continuous cyclic process from the smallest, the room, to the largest possible, the universal human settlement. The process are born, develop, decline and die which can be compared to plant and animal which are everywhere in this universe. Settlements may have an initial structure, which only allows for a certain degree of growth, but nothing excludes the possibility of an expansion and transformation of this structure, which will allow them to surpass the initial structural limitations. The human settlements have no predetermined death, though there is death in their activities, there will be born of another where the active exists. . The evolution of human settlements can be divided into five major phases: 1. 2.

Primitive non-organised human settlements (started with the evolution of man.) Primitive organised settlements ( the period of villages - eopolis - which lasted about 10,000 years.) 3. Static urban settlements or cities (polis - which lasted about 5,000-6,000 years.) 4. Dynamic urban settlements (dynapolis - which lasted 200 - 400 years.) 5. The universal city (ecumenopolis - which is now beginning.) Primitive human settlements ¾ Non - organised settlements The man began to modify Nature and to settle temporarily or permanently in different location. Probably began with fire, they went on to animal husbandry and the domestication of grazing animals; afterwards came deforestation and agriculture, and with it, permanent human settlements. Man had settled first in natural shelters such as hollows in the ground, hollow trees or shallow caves, before he began to build his own primitive and unorganised habitat. After first exploiting natural formations and transforming them into dwellings, by various changes and additions, he began to create shells independent of, and unrelated to, pre-existing natural forms and their boundary were within certain limit beyond which the settlement had no link and transportation. For example observing the level of agriculture communities. The communities take up a smaller area where they are agricultural, and a larger one where they are hunting and cattle-breeding communities. Their nucleus under normal conditions is in the center of gravity; or of security problem, in the safest place in their area, or even beyond their area of cultivation. Notes on Human settlements planning


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There are no transportation and communication lines between the communities. If we look at these primitive non-organised communities on a macro scale, there consists of a nucleus which is the built up part of the human settlement, and several parts which lead out into the open, thinning out until they disappear – either because nobody goes beyond certain limits of the community or because these trips take place so seldom that they would not be placed on the same scale of densities. There is no physical lines connecting this primitive settlement with others; there are no networks between settlements.

¾ Organised settlements Man, some ten to twelve thousand years ago, began to enter the era of organised agriculture, his settlements also began to show some characteristics of organisation. It required time and acquisition of experience in organising the relationship between man and man, man and nature, and finally expressing these relationships through cohesive forms of settlements. In initial the human had one-room dwelling in circular form, to organise the relationship of his community with other communities he expanded his dwelling by placing many round forms side by side, then elongated to elliptical ones and at some point came to conclusion and adopted the rectilinear forms. Due to the loss of space between them, they developed more regular shapes with no space lost between them. The evolution reached the stage at which a rectilinear pattern develops into a regular grid - iron one.



Chapter 1

In Nature evolution work towards a compression of circles and the gradual formation of polygonic systems, the clearest form of which is the hexagon. In evolution of human settlements we see two courses: • On the micro-scale, where man must divide the land, construct one or more shells (rooms and houses), and circulate within a built-up area (neighbourhood), the solution leads to a synthesis at a right angle; • On the macro-scale, where man must own and use space but not build it, and circulate within it, although to a much lesser degree than before (usually non more than one movement to and fro every day), man continues to follow the course of nature towards hexagonal patterns. During this era of the development of human settlements the patterns or regional distribution of the settlements differ depending on the phase of evolution and the prevailing conditions of safety, the population still small, the villages can be found in the plains, near the rivers and near the sea. When the population becomes dense, new patterns develop, and the villages come over to cover the entire plain on the basis of the small hexagonal pattern and the hills and the mountains on a larger hexagonal pattern. The development of land cultivation, the population might be larger, but would still be smaller than that of the era of large population and full exploitation of the land, when it would reach five hundred thousand or even one million. Static urban settlements At some point 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, the first urban settlement appeared as small cities in a plain or as fortresses on hills and mountains. As settlements grew in size, man came to realise that the principle of the single-nucleus was not always valid in the internal organisation of the total shells of the community, at this single nodal point, which was adequate for the village and for small cities, no longer sufficed. The first thing to happen was the expansion of the nucleus in one or more directions; it was no longer limited to the settlement's center of gravity. Example: The small settlement of Priene, in ancient Greece, where the central nucleus expanded in two ways: first in a linear form along a main street which contained shops that would normally be clustered in the central agora, the secondly through the decentralisation of some functions, such as temples. In larger cities additional nodal points and central places gradually came into being within the shells of the settlements - a phenomenon that is unique to human settlements. Notes on Human settlements planning


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Dynamic urban settlement Started in the seventeenth century and became apparent only a century later in all probability, it wall last for another 100 or 200 years until we reach the next phase that of the universal settlement. In the dynamic urban phase settlements in space are characterised by continuous growth. Hence, all their problems are continuously intensified and new ones continuously created. Dynamic settlements, created as a result of an industrial technological revolution, multiplying in number and form, and now being created at an even higher rate. The evils described in them are the evils of yesterday which are being multiplied today in a very dangerous manner. This makes the dynamic settlement completely different from any other category of settlements and a real threat to humanity itself. Example: London - atmospheric pollution may be so severe as to account for 4,000 deaths in a single week of intense "fog". Hydrocarbons, lead, carcinogenic agents, deteriorating conditions of atmospheric electricity -- all of these represent retrogressive processes introduced and supported by man. The man's position is dangerous in the dynamic settlement, this can be shown through the following graph.

Dynapolis: • First expansion of the urban settlement. • 30 miles in diameter. • All part of the land it covers is not sterilised. • The microorganisms in the soil no longer exist. • The original animal inhabit ants have largely been banished. • Rivers are foul and the atmosphere is polluted. • Climate and microclimate have retrogressed. Notes on Human settlements planning


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The first dynamic urban settlement - the early Dynapolis. This is the phase when small independent human settlements when small independent human settlements with independent administrative units are beginning to grow beyond their initial boundaries. From the economic point of view this development is related to industrialisation, and from the technological point of view to the railroad era, which first made commuting from distance points possible. The settlements expands in all directions, instead of spreading only along the railway lines creating new islands of dependent settlements around railway stations, as during the phase of the early Dynapolis. The city is breaking its walls and spreading into the countryside in a disorgnised manner. Metropolis I Dynametropolis: The next phase of dynamic settlement is of metropolis, which incorporates several other urban and rural settlements of the surrounding area. The few metropolises from the past became static following a period of dynamic growth, then declined and died. This was to a certain extent, true of ancient Rome in its last phases and Byzantine Constantinople - which disintegrated to such a degree that the mobs in the streets became uncontrollable and sometimes succeeded in imposing their will on the government. From the economic, social, administrative or technological point of view, the fate of the historical metropolises has been dynamic growth, a static phase, and then death. To base our experience on the history of cities, we must recognise the fact that a static phase for a metropolis is the prelude of its decline and death. In such a case this should be said as a dynamic metropolis, after losing its momentum for growth, becomes negatively dynamic. To calculate the number of metropolises attributed to the effect of the railway and to the effect of the automobile, we will find the latter to be much greater, out of all proportion to the number of the former. Dynametropolis, continuing its course towards becoming a megalopolis. Megalopolis I Dynamegalopolis: The area on a large scale including more than one metropolis and many other urban settlements and it cannot be static. A megalopolis has the same external characteristics as the metropolis, the only difference being that every phenomenon appears on a much larger scale. It is characteristic that all phenomenon of the development of human settlements up to the metropolis shown on a 100 sq.km. Scale, for megalopolis would be 1,000sq.km. Universal human settlement: Ecumenopolis Regardless of whether dynamic settlements are simple (Dynapolis), or composite (metropolises and megalopolises), they have been growing continuously during the last centuries and this is apparent everywhere at present i.e. the whole Earth will be covered by one human settlement. The population explosion, will be definitely be the most decisive factor in the next phase of human settlements.



Chapter 2

SIR EBENEZER HOWARD (1850-1928) A well-known sociologist, who after studying the industrialist evils in Britain gave the concept of ‘Garden City’, It soon became the landmark in the history of town planning. He had an idea which he set forth in little book entitled ‘To-morrow’, published in 1898 which later republished under the title of ‘Garden City of To-morrow. He explained his idea of ‘Garden City’ by an impressive diagram of The Three Magnets namely the town magnet, country magnet with their advantages and disadvantages and the third magnet with attractive features of both town and country life. Naturally people preferred the third one namely Garden City. It made a deep impression in the field of town planning. GARDEN CITY ¾ A town designed for healthy living and industry. ¾ Town of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life, but not larger ¾ Land will remain in a single ownership of the community or held in trust for the community. ¾ Not a colony, but a complete working city of population about 30,000 ¾ A large central park containing public buildings ¾ Central park surrounded by a shopping street ¾ Central park and shopping street are surrounded by dwellings in all directions – at density of 12 families / acre ¾ The outer circle of factories and industries ¾ The whole is surrounded by a permanent green belt of 5000 acres ¾ The town area is of about 1000 acres In 1899, the garden city association was formed. In 1903 – Letch worth started, 35 miles from London, town area: about 500 acres, designed for 35,000 persons, 3,000 acres of green belt. By 1947 it had about 16,000 populations and about 100 factories. In 1920 – Welwyn started, 2400 acres, 40000 persons design capacity. By 1947, it had about 18,000 population and 70 factories. By keeping the land in single ownership, the possibility of speculation and overcrowding would be eliminated and the increment of value created by the community in the industrial and commercial (shops) sets would be preserved for it-self. It was a thorough going experiment based on middle-class consumers cooperation Howard’s general principles, including the communal ownership of the land and the permanent green belt have been carried through on both cases, and the garden cities have been a testing ground for technical and planning improvements which have later influenced all English, American, Canadian and Australian planning, particularly in housing.

Notes on Human settlements Planning


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PATRICK GEDDES ¾ A Scot who has been called the father of modern town planning, Geddes did much of his pioneering work in the Old Town of Edinburgh, having made his married home there in 1886. ¾ Geddes’ name and spirit are imperishably associated with Ramsay Garden and the Outlook Tower, both in Castle hill. ¾ Geddes was concerned with the relationship between people and cities and how they affect one another. He emphasized that people do not merely needed shelter, but also food and work, the recreation and social life. This makes the house an inseparable part of the neighbourhood, the city and the surrounding open country and the region. ¾ The town planning primarily meant establishing organic relationship among ‘Folk, place and work’, which corresponds to triad (Geddesian triad) of organism, function and environment. FOLK i.e. organism (Social aspect)

WORK i.e. function (Economical aspect)

PLACE i.e. environment (Physical aspect)

¾ “Cities in Evolution’ – published in 1915 – essence of the book – city beautiful movement and too many small schemes here and there like garden cities were only poor examples of town planning. ¾ In this book he coined the term “Conurbation” to describe the waves of population inflow to large cities, followed by overcrowding and slum formation, and then the wave of backflow – the whole process resulting in amorphous sprawl, waste, and unnecessary obsolescence. ¾ True rural development, true urban planning, true city design have little in common and repeating the same over all the three was disastrous and economically wasteful ¾ Each valid scheme should and must embody the full utilization of its local and regional conditions ¾ Geddes was the originator of the idea and technique of Regional survey and city survey ¾ The sequence of planning is to be: 1. Regional survey 2. Rural development 3. Town planning 4. City design These are to be kept constantly up to-date ¾ In 1911 he created a milestone exhibition, Cities and Town Planning, which was studied appreciatively not only throughout Britain but also abroad. From 1920-23 he was Professor of Civics and Sociology at the University of Bombay, and in 1924 he settled at Montpellier, in France. ¾ He died there in 1932, having been knighted that year.



Chapter 2

The Outlook Tower

Interpreter’s House - Index Museum - Sociological Laboratory ¾ Patrick Geddes took over the building formerly known as ‘Short’s Observatory’ in 1892. ¾ From the Prospect Roof of the Outlook Tower are spectacular views across the Firth of Forth and the surrounding city region. ¾ Positioned at the top of the Edinburgh’s High Street, it still holds the camera obscura, which refracts an image onto a white table within, for study and survey. A mirror at the top of the dome picks up images and reflects then through a lens which in turn focuses the picture onto a white surface as on a film in a camera. ¾ The tower was conceived as a tool for regional analysis, index-museum and the ‘world’s first sociological laboratory’. It represents the essence of Geddes’s thought - his holism, visual thinking, and commitment to understanding the city in the region. ¾ He said of it: ‘Our greatest need today is to conceive life as a whole, to see its many sides in their proper relations, but we must have a practical as well as a philosophic interest in such an integrated view of life. ¾ Hence the first contribution of this Tower towards understanding life is purely visual, for from here everyone can make a start towards seeing completely that portion of the world he can survey. He can also grasp what a natural region actually is and how a great city is linked to such a region.’ ¾ Now the tower is home to the Patrick Geddes Centre For Planning Studies, where an archive and exhibition are housed. PATRICK GEDDES IN INDIA ¾ He came to India in 1915 at the invitation of Lord Pent land, the then Governor of Madras. He gave his expert advice for the improvement of about eighteen major towns in India. ¾ He laid emphasis on “Survey before plan” i.e. diagnosis before treatment to make a correct diagnosis of various ills from which the town suffers and then prescribe the correct remedies for its cure. These are the physical and social economic surveys. ¾ He was the first man who introduced the sociological concept in the town planning. Before coming to India, he had successfully overcome the horrors of Edinborough slums.



Chapter 2

LEWIS MUMFORD Although French geographer Jean Gottman (1961) is credited for introducing the term, it was Mumford (1938) who first elaborated the concept. His description was based on a revised version of an idea his mentor Geddes had advanced in his Cities in Evolution (1915). Geddes had put forward an outline of the six stages of city development, from polis to necropolis. In Culture of Cities Mumford modified this scheme by including an earlier stage represented by eopolis, the village community, and combining two of later stages of Geddes, parasitopolis and patholopolis into tyrannopolis. So in this new scheme, city development originated with the rise of the village (eopolis), it evolved into the polis as an association of villages and kinships, and resulted in metropolis, an association of polis. The later three stages of city development, megalopolis, tyrannopolis and necropolis represented the decline of the city. In Culture of Cities Mumford regarded megalopolis as the beginning of decline: at this stage of its ‘development’ “the city under the influence of a capitalistic mythos concentrates upon bigness and power. For Mumford the aimless expansion of the metropolis into megalopolis was an expression of a drive for capital accumulation: everything must become rational, big, methodical, quantitative and ruthless. Megalopolis facilitated the repression and exploitation of working classes by regimenting them and by making life increasingly insecure and volatile. This gives rise to a new class conflict. As the conflict intensifies in megalopolis, an alliance of land-owning aristocracy, speculators, financiers, enterprises, industrialists increase their interest in controlling the urban space. Mumford observed the transformation of the metropolis into the “shapeless giantism” of the megalopolis in Culture of Cities. By 1961, however, for Mumford, understanding megalopolis required understanding the origins of the mass suburb. In City in History the revised chapter on megalopolis is now preceded by a new chapter on suburbia. Although the most recent interpreters assumed that the suburb is a new phenomenon, Mumford argued that it is as old as the city itself. For example, the city of Ur had a ring of houses surrounding it. The Greek and Roman cities as well as medieval cities always had small huts, gardens, villas surrounding them. It would be an error to regard suburbanism as a mere reaction to the crowded and polluted industrial city. The 18th century city witnessed the rise of the aristocratic suburb while the 19th century witnessed the rise of the bourgeois suburb. In both aristocratic and bourgeois suburbs, to have enough wealth to escape the city became a mark of success. The country life became a romantic ideal where the free soul met nature. For them the city became merely a place where their capital was concentrated and accumulated. The new utopia of suburb proposed in effect to create an asylum in which the upper classes could overcome the chronic defects of civilization while still commanding at will the privileges and benefits of urban society. The retreat from the city had hygienic and health advantages but it also represented a retreat from the oppressive rules, manners and regulations of an urban society. Yet for Mumford, the ultimate outcome of the suburb’s alienation from the city happened in the twentieth century with mass production of housing. Mumford said: “In the mass movement into suburban areas a new kind of community was produced, which caricatured both the historic city and the archetypal suburban refuge: a multitude of uniform, unidentifiable houses, lined up inflexibly, at uniform distances, on uniform roads, in a treeless communal waste, inhabited Notes on Human settlements Planning


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by people of the same class, the same income, the same age group, witnessing the same television performances, eating the same tasteless pre-fabricated foods, from the same freezers, conforming in every outward and inward respect to a common mold, manufactured in the central metropolis. Thus the ultimate effect of the suburban escape in our time, ironically, a low-grade uniform environment from which escape is impossible.” Mumford argued that unfortunately this empty ideal that attracted the masses did not meet a credible counterpart or alternative. Instead, the high density, concrete slabs, “filing cabinets for humans” as Mumford called them, captured the imagination (if as such can be said to exist) of planners and policy makers. Mumford called attention to The British planner Raymond Unwin whose dictum “Nothing Gained by Overcrowding” illustrated that early in the century the traditional industrial city designs were seemingly utilitarian but in effect very costly. Nevertheless, Mumford argued, the planners and policy makers also failed to see what was attractive in the suburbs and what they seemingly provided. The suburb was a neighbourhood unit. The suburb helped to recreate a new consciousness of something that had been lost in the rapid growth of the city: the sense of neighbourhood. The early neighbourhood fostered new associations and the rise of civic responsibility in the absence of formal municipal governments. As such, the early ideas of the suburb approximated the conditions required for citizenship in the Greek polis: leisure, detachment from base occupations, concern for public goods. With the rise of the motor car and the vehicular traffic dominating the suburb returned to its original weaknesses: snobbery, segregation, status seeking and political irresponsibility. The suburbs are “...no longer held together either by the urban magnet or the urban container: they are rather emblems of the ‘disappearing city.’ Just as our expanding technological universe pushes our daily existence ever farther form its human centre, so the expanding urban universe carries its separate fragments ever farther form the city, leaving the individual more dissociated, lonely, and helpless than he probably ever was before. Compulsory mobility provides fewer, not more opportunities for association than compulsory stability in the walled town” Residential densities of about one hundred people per net acre would provide usable private gardens and encourage small public inner parks for meeting and relaxing. “If we are concerned with human values, we can no longer afford either sprawling Suburbia or the congested Metropolis…” Mumford argued against those who justify the megalopolis as the final or the inevitable form or urban growth by arguing that they overlook historic outcomes of such concentration of power. Mumford argues that the myth of megalopolis gives legitimacy to modern accretion of power. The persistence of overgrown containers such as Berlin, Warsaw, New York, Tokyo are concrete manifestations of the dominant forces in our civilization. The fact that the same signs of overgrowth and overconcentration persist in both communist and capitalist societies shows that these forces are deeper than prevailing ideologies. Mumford criticized academics for their vacuous predictions of urban growth concentrating on statistics, accusing them for ‘slavery of large numbers.’ Ultimately “Whether they extrapolate 1960 or anticipate 2060 their goal is actually ‘1984’” Mumford traced the rise of the giant metropolis directly to the rise of new classes in the industrial city with their insatiable appetite for expansion. In the industrial city of the nineteenth century the creed of the bourgeoisie was laissez-faire and free enterprise but with the growth of an immense productive economy and a consumption economy, the bourgeoisie abandoned its belief in the free market and appropriated state institutions for protection and subsidies. The rise of the metropolis Notes on Human settlements Planning


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was a symptom of this tendency toward monopoly and concentration of great numbers. By the twentieth century, the metropolis “…brought into one vast complex the industrial town, the commercial town, and the royal and aristocratic town, each stimulating and extending its influence over the other”. The metropolis was an embodiment and expression of a new stage in capitalism in which industrial capital and class was among other equally powerful classes and forms of capital. Mumford argues that massive accretion of power and concentration of numbers necessitated the rise of bureaucratic administration and management. The metropolis became a form dominated by a new trinity: finance, insurance, advertising. “By means of these agents, the metropolis extended its rule over subordinate regions, both within its own political territory and in outlying domains” The metropolis became an arena for accumulation of different forms of capital: the banks, brokerage offices, stock exchanges essentially serve a collecting point for the savings in the entire country, centralizing and monopolizing the use of money. Similarly, the values of the real estate in the metropolis were secured by the continued growth of the metropolis, thereby benefiting financial institutions. In order to protect their investment and continued profitability, banks, insurance companies, mortgage brokers encouraged further concentration and the rise of land values in the metropolis. The monopoly of cultural capital was also a mark of the metropolis. The effective monopoly of news media, advertising, periodical literature, and the new channels of mass communication, television and radio gave authenticity and value to the style of life that emanates from the metropolis. “The final goal of this process would be a unified, homogeneous, completely standardized population, cut to the metropolitan pattern and conditioned to consume only those goods that are offered by the controllers and conditioners, in the interests of continuously expanding economy.” This constituted a control without kingship. The metropolis became a consumption machine. The princely ritual of conspicuous consumption became a mass phenomenon. To call the overgrown metropolis, aimlessly expanding, megalopolis is to give legitimacy to a sprawling giant. “These vast urban masses are comparable to a routed and disorganised army, which has lost its leaders, scattered its battalions and companies, torn off its insignia, and is fleeing in every direction.” With his historical insight Mumford could not bring himself to believe that megalopolis was a new form of city. Megalopolis was for him the death of the city, a stage leading to necropolis. “As one moves away from the centre, the urban growth becomes more aimless and discontinuous, more diffuse and unfocussed, except where some surviving town has left the original imprint of a more orderly life.” In megalopolis “The original container has completely disappeared: the sharp division between city and country no longer exists.” Although all living organisms are purposeful, goal-seeking, and self-limiting, the modern economy seeks limitless expansion, and the metropolis is an expression of its aimlessness. The metropolis produces motor cars and refrigerators galore but has no motive to produce magnificence: great works of art, handsome gardens or untrammelled leisure. “But if the costs of metropolitan congestion are appalling the costs of de-congestion are equally formidable. In the United States, with the eager connivance of municipal authorities, an ever-larger part of the population is spreading over the countryside, seeking, as we have seen, the conditions Notes on Human settlements Planning


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for homelife, the space, the freedom of movement, that have become impossible within the central core, hoping too, but vainly, that the lower land values and taxes of the outlying areas will remain permanent even after the necessary civic improvements have been made. And all over the world the same sort of urban dispersal is now taking place, at an accelerating rate.” The emergence of new forms of association, clubs and societies. “But the fastest rate of growth has been in the outlying areas; and, to enlarge the whole scope of the urban problem, provincial towns and regional centres, which would often boast better housing, more ample park space, and more accessible recreation areas than the big city have themselves become the focus for still further metropolitan growth. These towns begin to display the same environmental deficiencies, the same unbalanced budget, the same expenditure on glib mechanical planning remedies instead of on positive human improvements, that their larger historic rivals boast. Thus the new megalopolitan form is fast becoming a universal one.” In 1938 Mumford had argued that the trend toward megalopolis had to be stopped. It would be nothing less than a revaluation of values of modern culture: mastery of nature, the myth of the machine and ceaseless expansion of capitalism. A regional framework of civilization that would correspond to this revaluation would be necessary, nurturing the vitality, density, vigour and diversity of the city while maintaining access to the countryside in symbiotic relationship with it. By creating the regional city the historic balance between the city and the countryside would be restored. “It is hopeless to think that this problem is one that can be solved by local authorities, even by one as colossal and competent as the London County Council. Nor is it a problem that can be successfully attacked by a mere extension of the scope of political action, through creating metropolitan governments.” Rather, “The internal problems of the metropolis and its subsidiary areas are reflections of a whole civilization geared to expansion by strictly rational and scientific means for purposes that have become progressively more empty and trivial, more infantile and primitive, more barbarous and massively irrational….This is a matter that must be attacked at the source…” By 1961, the prospects didn’t look good: “Our present civilization is a gigantic motor car moving along a one-way road at an ever-accelerating speed. Unfortunately as now constructed the car lacks both steering wheel and brakes, and the only form of control the driver exercises consists in making the car go faster, though in his fascination with the machine itself and his commitment to achieving the highest speed possible, he has quite forgotten the purpose of the journey. This state of helpless submission to the economic and technological mechanisms modern man has created is curiously disguised as progress, freedom, and the mastery of man over nature.”



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CLARENCE A. PERRY One of the earliest authorities to attempt a definition of the neighborhood in fairly specific terms was Clarence A. Perry. He said “ The underlying principle of the scheme is that an urban neighbourhood should regarded both as a unit of larger whole and as a distinct entity in itself. There are certain other facilities, functions or aspects that are strictly local and peculiar to a well arranged-Residential community. They may be classified under four heads: (1) The elementary school (2) small parks and playgrounds (3) local shops and (4) residential environment other neighbourhood institutions and services are sometimes found, but there are practically universal. He laid down the fundamental elements on which he intended the neighbourhood unit should be based size, boundaries open spaces, institutional sites, local shops and internal road system. Its six basic principles were: The size should be related to the catchment area of an elementary school. The residential area should be bounded on all sides by arterial streets; there should be no through traffic. There should be ample provision of small parks and play areas. There should be a central point to the neighbourhood containing the school and other services. District shops should be located on the periphery, thus serving approximately four neighbourhoods. There should be a hierarchy of streets facilitating access but discouraging through traffic.



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DOXIADIS, CONSTANTINOS A Constantinos A. Doxiadis, the son of Apostolos and Evanthia (Mezeviri) Doxiadis, was born in 1913. His father, a pediatrician, was Minister of Refugees, Social Welfare and Public Health and organized many welfare services, especially for children. He graduated as Architect-Engineer from the Athens Technical University in 1935 and obtained his doctorate at Charlottenburg University, Berlin, one year later. In 1937 he was appointed Chief Town Planning Officer for the Greater Athens Area and during the war (1940-1945) held the post of Head of the Department of Regional and Town Planning in the Ministry of Public Works while also serving as a corporal in the Greek Army. During the Occupation he was Chief of the National Resistance Group, Hephaestus, and published a magazine called "Regional Planning, Town Planning and Ekistics," the only underground technical publication anywhere in occupied. At the time of Greece's liberation in 1945 he left the army with the rank of captain, and went to the San Francisco Peace Conference as a member of the Greek delegation. In 1945 he also served as Greece's representative to England, France and the United States on the problems of postwar reconstruction. From 1945 to 1951 Doxiadis was one of the prime leaders in restoring Greece to a normal peacetime existence, first as Undersecretary and Director-General of the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction (1945-48), and subsequently as Minister-Coordinator of the Greek Recovery Program and Undersecretary of the Ministry of Coordination (1948-51). During these years he was also head of the Greek Delegation at the UN International Conference on Housing, Planning and Reconstruction (1947) and head of the Greek Delegation at the Greco-Italian War Reparations Conference (1949-50). In 1951 he founded Doxiadis Associates, a private firm of consulting engineers, with a small group of architects and planners, many of whom had worked with him on the Greek Recovery Program. The company grew rapidly until it had offices on five continents and projects in 40 countries, acquiring its present legal form as DA International Co., Ltd., Consultants on Development and Ekistics, in 1963. In 1959 Doxiadis founded the Athens Technological Organization and in 1963 the Athens Center of Ekistics. From 1958 to 1971 he taught ekistics at the Athens Technological Organization and lectured at universities all over the United States as well as at Oxford and Dublin. In 1963 and 1964 he served as representative of Greece on the Housing, Building and Planning Committee of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York and was chairman of the Session on Urban Problems at the UN Conference on the Application of Science and Technology for the benefit of the less developed areas held in Geneva in 1963. During his lifetime Doxiadis received several awards and decorations, both civil and military and this year one posthumous award, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Gold Medal for 1976. His awards and decorations are as follows: Greek Military Cross, for his services during the war 1940-41 (1941); Order of the British Empire, for his activities in the National Resistance and for his collaboration with the Allied Forces, Middle East (1945); Order of the Cedar of Lebanon, for his contribution to the development of Lebanon (1958); Royal Order of the Phoenix for his contribution to the development of Greece (1960); Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize of the International Union of Architects (1963); Cali de Oro (Mexican Gold Medal) Award of the Society of Mexican Architects (1963); Award of Excellence, Industrial Designers Society of America (1965); Aspen Award for the Humanities (1966); and Yugoslav Flag Order with Golden Wreath (1966).



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In the last years of his life Constantinos A. Doxiadis was ravaged by a particularly debilitating, terminal disease (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as 'Lou Gehrig's disease) which led to gradual complete paralysis, over three years. This, he fought with great courage and dignity, writing to his last day, and making detailed notes of the progress of his disease, so as to help future researchers. He died peacefully, at home,with his family, at 11am, June 28, 1975. LE CORBUSIER ¾ In the early twenties, Le Corbusier realized that many cities around the world were on the brink of an urban implosion due to poor design, inadequate housing and inefficient transportation. He studied these problems and advised bold new solutions. ¾ His theories helped shape the planning of many cities of the world, and the influence they exerted on a new generation of architects and planners is legendary. o He conceived plans for Algiers, Nemours, the university city of Brazil, Buenos Aires (Argentina), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Barcelona (Spain), Geneva( Switzerland), Stockholm (Sweden) and Antwerp (Belgium) ¾ His plans for cities were the result of a detailed analysis of three major urban factors – roads, housing and open spaces. ¾ He felt that roads should be arranged on the ‘grid – iron’ pattern with minimum crossings. Consequently, segregation of different forms of traffic was inevitable. ¾ He recommended skyscrapers for commercial and residential purposes, surrounded by large open spaces or parks. ¾ He claimed that on an average nearly 90 percent of the ground area of his modern city would consist of open spaces encompassing residential areas. He called his city ‘One Great Park’ with a lot of greenery around the buildings. LA VILLE CONTEMPORAINE (CONCENTRIC CITY) ‘The city of Tomorrow’ for 30,00,000 people was proposed by Le Corbusier in 1922, which was based on four principles : 1. 2. 3. 4.

Decongestion of the centers of cities Augmentation of the density Enlargement of the means of circulation Increase in the number of parks and open spaces

The ville contemporaine consisted of three zones: the central city, a protected green belt and the periphery containing factories and the satellilte towns where their workers lived. The central city featured a rectangle containing two cross axial super-highways. At its heart was a siz-level transport interchange, a meeting place of underground and main-line railways, road networks and at the top, a landing platform for ‘aero-taxis’. Around that point were 24 crucifrorm skyscrapers made from steel and glass, serving the city’s cicic and commercial needs. These buildilng cover less than 15 percent of the central area’s ground space, would be raised on stilts (pilotis) so as to leave panoramas of unbroken greenery at ground level. The general impression was less that of parkland in the city than of a city in a park. The ville contemporaine generated considerable interest as a holistic conception of the future city, but equally attracted critical comment. Fierce criticisms were directed at the class based conception of life that it embodied, since Le corbusier envisaged different classes being separately housed. Doubts were expressed about the ville contemporaine’s scale and degree of centralization. Notes on Human settlements Planning


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The city espoused space, speed, mass production and efficient organization, but also offered a potentially sterile combination of natural and urban environments. ¾ Gross FAR = 60x 5% = 3 ¾ Net FAR excluding roads = 4 ¾ Average floor space = 100 sq. ft/person ¾ This scheme was a city of magnificent skyscraper towers surrounded by broad and sweeping open space. ¾ The city was a huge park. Sixty-story office buildings accommodating 1,200 people per acre and covering only 5% of the ground area were grouped in the heart of the city ¾ The hub of the plan is the transportation centre for motor, and rail lines, the roof of which is the air – field. Main highways are elevated. ¾ Surrounding the skyscrapers was the apartment district, eight-story buildings arranged in zigzag rows with broad open spaces about them, the density of population being 120 persons per acre. ¾ Lying about the outskirts were the garden cities of single-family houses. ¾ The residential zone contains schools, shopping centers, and recreational facilities. The background of ville contemporaine : philosophy of Le Corbusier ¾ No matter how open and green, cities should be frankly urban, urban surroundings are to be definitely contrasting with rural surroundings ¾ Densities are in themselves not a problem. Congestion and slum conditions in the cities are due to excessive coverage, persistence of old street patterns and unrestricted land speculation ¾ Slums exist because of the failure to provide the proper surrounding for high density living still providing for classified street system, parking areas, adequate open spaces for parks, sport fields, and community services ¾ He protests against strict functionalism : ‘Human creations that survive are those which produce emotions, and not those which are only useful” Ville contemporaine is primarily a revolt against the irrational growth of contemporary cities. It is a plan for concentric city in which orderly, controlled elements replace the traditional pattern of the old metropolis PLAN VOISIN 1925 It reworked certain elements of the Ville Contemporaine. Le corbusier proposed the construction of 18 double cruciform 60 – storey skyscrapers, surrounded by green open spaces. These buildings were intended to attract international corporations so that a modern Paris could act as a world center for administration. There would be three clusters of luxury apartments, intended to keep the cultural elite in the city. Particular attention centred on the road network. Le corbusier wanted to destroy the street in order to save it. He was fully aware of the significance of the street in the drama of urban life, but believed that the traditional rue corridor (corridor street) with its rigid line of buildings and intermingling of traffic and pedestrians, was an impossible setting for that drama. The new street system would have each functionally distinct traffic type occupying its own dedicated channel placed at different levels. Heavy traffic would proceed at basement level, lighter at ground level, and fast traffic should flow along limited-access arterial roads that supplied rapid and unobstructed cross-city movement. There would also be pedestrianised streets, wholly separate from vehicular traffic and placed at a raised level. The number of existing streets would be



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diminished by two-thirds due to the new arrangements of housing, leisure facilities and workplaces, with same-level crossing points eliminated wherever possible. Critics attacked its focus on the central city, where land values were highest and dislocations most difficult; the creation of vast empty spaces in place of close-knit streets with their varied civic life and the proposed obliteration of much of the city’s architectural heritage. Although intended seriously, the plan had immediate shock value, particularly for its determined approach to reshaping the central districts – the areas most resist to change. LA VILLE RADIEUSE 1930 – THE RADIANT CITY The plan for the Radiant city was first displayed at Brussels meeting of CIAM in 1930 although it was not available in published form until 1935. it retained, but rearranged, the key features of the Ville Contemporaine. The basic ideas of free circulation and greenery were still present, but the juxtaposition of different land-uses had changed. For example, the central area was now residential instead of a skyscraper office core. The plan : Was no longer a mandala of centralized power. Instead it spliced together an extendible linear city with the abstract image of a man: head, spine, arms and body. The skyscrapers of the Ville Contemporaine were rearranged away from the city center at the ‘head’…[The] ‘body’ was made up of acres of housing strips laid out in a stepping plan to generate semi-courts and harbours of greenery containing tennis courts, playing fields and paths. These all faced south…[and] were raised on pilotis so that the entire surface of the city was a co-extensive, fully public space.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Ville Radieuse was its conscious reworking of the design of housing. The idea of segregation of housing by social class was abandoned, replacing the different types of housing by high-rise dwelling units for 2700 people. These would have services that included communal kitchens, crèches, shops and gymnasia supplied. Family size was now the guiding rule for housing allocationh, without regard to the worker’s place in the industrial hierarchy. These housing units were envisaged as an essential ingredient in constructing a ‘classless society’ In addition, there was conscious effort to sketch the lifestyle of inhabitants of the future city. Unlike soviet architects, Le corbusier believed in the power of architecture to bring social change without necessarily requiring the transformation in the economic base of society. ¾ The previous concentric plan is considerably revised to allow a normal organic growth for the city ¾ Now Le Corbusier comes to the belief that ‘the essence of the city is the dwelling area’ ¾ Residential area occupies the most central location, with possible expansions to the right and left toward the open country. The civic center is on the main axis. The business area on the top ¾ Light manufacturing, freight yards and heavy industries at the bottom ¾ Traffic pattern – an orthogonal system with super imposed diagonals ¾ Subway system shows an equal simplicity ¾ The density is here 400 people per acre ¾ Each residential block is 1300 ft. x 1300 ft. or about ¾ 40 acres 16000 people = one neighbourhood. Each block has stadium, swimming pool, tennis courts, schools and playgrounds



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C.I.A.M. (CONGRESS INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE MODERNE) 1928 –FRANCE ¾ The international congress of modern architects subjected the city to re-examination and posed four basic elements of the urban biology : Sun Space Vegetation Steel and concrete ¾ Le Corbusier assumed a leading role ¾ It affirmed that town planning is the organizations of functions of collective life – this applies to both rural and urban settlements ¾ four functions of any settlement dwelling work recreation transportation, which connects the first three with one another. ¾ Le Corbusier organized in CIAM assembly of constructors, for an Architectural renovation ¾ ASCORAL (Assembly of Constructors for an Architectural Renewal) OF CIAM systematically studied the problems of construction, architecture and city planning. It resulted in the publication of ‘The Three Human Establishments’. The examination of working conditions in a mechanistic society led to the recognition of the utility and necessity of three unit establishments indispensable for human activity : i. The Farming unit – the cooperative village : a unit for agricultural production ii. The linear industrial city iii. The radio concentric city - same as Radiant city (Ville Radieuse) for the exchange of goods and services. LINEAR INDUSTRIAL CITY – THE LINEAR TOWN ; UNIT FOR INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION ¾ Leaving the ‘evils of the sprawling town’, the new industrial communities are located along the main arteries of transportation – water, rail and highway connecting the existing cities. ¾ Factories are placed along the main arteries, separated from the residential section by the highway and a green strip ¾ The residential areas include the ‘horizontal garden town’ of single houses and vertical apartment buildings with civic center. Sports, entertainments, shopping and office facilities are distributed in this district and all community facilities are placed within ample open space. ¾ Industries are placed at intervals along the highway and railway. The existing cities so connected remain as administrative, commercial and cultural centers.



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CHANDIGARH INDRODUCTION The city of Chandigarh was the culmination of Le corbusier’s life. This city is like the man. It is not gentle. It is hard and assertive. It is not practical; it is riddled with mistakes made not in error but in arrogance. It is disliked by small minds, but not by big ones. It is unforgettable. The man who adored the Mediterranean has here found fulfillment, in the scorching heat of India. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, inspired the planners and builders of Chandigarh with the words. “This shall be the new city of free India, totally fresh and wholly responsive to the aspirations of the future generations of this great country, and that the city shall be free from all shackles and shall be unfettered by the traditions of the past – the city shall be so built and nurtured that it shall be a model for our glorious future growth of the country.” GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION It was bound by two seasonal choes, or rivulets, the patiali Rao and the Sukhna in the northwest and the south east respectively. It extends in the northeast right up to the foothills of the shivaliks. The region experiences extremes in the climate. The temperature could rise to 45 degrees in summer and drop to freezing point in winter. The direction of the prevalent winds is southeast to the northwest in summer and northwest to the southeast in winter. THE SITE After an extensive aerial survey, then the Capital Project Administrator, P.N. Thapar and Chief Engineer, P.L. Verma selected the site—a sub-mountainous area of the then Ambala district about 240 km north of New Delhi, the capital of the republic. The area was a flat, gently sloping plain of agricultural land dotted with groves of mango trees which marked the sites of 24 villages or hamlets—one of which was named Chandigarh on account of its temple dedicated to the goddess. The general ground level of the site ranges from 305 to 366 meters with a 1 per cent grade giving adequate drainage. To the northeast are the foothills of the Himalayas—the Shivalik Range— rising abruptly to about 1524 meters and a dramatic natural backdrop. One seasonal stream, the Patiali ki Rao, lies on the western side of the city and another, the Sukhna Choe, on the eastern side. A third, smaller seasonal stream flows through the very center of Chandigarh. The area along this streambed has been turned into a series of public gardens called the Leisure Valley. THE AMERICAN ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS Although the city is now forever linked with the name of Le Corbusier, he was not the Government of India’s “first choice”. In the late 1940’s very few Indian architects were professionally trained in town planning so it was necessary to look abroad for a man to carry out the Chandigarh scheme. The search led to the USA and Albert Mayer. Mayer wasn’t new to India. In December, 1949, when the Punjab government approached him for the Chandigarh project, he was already associated with a rural development project at Etawah (Uttar Pradesh), and preparation of master plans for Greater Bombay and Kanpur. Mayer was thrilled with the prospect of planning a brand-new city, and he accepted the assignment although it offered him a modest fee of $30,000 for the entire project. His brief was to prepare a master plan for a city of half a million people, showing the location of major roads and areas for residence, business, industry, recreation and allied uses. He was also to prepare detailed building plans for the Capitol Complex, City Centre, and important government facilities and architectural controls for other areas. Notes on Human settlements Planning


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On the advice of his friend Stein, Mayer inducted Matthew Nowicki. Nowicki was the head of the North Carolina State College School of Architecture. Soon, Mayer and Nowicki became the key American planners for Chandigarh. The master plan as conceived by Mayer and Nowicki assumed a fan-shaped outline spreading gently to fill the site between two seasonal riverbeds. At the head of the plan was the Capitol , the seat of the state government, and the City Centre was located in the heart of the city. Two linear parklands could also be noticed running continuously from the northeast head of the plain to its southwestern tip. A curving network of main roads surrounded the neighborhood units called Super blocks. The first phase of the city was to be developed on the northeastern side to accommodate 150,000 residents and the second phase on the southwestern side for another 350,000 people. The proposed Super blocks were to be graded income wise in three density categories: 10, 30 and 40 persons per hectare. Mayer wanted a more democratic mix of housing types, and felt that the old practice of providing palatial bungalows for the elite needed rethinking as the services and open space provided to them would be at the expense of the have-nots living in the smaller houses. He also desired that most houses in the neighbourhood units should be located on the periphery, so that the central areas were left for playgrounds, parks and recreational areas. Mayer liked “the variation of [Indian] streets, offsetting and breaking from narrow into wider and back” and thought that they were appropriate to a land of strong sunlight, At the narrow points, his house design involved an inner courtyard for ventilation with small openings on the street side to protect privacy. “We loved this little inner courtyard,” Mayer wrote, “for it seemed to us to bring the advantages of coolness and dignity into a quite small house.” Another element in planning was “to place a group of houses around a not very large court, with the ends somewhat narrowing, which could serve as a social unit—i.e. a group of relatives or friends or people from the same locality might live there, with the central area for play, gossip, etc.” The neighbourhood units were to contain schools and local shopping centres. The multi-mode transportation system was a major problem. Mayer tackled it by creating a “threefold-system” that segregated land use in the master plan; there were neighbourhoods and areas for business, industry and cultural activities. He also planned separate roads for incompatible types of traffic. Separate provisions were to be made for slow animal-drawn carts, for bicycles and pedestrians. Also he proposed to have a configuration of fast-traffic arterial roads with at least 400 meters distance between the two. He also favoured use of cul-de-sacs so that pedestrians and cyclists could move on paths through parks and green areas. Land was also to be reserved for future expansion of roads, parking areas etc. Although Mayer’s contract did not stipulate detailed architectural schemes, he felt that they could not isolate two-dimensional planning of the city from its architectural character. And it was left mainly to Nowicki his talented younger partner to sketch out conceptual schemes for the image of the city. For the legislative assembly, he evolved a form that took the shape of a parabolic dome inspired by the Indian stupa, symbolic motif of the sacred mountain. Nowicki was keen to end all his modern architectural creations with the Indian idiom of built form. He even endorsed the idea of the traditional home-cum-workplace of a small entrepreneur or artisan. His sketches indicate typical Indian features such as shops with platforms to sit on the floor, and overhanging balconies or awnings, with separate areas for hawkers. This house-cumworkplace had typical traditional features like brickwork jalis and screens to shield the windows from the hot summer winds. Notes on Human settlements Planning


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His conceptual sketches indicate curving streets, courtyards, and a delightful sequence of open and closed spaces - with ample use of water and greenery to soften the built forms. Quite appropriately the building materials of his choice was the good old brick, as it was the cheapest medium - a conclusion that holds true even now On August 31, 1950, Nowicki died in a plane crash. Mayer felt that he could not handle the monumental project alone and withdrew, severing the American connection with Chandigarh. LE CORBUSIERS MASTER PLAN The city was still entirely on paper. To translate this dream into brick and cement, the government would have to find another architect. The choice fell on Le Corbusier, an architect and urban theorist, many of whose ideas were at variance with those of Mayer and Nowicki. The other important members of his team were Pierre Jeanerette, Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew Unlike Mayer, Le Corbusier had never set foot in India until the Chandigarh project first brought him to the country in 1951. In four days of feverish activity, they redesigned the city. The leaf-like outline of Mayer’s plan was squared up into a mesh of rectangles. Although Le Corbusier made many radical changes in the Americans’ master plan, incorporating his own architectural and city planning ideas, it is a tribute to Mayer and Nowicki’s vision that he incorporated several of their seminal ideas. For example, the basic framework of the master plan and its components - the Capitol , City Centre, university, industrial area, and a linear parkland - as conceived by Mayer and Nowicki were retained by Le Corbusier. The restructured master plan almost covered the same site and the neighbourhood unit was retained as the main module of the plan. The Super block was replaced by now what is called the Sector covering an area of 91 hectares, approximately that of the three-block neighbourhood unit planned by Mayer. The City Centre, the railway station and the industrial areas by and large retained their original locations. However, the Capitol , though still sited at the prime location of the northeastern tip of the plan, was shifted slightly to the northwest. The neighbourhood unit, so important to Mayer, retained its importance in Le Corbusier’s plan. But the opposing viewpoints lay in the configuration of the neighbourhood units. While the former preferred a naturalistic, curving street pattern without the rigidity of a sterile geometric grid—the latter was adverse to “solidification of the accidental”. For Le Corbusier the straight line was the logical connecting path between two points, and any “forced naturalness” was superfluous. Moreover, Le Corbusier always looked at the city plan in terms of a single cohesive monumental composition—with major axes linking the focal points of the city. The emphasis on visual cohesion between the various city components was an essential feature of his somewhat rigid gridiron plan. BASIC PLANNING COMPONENTS Le Corbusier’s plan was based on the gridiron defined by a system of seven types of roads, which Le Corbusier called the 7 Vs (from the French word ‘voie’) and their expected functions around and within the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood itself is surrounded by the fast-traffic road called V3 intersecting at the junctions of the neighbourhood unit called sector with a dimension of 800 meters by 1200 meters. The entrance of cars into the sectors of 800 meters by 1200m, which are exclusively reserved to family life, can take place on four points only; in the middle of the 1200 m. in the middle of the 800 meters. The transit traffic takes place out of the sectors: the sectors being surrounded by four wall-bound car roads without openings (the V3s). And this (a novelty in townplanning and decisive) was applied at Chandigarh: no house (or building) door opens on the thoroughfare of rapid traffic. Notes on Human settlements Planning


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THE BIOLOGICAL ANALOGY Le Corbusier liked to compare the city he planned to a biological entity: the head was the Capitol, the City Centre was the heart and work area of the institutional area and the university was limbs. Aside from the Leisure Valley traversing almost the entire city, parks extended lengthwise through each sector to enable every resident to lift their eyes to the changing panorama of hills and sky. Le Corbusier identified four basic functions of a city: living, working, circulation and care of the body and spirit. Each sector was provided with its own shopping and community facilities, schools and places of worship. “Circulation” was of great importance to Le Corbusier and determined the other three basic functions. By creating a hierarchy of roads, Le Corbusier sought to make every place in the city swiftly and easily accessible and at the same time ensure tranquility and safety of living spaces. THE PERIPHERY CONTROL ACT The Periphery Control Act of 1952 created a wide green belt around the entire union territory. It regulated all development within 16 kilometers of the city limit, prohibited the establishment of any other town or village and forbade commercial or industrial development. The idea was to guarantee that Chandigarh would always be surrounded by countryside. ADMINISTRATION & EDUCATION Le Corbusier wanted Chandigarh to be devoted exclusively to administration and education; he firmly believed that an industrial town did not mix with an administrative one. He supposed that the majority of the inhabitants would spend their working hours in the Capitol, Estate Office or various other buildings occupied by government departments , in the offices and shops of the City Centre or along Madhya Marg, or on the campuses of the colleges and university, or in other research institutions INDUSTRY Despite his bias against industry, Le Corbusier was persuaded to set aside 235 hectares for nonPolluting, light industry on the extreme southeastern side near the railway line as far away from the Educational Sector and Capitol as possible. Of this, 136 hectares were to be developed during the first phase. While the Industrial Sector is directly connected to the civic centre by a V-3 road, a wide buffer of fruit trees was planted to screen off this area from the rest of the city. Plot sizes were laid out to accommodate both large and small establishments and were sold at auction, subject to the restriction of industries considered obnoxious. Maximum site coverage up to 50 per cent was allowed and in this area, 2.5 per cent of the space is permitted for use as quarters for essential staff. Sneh Pandit explains the rationale for this: “It will indirectly force the industrialists to provide accommodation for labour and staff within the city which is more desirable than their living in an exclusive area. In Sector 30, which is sufficiently close to the Industrial Sector yet within the city, multistoried buildings have gone up to provide suitable tenements for the workers. Later controls enforce that structures be made mainly in brick, allowing only 25 per cent area to be plastered. Sloping sheds or sloping roofs are not permitted, so that the Industrial Sector conforms with the look of the rest of the town—although this in not adhered to in reality.” Aside from Sector 30, eventually sectors 28 and 29 were also set aside for industrial housing. COMMERCE The Jan Marg, culminating at the Capitol , is the main north-south axis of the city; Madhya Marg, culminating at the Educational Sector, is the main east-west axis. The City Centre was laid out immediately southeast of the intersection of these two axes. It is one complete sector of approximately 100 hectares and broadly divided into a northern and southern zone.



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The Southern zone has been developed as a centre of district administration, containing the district courts and police headquarters, the fire station and interstate bus terminus, while major commercial and civic functions are carried out in the northern section. Lack of elevators, and the fact that Chandigarh lies in a zone of moderate seismic activity and limitations of building materials and methods dictated the four-storey height limit for all buildings of the City Centre. The size of the buildings was determined by what the planners thought the owners could afford. The building form emerged from architectural control based on a standardised, reinforced cement concrete frame of columns, beams and slabs, with room for interior modification according to the needs of the owner. Madhya Marg While providing for a commercial heart—Sector 17, the City Centre—Le Corbusier also designated the northeastern side of the V-2 road known as Madhya Marg as a commercial district. “ Initially, Le Corbusier had proposed to house the wholesale establishments in buildings which would present to the street an unbroken brick façade. This was to be pierced only by a central doorway leading to an interior courtyard on which the offices and showrooms would face. These austere three-storey blocks are intended to line the street as a terrace formation, on the northeastern side, giving the effect of an unbroken wall. To the government officials charged with the responsibility of approving the plan, however, this appeared a scheme not only lacking in visual appeal as urban design, but also one, which would fail to attract commercial users. As a result, the Capital Project Office attempted a compromise design, in which the ground floor would have display windows facing the street behind a verandah. To achieve something of Le Corbusier’s completely blank façade, and still permit a measure of light and ventilation to a second level of windows on the front façade, a brick screen was extended in front of the second floor at the outer edge of the verandah and continued to the upper level masking an open terrace. The plan of this type of building provided for ground-floor showrooms, offices at the mezzanine level, with a residence for the caretaker or manager at the top floor. To the rear of the block would be a walled compound for storage and other purposes. It was intended that advertising signs would be permitted on the exterior of these buildings. Their size, form and colour were, however, to be controlled. However many deviations and changes have occurred in the present from the initial concept. Sector Markets Le Corbusier wanted to make each sector self-contained with respect to the necessities of daily life and accordingly each sector was provided with a mini-commercial district of its own. Each sector was to have its maintenance organisation, fire brigade, police, library, market, and the necessary artisans. These services were set up in a line of 800 meters on one side (facing north) to avoid dispersion and frequent road crossings as well as the sun’s heat. Cars can take this road at a reduced speed and park there. This shop-street continues into the neighbouring sectors on the right and left OPEN SPACES Some 800 hectares of green open space are spread over the approximately 114 square kilometers of the Capital Project area. Major open areas include the Leisure Valley, Sukhna Lake, Rock Garden and many other special gardens. In addition, the sectors are vertically integrated by green space oriented in the direction of the mountains. Le Corbusier envisaged the construction of schools and playing fields in these green bands.



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LANDSCAPING Landscaping proceeded side by side with the construction of the city from the very inception. Three spaces were identified for special plantation: the roadsides, spaces around important buildings, parks and special features such as Sukhna Lake. In July, 1953, a Landscape Advisory Committee was set up under the guidance of Dr M.S. Randhawa, later to be the City’s first Chief Commissioner and a man of versatile talents. Le Corbusier’s contribution to landscaping was of categorising tree forms. He made a simple analysis of the functional needs and aesthetic suitability for the various areas, devoting special attention to specific roads. ROADSIDE PLANTATION It was intended to have continuous, informally planted interior and exterior tree belts to give a sense of direction and culminate dramatically at the Capitol. For the V-2 Avenue of the Capitol, Le Corbusier wrote: ”The Avenue of the Capitol consists of heavy traffic with a parallel band of parking, a large pavement on each side and with shops and arcades and high-rise buildings. Also outside this and parallel will be the eroded valley (which touches from time to time). On the one hand, it seems useful to demarcate the highway by a border of high trees and on the other hand to unite with one glance the entire width of the avenue.” ”The V-4 will be the street, which will give its own character to each sector. Consequently each V-4 will be different from the others and furnished with special characteristics because it is indispensable to create a great variety across the city and to furnish to inhabitants elements of classification. All the possibilities of nature are at our disposal to give to each V-4 a personality which will maintain itself in the whole width of the town and thus tie up five or six sectors traversed by a V-4.” ”To specialise the character of each V-4 will be planted with trees having different colour, or of a different species. For example one V-4 will be yellow, one V-4 will be red, and one V4 will be blue.” At present, the prominent flowering trees are gulmohar (Delonix regia), amaltas (Cassia fistula), kachnar (Bauhinea variegata), pink cassia (Cassia Javanica) and silver oak (Grevillea robusta). Among the conspicuous non-flowering trees one finds kusum (Schleicheta trijuga) and pilkhan (Ficus infectoria) along V3 roadsides. These trees, noted for their vast, thick spreading canopies form great vaulting shelters over many of the city’s roads. In all, more than 100 different tree species have been planted in (Fieus religosa) Chandigarh . March and April are “autumn” in North India. Trees such as pikhan, pipal kusum and many more shed their old leaves creating a thick golden carpet that crunches underfoot. This is also the time when the tall silk-cotton (Bombax malabaricum) trees put forth their enormous red blossoms and the jacaranda appears like a wispy plume of purple smoke. The dry riverbeds of the Patiala ki Rao and Sukhna were the focus of the earliest tree plantations. Hardy species were planted down the entire length to mitigate the severe dust storms that ravaged the site in summer. The areas were declared Reserved City Forests. In 1952 the Tree Preservation Act was passed which prohibited cutting down, lopping or willful destruction of trees in Chandigarh. CITY GARDENS While evolving the iron grid layout of the city, Le Corbusier incorporated an integrated park system of continuous green belts from one end of the city to the other, allowing an unobstructed view of the Notes on Human settlements Planning


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mountains. Pedestrian paths and cycle-tracks were to be laid out through these irregularly shaped linear parks to allow a person to travel the entire length of the city under a canopy of green. The valley of a seasonal rivulet that ran through the city site for about 8 kilometers with a depth of about 6 meters and a width extending to a maximum of 300 meters was imaginatively made use of. A series of special gardens transformed the existing eroded area into what is now called the Leisure Valley. Aside from this large chain of gardens there are many other gardens: some devoted to particular flowers or flowering trees, others created as memorials and still others planned around topiary or fountains. HOUSING Lower category residential buildings are governed by a mechanism known as “frame control” to control their facades. This fixes the building line and height and the use of building materials. Certain standard sizes of doors and windows are specified and all the gates and boundary walls must conform to standard design. This particularly applies to houses built on small plots of 250 square metres or less. All these houses are built on a terrace pattern and while they are allowed a certain individual character, the idea is to ensure that the view from the street, which belongs to the community, is one of order and discipline. Individuals are given the freedom to create the interiors to suit their requirements for dwelling, working, relaxing. All buildings along the major axes of the city are brought under architectural control. A person building a house in Chandigarh must employ a qualified architect and the design is submitted to the Chief Architect for approval. Particular scrutiny was applied to residential buildings constructed along Uttar Marg (the northernmost avenue of the city at the very foot of the mountains), those abutting on Leisure Valley and along certain V-3 roads. COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS All buildings located in the City Centre and commercial or institutional buildings located along V-2 roads are subjected to controls. The system of the City Centre is based on a grid of columns, fixed 5.26 meters shuttering pattern on concrete and a system of glazing or screen walls behind the line of columns. The interior planning is left to the owners, and in the exterior, certain variations are permitted to give variety to the architectural composition. Along the V-2 roads, other types of treatments have been evolved for facades. All commercial buildings and all buildings constructed along the V-4 roads in other sectors are also under strict control. For shops, complete designs have been provided from the inception of the city. SCHEMATIC DESIGN CONTROL In cases where special types of buildings occur in the architectural control areas, a schematic design is prepared on the basis of which the developer prepares the final designs in consultation with the Chief Architect. This has been so far applied to the design of cinema theatres in the City Centre and to petrol stations. Aditya Prakash, one of the architects who worked with Le Corbusier, observes: “It has always been realised that Chandigarh must be well planned both in the private as well as in the public sector. From the very beginning, all the commercial buildings of Chandigarh are under architectural control, but private housing by and large had been left to its fate (of course, under the normal bye-laws and zoning) hoping that good taste engendered by the government buildings will prevail and good architects will settle in Chandigarh and fulfill the needs of private builders. [Now, many years later] Having introduced so many controls, the process is still continuing. The existing controls are being refined or new controls introduced. In all these controls, whereas restrictions are imposed on things which are generally unsightly, provision is always made to permit a good architect to use his skill to provide the otherwise prohibited things on the exterior so that they enhance the aesthetic appeal of Notes on Human settlements Planning


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the building or at any rate do not mar its beauty.” Functional distributions and placement of different activities within the city was based on human analogy so as to enable the city to function as an organic entity. The industrial area was placed on the southeast to eliminate entry of heavy traffic into the city. A 150 meters belt of trees thickly planted with trees provided an organic seal around residential sectors to eliminate noise and industrial pollution Along with the Periphery Control Act and the Tree Protection Act, the more obtrusive types of signboards and advertisements were banned. These three measures were intended to check environmental and visual pollution and thereby protect the city’s character and safeguard its quality of life. CIRCULATION The 7Vs establishes a hierarchy of traffic circulation ranging from: arterial roads (V1), major boulevards (V2) sector definers (V3), shopping streets (V4), neighbourhood streets (V5), access lanes (V6) and pedestrian paths and cycle tracks (V7s and V8s). The essence of his plan for Chandigarh rests on preserving intact the true functions of these seven types of roads. ‘The 7 Vs act in the town plan as the bloodstream, the lymph system and the respiratory system act in biology. These systems are quite rational, they are different from each other, there is no confusion between them, yet they are in harmony ... It is for us to learn from them when we are organising the ground that lies beneath our feet. The 7Vs are no longer the sinister instruments of death, but become an organised hierarchy of roads which can bring modern traffic circulation under control’.” The entrance of cars into the sectors, which are exclusively reserved to family life, can take place on four points only; in the middle of the 1,200 meters; in the middle of the 800 meters The road system was so designed that “never a door will open on the surrounding V3s: precisely the four surrounding V3s must be separated from the sector by a blind wall all along.” Buses can ply on the V4s, the horizontal connection between contiguous sectors, but not within the sector interiors.



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DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLANS STRUCTURE PLAN : A structure plan is one that singles out for attention of certain aspect of the environment usually the land-uses, the main movement systems and the location of critical facilities and buildings. Such a plan aims to influence certain key vocational decisions while recognizing that there are many other things that can’t and perhaps should not be decided at the outset. The term ‘structure’ here means the social, economic, and physical systems of an area, so far as they are subject to planning control or influence. The structure is, in effect, the planning framework for an area and includes such matters as the distribution of the population, the activities and the relationship between them, the patterns of land use and the development activities they give rise to, together with the network of communication and the systems of utility services. The structure plan will need to take account of regional and national policies. The structure plan for an area will be integrated with the structure plans for adjoining areas and it means that aims, policies and proposals in a structure plan must be coordinated with those for the adjoining areas. Function of structure plans: the seven function of structure plans are stated below 1. Interpreting national and regional policies 2. Establishing aims, policies and general proposals for the area for which the plan is prepared 3. Providing framework for local plans; the broad policies and proposals of the structure plan form a framework for the more detailed policies and proposals in local plans 4. Indicating action areas, which are priority areas for intensive action 5. Providing guidance for development control in those parts of the area not covered, or not yet covered, by a local plan; 6. providing basis for co-ordinating decisions between various committees of the planning authority and district councils who deal with various components of development, and other public bodies likely to be concerned with important aspects of the plan. 7. bringing main planning issues and decisions before minister and public The structure plan is decisions document i.e. only those policies or proposals are included in structure plan which will affect significantly the structure of the area, or will help to conserve an aspect of the structure. The structure plans will not only contain decisions but will also explain how these decisions were arrived at. A report of the survey supporting the plan and description of examination of alternative decision that may have been considered and the way in which a particular course of action may have been chosen will also form part of the written document accompanying the plan. Whereas the structure plan needs to contain general development control policies for items of structural importance, detailed development control standards should not be included in the structure plan. It is essential discipline in the preparation of the plan to ensure that what is proposed is realistic, and the plan should demonstrate, as far it can be foreseen. It should take into account public as well as private investment.



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The structure plan will not relate to a fixed end date, because it is not possible to look ahead over the same period of time for all aspects of the plan. However, the time perspective will be taken into account by setting priorities for short-term projects, setting-out phases of implementation, by keeping track of projected populations for specific census years, and including policies for longterm projects, which may be open-ended, long-term, and in broad outline only. Since policies in the structure plan are stated in broad terms, considerable flexibility is available to the authority to amend parts of structure plans at the time of working out details, to adjust to situations not foreseen at the time of preparation of the plan. DETAILED DEVELOPMENT PLAN (ZONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN) ¾ The DDP to be prepared by the Local Planning authority may pro0pose or provide for all or any of the following matters; ¾ Laying out or relaying of land either vacant or already built upon, as building sites; ¾ Construction, diversion, extension, alteration, improvement or closure of lanes, streets, roads and communication; ¾ Construction, alteration, removal or demolition of buildings, bridges and other structures; ¾ Land acquisition by purchase, exchange or otherwise of any land, or other immovable property within the area included in the DDP whether required immediately or not; ¾ Redistribution of boundaries and the reconstitution of existing plots ¾ Disposal by sale, exchange, lease or otherwise of land acquired or owned by LPA ¾ Transport facilities, water supply, lighting ¾ Drainage inclusive of sewage and of surface draining and sewage disposal ¾ Allotment or reservation of land for public purposes ¾ Defining, demarcating of the reconstituted plots ¾ Construction of buildings, housing or resettlement of persons displaced by DDP’s ¾ Demarcation of places or objects and building of archaeological, religious, historical or environmentally sensitive areas ¾ Imposition of conditions and restrictions on buildings/structures with regard to character, density, architectural features, height, building control lines for provision and maintenance of sufficient open spaces about buildings and ¾ Advance to land or building owners within DDPs upon such terms and conditions as may be provided by the said plan, whole or part of the amount required for the erection of buildings or for carrying out the works, alterations or improvements in accordance with DDP. Without prejudice to the generality of the fore going provisions, every DDP shall contain the following particulars ¾ Plan showing lines of existing and proposed street network ¾ Ownership of land and buildings in the area covered by the plan ¾ Area of all lands, whether public or private ¾ Description & details of the plan ¾ Description of all lands either acquired or to be acquired for purposes mentioned above ¾ Particulars regarding number and nature of houses to be provided by LPA, where DDps provide for any housing or resettlement, extent of land to be acquired, and all supplemental, incidental or consequential to such housing / rehousing ¾ Zoning & enforcement regulations for carrying out the provisions for the DDP



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COMPREHENSIVE PLAN : “Comprehensive” means that the plan encompasses all geographical parts of the community and all functional elements which bear on physical development. Although there is some variation in the content of comprehensive plans, three technical elements are commonly included: the private uses of land, community facilities, and circulation. Comprehensive plans may cover other subjects, such as utilities, civic design and special uses of land unique to the locality. Usually there is background information on the population, economy, existing landuse, assumptions and community goals. The comprehensive pan seeks to combine in one document the prescriptions for all aspects of city development. It includes an analysis of the city’s economy, its demographic characteristics, and the history of its spatial development as a preface to plan for how the city should evolve over 20 year period There are six basic requirements, which the plan document should fulfill. 1. the plan should be comprehensive 2. the plan should be long-range 3. the plan should be general 4. the plan should focus on physical development 5. the plan should relate physical design proposals to community goals and social and economic policies 6. the plan should be first a policy instrument, and only second a technical instrument. SUBJECT PLANS There will be cases, where there will be an urgent need to develop a particular structure policy in advance of a comprehensive district plan, or where other issues in particular are insufficient to justify a comprehensive treatment. Circumstances such as these call for the preparation of Subject plans whose range of functions is the same as for other local plans. Plans of this kind may be concerned with issues that cover parts of a wide area, such as the reclamation of a number of sites left derelict by mineral workings, or the conservation of several areas of architectural interest; alternatively they may be concerned with some form of linear development, such as the visual or environmental treatment of a motorways corridor in the courtside or the recreational use or river valley or a strip of coast. The coverage of such plans may sometimes be similar to that of a district plan but their content may differ from it being confined to a single aspect of planning. E.g. special proposals for dealing with the working of a mineral that only occur in one part of a country. In certain circumstances, subject plans may be needed to give immediate effect to certain administrative procedures associated with the development plan. Plans of this type may be concerned with the definition of areas within which certain policies, power or grant aid may apply. Examples are green belt, for an area of outstanding natural beauty for an area designed for town development. Normally such proposals, together with their associated policy statements, should included as part of district or an action area plan. But where definition is required in advance of or apart from comprehensive local plans, subject plans can be prepared



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MASTER PLANS FOR URBAN AREAS For a successful town planning there must be a plan, which envisages the entire town as a single unit. This is necessary to achieve overall development of the town in co-coordinated manner. The development or expansion of a town takes a long time, and therefore, the development requires control at any time on the basis of a plan. Such a plan is called as “Master Plan” Necessity of the master plan The period of ‘Industrial revolution’(1760 – 1820) marks an important epoch in the history of the growth of all the cities. Between the two world wars and especially after the Second World War (1939 – 45), many towns and cities have been grown up haphazardly without proper planning. And the over-grown cities became a mess and a muddle with all the evils. The industries have been set up in the heart of the cities without any consideration of transport and other utility services. The migration of rural population has caused housing shortage and increased congestion. The rapid development of transport has been found to be inadequate for the growing needs of the automobiles. It has caused over-crowding and congestion on the roads resulting road accidents. Industries have encroached upon the residential areas causing shortage of open and recreational areas. In order to eradicate the evils of the ill-planned cities, there is a need of a comprehensive Master plan for the general welfare of the citizens in respect of health, convenience and comfort. Scope and Content of the master plan The master plan may propose or provide for all or any of the following matters, namely: ¾ The manner in which the land in the planning area shall be used ¾ The allotment or reservation of land for residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural purposes and for parks, playfields and open spaces ¾ The allotment or reservation of land for public buildings, institutions and for civic amenities ¾ The making of provision for the national highways, arterial roads, ring roads, major streets, lines of communication including railways, airports and canals ¾ The traffic and transportation pattern and traffic circulation pattern ¾ The major road and street improvements ¾ The areas reserved for future development, expansion and for new housing ¾ The provision for the improvement of areas or bad layout or obsolete development and slum areas and for relocation of population ¾ The amenities, services and utilities ¾ The provision for detailed development of specific areas for housing, shopping, industries and civic amenities and educational and cultural facilities ¾ The control of architectural features, elevation and frontage of buildings and structures ¾ The provision for regulating the zone, the location height, number of storeys and size of buildings and other structures, the size of the yards and other open spaces and the use of buildings, structures and land ¾ The stages by which the master plan shall be carried out Stages in the preparation of Master plan The re-planning of an existing town is more complex than planning or designing a new town on virgin land, such as capital towns like New Delhi, Chandigarh, industrial town like rourkela, port town, military cantonments etc. The work of ordinary town-planner is usually restricted to replanning of an existing town. After taking the Government sanction to prepare the scheme, next work is to collect the data and relevant information, with the help of a comprehensive civic survey. From the data collected in the civic survey, he is in a position to make a correct diagnosis of the various ills of the town and suggest remedies for their cure. Notes on Human settlements Planning


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For the collection of data for the planning scheme, the town is divided into old town and new town. In the former case, the work is tedious because the old town usually consists of narrow streets, congestion, insanitation, and un-healthy conditions etc. But in the later case, zoned areas, provision of all civic amenities etc. However care should be taken to keep the whole town, old or new alike in all aspect and finally blended skillfully so as to form in-separately interwoven structure. Duration of preparation of master plan ¾ The planning authority prepares the interim master plan, also called the outline development plan. The statutory time limit is two years. ¾ It shall then be notified for the public comments and suggestions (1 month). ¾ The draft plan may be revised in the light of the public and expert comments and shall be submitted for Govt’s sanction (4 months from date of publication of the draft plan to be further extended by the Govt. by three months, if required). ¾ The Govt. sanctions the revised plan and appoints an arbitrator (12 months). ¾ The arbitrator after holding proceedings in respect of each plot, publishes the award and submits the detailed proposals to the higher authority such as the president of the Tribunal of Arbitration (no fixed time limit but at least 12 months for small scheme and more for longer schemes). ¾ The tribunal shall make thorough scrutiny of arbitrator’s proposals and convey their decision ( usually 6 months). ¾ The arbitrator prepares the final scheme and submits to Govt. with plans through the local authority (usually 6 months). ¾ The local authority forwards the final scheme to the Govt. (usually 3 months). ¾ Govt. sanctions the final scheme after the photozinco Dept., has printed all the plans (normally 9 months) after which the final scheme of Action plan comes into force (usually 2 months after the Govt.’s sanction). ¾ The detailed master plan also called the comprehensive development plan is duly approved and sanctioned by the Govt. then made legally bindings on all the authorities concerned, by giving it a legal status. ¾ Lastly a financial programme is prepared to devise the ways and means for the implementation of the master plan according to the schedule.

APPROACH TO URBAN PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT Taking into account the problems of existing planning system of urban development in India, the UDPFI (Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation) guidelines were prepared by ITPI (Institute of Town Planners, India) at the behest of the Ministry of Urban development and poverty alleviation, Government of India and recommended urban development planning system consisting of a set of four inter-related plans i.e. (a) perspective plan (b) Development plan (c) Annual plan and (d) Plans of projects / schemes. PERSPECTIVE PLAN Perspective Plan is a document containing spatio-economic development policies, strategies and general programmes of the local authority, which presents to the state government and people, the intentions of the local authority regarding development of the urban center in the next 20-25 years. The scope of this plan covers social / economic and spatial developmental goals, policies and priorities relating to all those urban activities that have spatial implications. It would also cover longterm policies regarding development of infrastructure and resource mobilization that are necessary to promote urban activities. The spectial care is required to be taken to minimize the conflicts between the environmental protection and urban development. Notes on Human settlements Planning


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DEVELOPMENT PLAN Development plan prepared within the framework of the approved perspective plan is medium term (5 years) comprehensive plan of spatio-economic development of the urban center. The objective of a development plan is to provide further necessary details and intended actions in the form of strategies and physical proposals for development of the urban center, including employment generation, economic base, transportation and land use, housing and other infrastructure, and matters like environment, conservation and ecology. It also contains implementation strategies, agency-wise(including private sector) schemes / projects, development promotion rules, and resource mobilization plan with particular reference to finance, land and manpower and provides an efficient system of monitoring and review. Development plan is a statutory document, approved and adopted by the local authority for implementation, with the help of schemes and projects and would be co-terminus with five year plans of state governments / local bodies, which would provide opportunities to incorporate the needs and development aspirations of the people through the elected representatives. ANNUAL PLANS The purpose of preparation of Annual plan, is to identify the new schemes / projects, which the authority will undertake for implementation, during the year, taking into account the physical and fiscal performance of the preceding year, keeping in view the priorities, the policies and the proposals contained in the approved Development plan. These plans would also provide the resource requirements during the year and the sources of funding including those mobilized by the local authorities, i.e. grants, aids and projects / scheme funds, of the state and central governments. It is thus, an important document for resource mobilization. This will also enable the funding agencies to allocate the funds in phased manner. PLANS OF SCHEMES / PROJECTS Conceived within the framework of the Development plan, schemes / projects are the working layouts, providing all necessary details for execution including finance, development, administration and management. These schemes / projects could be for any area, old or new, of any activity or landuse like residential, commercial, industrial, recreational, educational or health related or infrastructure development, separately or in an integrated manner, by any agency such as government, semi-government, private or even individuals or for any agency.



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INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL & MEDIUM TOWNS To improve the economic and physical infrastructure and also to provide essential facilities and service and also to slow down the growth of large cities by developing small and medium towns through increased investments in these towns the Centrally sponsored scheme of Integrated Development of Small & Medium Towns (IDSMT) was initiated in the year 1979 – 80 and is continuing. With the development of small urban centers would also help in reducing migration to large cities and support the growth of surrounding rural areas as well. Objectives of IDSMT: ¾ Improving infrastructural facilities and helping in the creation of durable public assets in small and medium towns. ¾ Decentralising economic growth and employment opportunities and promoting dispersed Urbanisation . ¾ Increasing the availability of serviced sites for housing , commercial and industrial uses. ¾ Intergrating spatial and socio – economic planning as envisaged in the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992. ¾ Promoting resource – generating schemes for the urban local bodies to improve their overall financial position. The main features of the Revised Guidelines of 8th Five Year Plan are as under: ¾ Towns up to population of five lakhs will be included. ¾ The share of Central and State assistance has been increased and made available as grant. ¾ The State to prepare the urban strategy for the next 10 years and give justification for selecting priority towns to be included under IDSMT. ¾ In accordance with Constitution (74th) Amendment Act, 1992, IDSMT Scheme is applicable to those towns where elections to the local bodies are held and elected representatives are in position. ¾ The State Government to create State Urban Development fund at the State level and Municipal Revolving Fund at the Town level for continuous sustainable infrastructure development. ¾ A Sanctioning committee at the State level chaired by the Secretary Urban Development /Local Govt. (incharge of IDSMT Scheme) will approve the projects. ¾ Institutional finance is reduced to 20 – 40% through HUDCO / Other Institutional Financing Agencies. ¾ The component of assistance are enlarged and made more flexible. Central assistance in the from of grant – in – aid would be made available in the ratio of 60: 40 (central & State ) for the preparation of Project Reports/Urban Development ( Investment plan) of IDSMT towns ranging from Rs. 3 to Rs. 6 lakhs depending on the size of the town. Selection of Towns 1. IDSMT Scheme will be applicable to town / cities with population up to 5 lakhs subject to the stipulation that 1/3 of the total amount available each year, for the Scheme as a whole will be allocated to town with less than 50,000 population. While Selecting the towns preference will be given to headquarter of districts followed by Mandy towns and Industrial growth centers, tourist places and pilgrim centers etc. 2. The IDSMT Scheme will be applicable to only those towns where elections to the local bodies have been held and elected bodies are in position. Notes on Human settlements Planning


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Components for Funding The components for assistance under IDSMT will include works as per City/Town Development/Master Plans which may have city/townwide significance. ¾ Strengthening of Master Plan road facilities including ring, arterial, bypass/link roads and small bridges. ¾ Sites and services. ¾ Development of bus/truck terminals. ¾ Construction/upgradation of Master Plan drains including Storm water channels. ¾ Solid waste management. ¾ Development of Market complexes/shopping centers. ¾ Provision of tourist facilities. ¾ Development of City/Town Parks ¾ Street lighting for Master Plan roads. ¾ Slaughter houses. ¾ Major public amenities like Gardens, Playgrounds, Marriage halls, Pay-and-use toilets, etc. ¾ Cycle/Rickshaw stands, ¾ Traffic improvement and management schemes, ¾ Construction of retaining walls and slope stability measures in hill station towns. ¾ Social amenities, specially for the poorer sections. Funding Pattern Central assistance and State share provided under IDSMT scheme to the local bodies is in the form of grant. However, depending on the nature of projects only 25% of the assistance may be considered as outright grant, while the remaining 75% would be treated as corpus to be repayable to the revolving fund for self sustaining development. Under the revised guidelines funding will depend on the size of the town. The sharing pattern between the Central and State Governments and the Financial Institutions/Other sources is given (Rs. In lakhs) Category of Town Project Cost Central State Share HUDCO / Financial (Populations) Maximum Assistance (Grant) Instit. Loan / Other (Grant) Sources A (< 20000) 100 48 32 20 (20%) B(20,000-50,000) 200 90 60 50(25%) C(50,000-10,0000) 350 150 100 100 (29%) D (1-3 Lakhs) 550 210 140 200 (36%) E (3 – 5 Lakhs) 750 270 180 300 (40%) Appraisal and Processing The State Govt.UT’s have to prepare and send detailed project report in the prescribed format and send to TCPO for scrutiny and to prepare the appraisal reports for the consideration of the Sanctioning Committee at the State level. The recommendations of the Sanctioning committee along with consent letters from HUDCO/Financial Institutions regarding making the Institutional Finance component available will be submitted by the State Government to the Ministry of Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation through TCPO for consideration of release of Central assistance. Notes on Human settlements Planning


Chapter 4

Monitoring and Evaluation The monitoring and evaluation of projects under IDSMT scheme is carried out by TCPO. Quarterly progress reports should be submitted by the States/UTs/Nodal agencies to TCPO which in turn will keep the Ministry informed about the progress of the scheme. TCPO will prepare a Status Report on the IDSMT in consultation with MUD & PA every year. Progress and Achievements ¾ During Sixth Plan the central assistance amounting to Rs. 63.57 crores was released to 235 towns, while in the 7th Plan the scheme was continued with the provision of Rs. 88.00 crores for covering additional 145 towns and for giving central assistance to the ongoing schemes of the towns covered during 6th Five Year Plan, against which Rs. 80.02 crores were released and 145 additional towns were covered. ¾ During the year 1990-91 and 1991-92 the provision of Rs. 21.00 crores and Rs. 15.00 crores respectively was made, against which central assistance amounting to Rs. 19.10 crores and Rs. 13.44 crores was released and the additional towns numbering 77 & 60 were also covered respectively. Out of 282 towns covered during the 7th Plan period, 1990-91 and 1991-92, 178 towns have availed first instalment only. ¾ During 8th Five Year Plan total of 387 additional towns were covered and central assistance of Rs. 107.81 crores was released (includes releases made to ongoing towns) against total plan provision of Rs. 155.00 crores. ¾ During the Ninth Five Year Plan in the financial year 1997-98, a total central assistance of Rs. 26.02 crores has been released 141 onging towns (Rs. 24.22 crores) and 16 additional towns (Rs. 2.00 crores). Similarly during the financial year 1998-99 Central assistance of Rs. 35.35 crores has been released towards 110 ongoing towns (rs. 29.80 crores) and 25 new towns (Rs. 5.55 crores). During the financial year 1999-2000 a total Central assistance of Rs. 43.46 crores has been released towards 121 ongoing towns (Rs. 30.00 crores) and 60 additional towns (Rs. 13.46 crores). During year 2000-01 central assistance of Rs. 56.17 crores was released to 129 ongoing towns (Rs. 41.82 crores) and 53 new towns (Rs. 14.35 crores) up to march 2001. During the year 2001 - 2002 (upto 31.3.2002), central assistance of Rs. 76.71 crores was released to 182 ongoing towns and new towns. ¾ Thus, the total release of central assistance amount to Rs. 531.62 crores for 1172 towns till 31.03.2002. The Plan wise number of towns covered and Central assistance released is given in the following table. No. of Towns Covered and Central Assistance released (Planwise) (Rs. In Crores) S. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Plan Period (Rs. In crores) VI Plan VII Plan 1990-91 1991-92 8th Plan 9th Plan 1997 - 98 1998 - 99 1999 - 2000 2000 - 2001 2001 - 2002 (upto 31.03.2002)


No. of Towns 235 145 77 60 387

C A Released 63.57 80.12 19.10 13.44 107.80

16 25 60 53 114

26.02 35.35 43.46 56.17 76.71


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¾ State wise number of towns covered, central assistance released and expenditure reported till 31.03.2002 is given below TOWNS COVERED, CENTRAL ASSISTANCE RELEASED AND EXPENDITURE REPORTED UNDER IDSMT SCHEME SINCE 1979 - 80 TILL MARCH 31ST, 2002 (Rs. In Lakh) SL. NO.

STATE

TOTAL TOWNS

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Orissa Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura Uttaranchal Uttar Pradesh West Bengal Andaman & Nicobar Island Dadra & Nagar Haveli Daman & Diu Lakshadweep Pondicherry Grand Total

30 31 32 33

261 10 92 152 95 31 260 93 58 57 117 303 195 366 327 31 12 22 9 124 117 219 8 466 18 83 662 380 1

TOWNS COVERED 94 8 28 35 19 9 71 19 15 9 12 93 40 78 108 13 8 9 9 56 33 51 10 119 13 6 113 82 1

C.A. RELEASED 4995.64 143.00 1057.77 1057.38 817.67 204.00 3640.47 1025.50 526.42 597.82 343.76 4562.07 2028.56 3155.61 6556.00 425.60 287.90 455.40 334.99 1993.11 1489.36 2673.22 250.89 4207.03 485.21 342.00 4333.72 3550.54 92.00

EXPENDITURE 8185.12 167.52 1089.97 1089.62 738.94 118.72 5328.46 1252.36 796.94 693.57 439.58 4261.68 3530.75 3256.41 12652.99 631.52 471.87 765.66 530.16 2203.53 2570.53 4714.47 327.62 5561.88 484.27 113.32 5145.72 4998.62 124.00

1 2 4 11 4565

2 1 1 7 1172

112.22 23.00 25.00 240.75 52033.60

16.38 0.00 0.00 159.55 72421.73

Note : C.A. - CENTRAL ASSISTANCE



Chapter 4

MEGA CITY PROJECT The Ministry of Urban Affairs and employment had been receiving representations from various state governments, Mayers of Metropolitan Cities, etc. for provision of Central Assistance for taking the problems faced by the Mega/Metro Cities such as Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Frequently, Arguments have been advanced that many problems in these cities are due to massive migration from rural areas and smaller towns all lover the country on which the city authorities have little control. Further, these cities are the engines of economic growth and have been greatly contributing to the national productivity and generation of resources for planned economic development. This ministry had approached the planning Commission regarding the possibility of Central Assistance for the four super metros, also drawing attention to the recommendations of the National Commission on Urbanization in its report "that…Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras be declared as national cities and that a fund be created and administered through a specialised institution for the development of these cities." The NCU had recommended Rs. 500 corers for each of the cities, which might be allocated during the 7th and 8th Five year plans for the purpose of infrastructure development. However, the Planning Commission was not in favors of providing funds from the Centre to particular cities and indicated that any Central assistance to metro development projects should from part of the State Developmentplan. However, the planning Commission has been, from time to time, allocating sums on case-to-case as Special Central Assistance to the State Governments to tackle the problems of infrastructure development in Mega Cities. Since it was felt that there was need to move to a more structural form of Central Assistance to Mega Cities, discussion was held between the State Government representatives, the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment in August, 1992 followed by another in December, 1992. The Centrally-sponsored Scheme of Infrastructure Development in Mega Cities emerged as a result of these exercises and the Planning Commission circulated an outline of the Scheme in May 1993. The Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment was requested to examine and convey the views on the Scheme/Projects to the Planning Commission so that the full Planning Commission could consider the proposal. The Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment conveyed its agreement with the broad parameters of the Scheme and recommended the project reports submitted by the State Governments in respect of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. The Planning Commission was also requested to consider the inclusion of Hyderabad and Bangalore considering the nature of activities, present population, urban growth rate, estimated population in 2000 and cosmopolitan character of these cities and also their contribution towards the national development/economy. The Mega City Scheme was cleared by the Planning Commission in a meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister. INDO – US FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REFORM AND EXPANSION PROJECT - Debt Market Constraints to Developing Commercially Viable Urban Environmental Infrastructure Projects Despite recent efforts in project development, success in developing and implementing commercially viable projects has eluded the Urban environmental infrastructure sector more often than not. A review of experiences in project development reveals a number of constraints. Chief among them are weaknesses in process management, private sector capacity and risk management and a lack of clarity in sub-sector priorities. This Project Note describes these and other constraints and approaches to addressing them. Notes on Human settlements Planning


Chapter 4

Despite recent efforts in project development, success in developing and implementing commercially viable projects has eluded the Urban environmental infrastructure sector more often than not. Even when project development has appeared to be adequate, process management and political commitment have wavered. This, of course, has been true of other sectors such as the power sector, where new governments have resorted to renegotiations and even cancellations of contracts which were signed by previous governments. Even in a few cases where projects appear to be heading for technical and financial closure, project development and negotiations have generally taken a long time and considerable resources. It is, therefore, necessary to identify the main constraints which inhibit the process so that these may be addressed. Weaknesses in Process Management The entire notion of developing and implementing projects in a commercial format is a relatively new trend In India. In the case of most Urban sector projects, initial sponsorship must come from public sector agencies.However, unlike conventional projects, these projects require considerable efforts in evolving project documentation, developing institutional arrangements for project structures, securing approvals and clearances from stakeholders, financial structuring, selecting a contractor, operator or concessionaire and ensuring overall financial closure. A wide range of actors have to be involved in all these processes, and consistent coordination is necessary. In addition, there is a constant need for the sponsor to pursue project related activities to mitigate and minimize risks. Both capacity and legitimacy are required to perform these roles. Typically, however, most public sector agencies do not have the necessary human resources to carry out these tasks, and projects fail to take off because process management support has been missing. It is in recognition of this critical role that state governments have begun to set up project development facilities and funds to manage development of projects in commercial formats. Illustrative Priorities for Selected Sub-Sectors of Urban Infrastructure Sector Appropriate focus and priorities Water Supply •Long term concessions, performance-based management contracts for entire and Sanitation distribution systems •Commercialized water utility with corporatization or profit centre basis, with management contracts (with private sector or community groups) for different tasks such as reduction of physical leakages, improved consumer services, billing and collection of water charges, etc. •Community contracts for provision of services in low income neighborhoods Solid Waste •Primary collection through contracts with community organizations and NGOs Management •Secondary collection through performance-based management contracts with private contractors •Management contracts for collection and disposal of special wastes such as from hospitals and markets •Safe disposal of solid waste through BOOT contracts Roads and •BOOT arrangements for by-passes and bridges Public •Needs to combine land development with mass transportation related projects Transportation on a BOT basis •Possibility of corporatization or profit centre basis of public transportation agencies Notes on Human settlements Planning


Chapter 4

CONSTRAINTS TO CVIP development Appropriate institutional arrangements and clarity for stakeholder consultations is also important, however there are no fora through which to provide for these effectively. Consultations are likely to be ad-hoc in nature, and while Urban planning legislation generally requires dialogue, the processes usually followed are not very effective. Lack of Clarity in Sub-Sector Priorities There is a lack of clarity in appropriate models and approaches in Urban infrastructure sub-sectors such as water, sanitation, solid waste, roads and public transportation, area development and management improvements. Commercial structuring will require different approaches in each area, and there is need for debate at the national level and guidelines for each sub-sector.While suggestions in this regard have begun to emerge, these need to be reflected in a clear policy statement first at the national level, which could then be adapted by state governments to suit the local contexts. For example, based on recent reports, the table above highlights possible priorities in selected sub-sectors. Risk Management In view of the lack of any strong regulatory frameworks, the burden of risk management largely falls on contract documents. While contractual documents could handle the risks during construction and operations period, there are considerable risks at the project development stage itself. This is evident from the number of projects which have been abandoned, due to either inadequate project preparation or political exigencies. These development stage risks will need to be handled through better project preparation and process management. Other risks can be handled through development of regulatory frameworks and greater attention to contract development. Both deserve critical and urgent attention. An important aspect in risk management relates to the need to identify the party best able to handle the risks and develop cost-effective risk mitigation strategies. The Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment (MOUAE), along with some state governments, could support these developers through the proposed national policy reform group and the project support facility. Detailed risk assessment and mitigation measures will need to form part of the project development process. Water supply and sewerage projects with PSP will require a risk management plan for the entire project period, from development and construction to operations. One of the key areas in this regard is to develop alternatives to the blanket state government guarantees which have been routinely used for financing Urban infrastructure projects. Alternatives such as escrow arrangements along with the necessary reserve funds and performance guarantees, such as for raw water quantity and quality from a state government under a water concession, need to be explored further. The Tiruppur Project, for example, has provided for such a facility. The Government of Tamil Nadu has commit-ted to establish a water shortage period fund through a non-lien account with an initial corpus equivalent to six months revenues. In addition, the risks of receivables to Tiruppur Municipality for the charges for bulk water supply are mitigated through the escrow account charged to the New Tiruppur Area development Corporation Limited (the Special Purpose Vehicle created for the project); a revolving security deposit equivalent to one month receivables; and an irrevocable letter of credit from the municipality of the same amount. Notes on Human settlements Planning


Chapter 4

The bulk of rev-enues for the project come from industrial users, who will also provide a revolving security deposit equivalent to three months’ receivables. Private Sector Capacity and the Procurement Process Commercial project structuring will, in most cases, re-quire some form of private sector participation, at least in the implementation arrangements. The entire idea of PSP rests on the assumption that there exist domestic (or even international) private sector firms with interest and capacity to work in this sector. A systematic assessment of private sector capacity and the effort needed to de-velop it—for different sectors and for different forms of private sector participation—is necessary. Based on a more casual analysis, it appears that while there may be local firms capable of taking on construc-tion activities, there are only a few who can take on large scale integrated turnkey contracts. Most domestic firms, however, have very limited, if any, experience on the operations side of water and sewerage systems. This is mainly because there has never been a demand for such services. Only a few international firms have opened offices in India and possess or are ready to take on op-erations-related contracts in India. Strengthening the ca-pacity of Indian firms through appropriate joint ventures, in addition to training support, is necessary. The role of the private sector in services such as water supply and sewerage also needs to be reviewed. More participatory arrangements with involvement of user groups in the planning, design and implementation process need to be evolved. This necessitates that traditional construction or even operator firms take a far more developmental approach with greater efforts toward community participation. There is also a lack of clarity in procurement process. No clear benchmarks and guidelines exist and, therefore, the process has varied significantly in terms of the bidding process, extent of preparedness of sponsor agencies and bid evaluation criteria and process. Often, de-spite the competitive process, many bidders have ex-pressed doubts about the authenticity of selection. In-adequate preparation, especially for PSP type projects,increases bid preparation costs, and risks due to inad-equate information tend to inflate bid prices. An emerging trend in concession type arrangements for water and sewerage services is to work through a memo-randum of understanding (MOU). This route has been adopted in Karnataka and in Andhra Pradesh. It must be understood that if a proper regulatory framework is in place for water tariffs and service standards, and adequate disclosure norms can be applied to the conces-sionaire, it will be possible to adopt this route meaning- fully. This would be similar to the licensee system under the Central Electricity Act. It must be recognized, however, that without such a framework, it will not be pos-sible to evolve a meaningful system. This framework would also require a provision for com-petitive bidding for any procurement of major construc-tion activities. In such cases, initial selection of the MOUpartner may be done through a preferred bidder route.This is often referred to as a “beauty parade” as the ini-tial selection is based on technical and financial capacity,as well as operational experience based on a businessjudgement. It is likely that such processes, if carefully supported through state governments, will provide use-ful local demonstration cases. The Need for a “Champion” The inability of some infrastructure projects to take off is due to the lack of a “champion” to guide the process through. It is common among public agencies to find that officers in charge of project development are trans-ferred half way through the process. This increases project development risks to a great extent. The champion for a particular project may come from any of a number of different stakeholder groups. For example, a public agency sponsor may be an elected representative or an administrative officer. In other cases, the champion Notes on Human settlements Planning


Chapter 4

Inadequate Institutional Arrangements The lack of commercial orientation among authorities charged with service provision also constrains project development. For example, under the 74th Constitutional Amendment, in most states provision of water supply and sanitation services vests with the local or municipal authorities, and a municipal department is usually charged with this activity. However, there is no clear link among investments, costs and revenues from the service. Further, there is a lack of clarity of objec-tives, and efficiency in service provision is hampered by political interventions in day-to-day functioning. Tariff policies are often skewed in the name of reaching the poor, who receive hardly any municipal services. A review of institutional arrangements, especially for services such as water, sanitation and public transporta-tion. The change in this regime will require a move towards agencies which, under a contract to the municipality, can operate as a business entity. Such activities may begin by developing separate departments which op-erate on a profit centre basis. In the future, corporatization of such agencies may then be explored. This will, however, also require that strong and well thought-out regulatory arrangements be developed. In most states, there will also need to be some reform of the state water and sewerage boards. Chennai Metro Water Supply and Sewerage Board, for example, has decided to explore the possibility of corporatization, along with the necessary regulatory framework. While the MOUAE needs to develop alternative models, some of the more reform-minded state governments will need to explore development and implementation of such institutional reforms. The mission of the Indo-US FIRE(D) Project is to institutionalize the delivery of commercially viable Urban environmental infrastructure and services at the local, state and national levels. Since 1994, the Project has been working to sup-port the development of demonstration projects and of a sustainable Urban infrastructure finance system. Now, the Project is also pursuing this mission through: • Expansion of the roles of the private sector, NGOs and CBOs in the development, delivery, operation and maintenance of Urban environmental infrastructure; • Increased efficiency in the operation and maintenance of existing water supply and sewerage systems; • Strengthened financial management systems at the local level; • Development of legal and regulatory frame-works at the state level; • Continued implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment; and • Capacity-building through the development of an Urban Management Training Network. THE SUSTAINABLE CITIES PROGRAMME The Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP) is a joint UN-HABITAT/UNEP facility for building capacities in urban environmental planning and management. The programme is founded on broad-based cross-sectoral and stakeholder participatory approaches. It contributes to promoting urban environmental governance processes, as a basis for achieveing sustainable urban growth and development. Currently the SCP operates in 20 main demonstration and 25 replicating cities around the world, including cities in China, Chile, Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Korea, Malawi, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Tunisia and Zambia. Preparatory activities are underway in Lesotho, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam, whilst countries such as Bahrein,Cameroon, Iran, Kenya and Rwanda have shown interest



Chapter 4

The SCP Promotes... ¾ Sharing environment-development information and expertise ¾ Understanding and accepting environment-development interaction ¾ Building environmental planning and management capacities ¾ Promoting systemwide decision-making ¾ Stakeholder based development prioritisation, strategy and action planning ¾ Managing environmental resources and risks for achieving sustainable development ¾ Leveraging resources for lasting change ¾ Building inter-agency partnerships, facilitating global exchange of experiences and know-how SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT OF CHENNAI Partners ¾ Madras Metropolitan Development Authority (MMDA) ¾ Housing and Urban Development Department ¾ United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ¾ United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) ¾ International Centre for Sustainable Cities (ICSC) Background and Objectives Within the context of the Sustainable Cities Programme, the project aims to support environmentally sustainable development and growth for the city of Madras. This is by making a process of participation and partnership between a range of interest groups and institutions. Environmental conditions in Madras have decreased over the past decades as population growth and increased economic activity has put great pressure on those institutions responsible for urban management. In many cases, they lack the human and material resources to respond to growing needs. Given the complexity of the issues at hand, the project will not only develop the capacity of the public sector, but will actively promote the involvement of the private, of NGO's and community organisations. The aim is to produce appropriate investment packages for the growing city. Activities The process of sustainable urban growth for Madras will be achieved through the identification and continuing development of environmental planning and management strategies. Primary activities will include: ¾ promotion of planned development ¾ planning process ¾ building of institutional capacity ¾ development of capital investment projects. This will be achieved through the development of an Environmental Profile for the city. This will lead to the making of broad-based working groups to make issue-specific action plans. A key outcome of this activity will be a series of investment packages for possible support by local, central and outside agencies. In addition, an analysis of the roles, functions and capacities of key institutions and interest groups will be undertaken. This is part of a process to develop more effective participation of public, private and popular sectors in the process of environmental management. Notes on Human settlements Planning


Chapter 4

Results The project will provide metropolitan Madras with an improved and strengthened environmental planning and management capacity. Collaborative processes will identify and prioritise key environmental issues within a number of specific action plans, resulting in: ¾ an improvement in the availability and efficient use of natural resources ¾ a reduction in openness to environmental hazards for the urban population ¾ an improvement in the process of providing basic urban services and infrastructure facilities, especially in low-income settlements ¾ strengthening of local capacities to plan and manage sustainable urban development.



Chapter 5

RURAL ISSUES IN INDIA Introduction The third world countries are destined to be termed as rural even up to the 21st century even though urbanisation has increased in developing countries at a faster rate during the last decades. India with its overwhelmingly rural population (76.27 percent; 665.28 million) residing in about 6 lakh villages (571441,1981 census) will remain rural with a dominating rural environment. Even rurality prevails in and penetrates, through the core of the cities and metropolises. Some of the issues pertaining to the rural environment which determine the quality of life and environment aremanagement of land resource especially related to agriculture, water resource management, rural energy demand; physical infrastructure-rural roads, minor flood embankments, rural water supply, sanitation, rural markets; social infrastructure - family planning, rural health, rural education. Rural Trend Agriculture, being the principal traditional occupation of the people in the country, plays a vital role in the economy of the rural societies. But the rapid population growth in recent years, has unprecedented pressure on the existing cultivated land as production has to account for not only the demand of the population but also for meeting unexpected adversities such as drought, floods etc. Application of fertilizers, use of improved seeds may only hold good as long as they do not impact the environment in the long run. FAO has rightly put up that " At the turn of the century the increase of the yield per unit area will be enhanced by 60 percent with the addition of 26 per cent area in cultivation and 14 percent by crop intensification. Thus, the problem will be that the increase in yield by unit area means the over exploitation of cultivated area by way of chemical fertilization, pesticides, intensive cultivation without rotation system. Therefore, all the methods of modernising agriculture, may lead to the overall imbalance of the ecosystem with adding more pesticides, unidentified crop/plant diseases, chemical reactions in soil, and declining general productivity. All these require ameliorating efforts with judicious planning in protecting the ecosystem." The Census of India ,1981, adopted certain criteria for treating a place as urban. From the definition of urban areas, rural areas can be identified. ¾ Places with human habitation of 5,000 and below, ¾ with agriculture (and allied) as the main economic activity, and ¾ with a density of population less than 400 per sq. km. may be described as rural areas. However, some habitations with more than 5,000 populations are also classified as rural in view of agriculture being the main economic activity of a vast majority of population in that area. A small village is described as a hamlet and a group of hamlets is known as a village (revenue village with a panchayat ). There are 557,139 villages in India, each with a population ranging between 500 and 10,000. The areas covered by all the villages are considered as rural areas. The average village consists of a few hundred acres of land supporting about fifty to two hundred families. The distribution of villages according to population size is as follows



Chapter 5

Distribution of Villages according to Population Size Population Size Inhabited Villages

Percentage of total inhabited villages Below 500 2,70,796 48.60 500-999 1,35,928 24.40 1,000-1,999 94,486 16.96 2,000-4,999 46,893 08.42 5,000-9999 7,202 01.29 Above 10,000 1,834 00.33 TOTAL 5,57,139 100.00 Note: Excludes Assam Population Source: Indian agriculture in brief,1985 Source: Census of India 1981,Series 1,India,Paper 2 of 1981 It is clear from the table that nearly 50 per cent of villages are with a population below 500. Villages with 10,000 and above constitute less than one per cent of the total number of villages in India. Predominance of rural population in India over a long period can be seen from the growth trend of rural population vs. urban population.

Relative Growth of Urban and Rural Population Year Population in millions Percentage of total population Rural Urban Rural Urban 1901 270.3 25.6 89.0 11.0 1911 220.4 25.6 89.6 10.4 1921 216.6 27.7 88.7 11.3 1931 237.8 33.0 87.8 12.2 1941 265.5 43.6 85.9 14.1 1951 288.2 61.6 82.4 17.6 1961 347.2 77.6 81.7 18.3 1971 421.9 107.0 79.8 20.2 1981 502.0 156.2 76.3 23.7 Note: 1981 data excludes the population of Assam and Jammu & Kashmir Source: Census of India 1981,Series 1, India, and Paper 2 of 1981 A vast majority of our population still continues to be rural although the rate of urbanisation has showed a marked increase. Agriculture is still the major source of living and employment. Villages continue to provide a source of living to many without much improvement in the living conditions of rural people. The average standard of living of people in rural areas is still low as judged from different socioeconomic indicators.



Chapter 5

In 1979-80, 48.4 per cent of the population in the country was below the poverty line while in rural areas 50.7 per cent of the population were below the poverty line as against 40.3 per cent in urban areas. As per the 1981 census, while the all India literacy percentage was 36.2, the literacy percentage in rural areas was only 29.6 as against 57.4 in urban areas, whereas women’s literacy rate was only 17.96 percent (rural women form 77 percent of the female population in India) as against 47.82 per cent in urban areas. Crude birth rate in 1980 per 1000 population in rural areas was 35 as against 27.6 in urban areas and the national figure at 33.5. Crude death rate per 1000 population in rural areas was 13.1 as against 7.3 in urban areas and 11.8 in all-India. In 1980, per 1000 live birth, the infant mortality in rural areas was 124 as against 65 in urban areas and 11.8 in all India. The National Building Organisation (NBO) estimated that the housing shortage in 1981 was around 21 million dwelling units (16 million in rural areas and 5 million in urban areas.) According to the Seventh plan report about 36 percent of the villages in the country are still without any road connection and as much as 65 percent without any all weather road. MULTI LEVEL PLANNING IN INDIA A country like India with vast diversities needs to have an effective planning, and this can be justified through multi-level planning. It is basically an exercise in the decentralization of the planning process. The centralized type of planning cannot adequately take care of all the requirements of different territorial and sectoral levels of planning process. A national plan is not adequate as it covers only broad categories at national level, while great spatial variations exist in levels of development, resource development etc. Therefore, we have a national plan and lower level plans or a multi-level plan. The levels, lower than the national plan in multi-level planning could be state, district and block level plans. Institutionally, multi-level planning has pegged down to the administrative unit A multi-level planning system has to be designed for the specific situations and cannot be generalized. The multi-level planning operation represents a ‘system approach’ in planning. The systems approach implies that there are sub systems within a system The concept of multi level planning incorporates the principle that proper decision making is possible at any level if the strategy at each level is determined after a careful consideration of the potentials, needs and limitation at the next higher as well as the next lower levels of planning Multi level planning is two-way approach, requiring many preparatory efforts from both ends. The higher level gives macro framework indicators and guideline for planning. The lower levels must feed the higher level with information and has to prepare from below. The various processes involved in multi-level planning are ¾ Determination of approach levels of decision making with reference to various activities ¾ Organizing interaction between different levels in terms of exchange of information and interactive consultations of different stages of plan formulation and appraisal ¾ ‘Nesting of plans’ at different levels and integrating them into a unified frame work. Nesting implies securing both the balances within the plans drawn up for different levels and also their harmonization. Securing integration within plans at different levels implies achieving balance at three levels i.e. sectoral, spatial and operational



Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY Ekistics: An Introduction to the Science of Human Settlements (1968) CA Doxiadis 1. An Introduction to Town and Country Planning, John Ratcliffe, Hutchinson 1981 2. Text book of Town Planning, A.Bandopadhyay, Books and Allied, Calcutta 2000 3. The Urban Pattern – City planning and Design, Arthur B. Gallion and Simon Eisner, Van Nostrand Reinhold company 4. Town Planning, Rangwala, Charotar publishing house 5. Town Planning, G.K.Hiraskar 6. Urban and Regional planning, Rame Gowda 7. Town and country planning and Housing, N.V.Modak, V.N.Ambedkar, orient longman, 1971 Doxiadis.org



town planning anna university material

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