RELEVANT EXCERPTS
Master planning and the 'city beautiful'
Master planning and the 'city beautiful'
Urban Planning in India; Das Biswaroop;Social Scientist, Vol. 9, No. 12 (Dec., 1981), pp. 53-67
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3517133
The master plans drawn after independence however followed the introvert British model of a "neighbourhood" concept with segregate housing. Even in the new housing estates of big cities the same principle prevailed. There emerged a host of 'development authorities" like the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), Madras Metropolitan Development Authority (M MDA) and so on. The master plans prepared by these authorities and also by the various town planning departments of state governments followed the same pattern. The main features of these plans were: a) designing of land use with a future perspective; b) a city without slums, or in other words, a standard "decent" house for everyone; c) detailed modernized Central Business District (CBD); d) division of major land use into zones, e) an efficient highway and transportation system, and f) adequate community facilities with residential areas divided into "neighbourhoods". But most of these beautifully designed maps could not be implemented because i) the time was slipping away or had already given way to land speculation, ii) there was overlapping of powers (implicit "confusion") between lacal bodies and development authorities, and iii) the land use had been changing at many a place unguided and haphazardly. Enforcement of regulations failed to work in many cities and many "master plans" became obsolete considering the context, comprehensiveness and objectivity. * All these "master plans" were greatly influenced by the regulatory controls prevailing in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and did not take into consideration the prevailing urban economic structure of the country. Hence the drawings remained much dominated by slogans and ideas of "city beautiful" rather than "city functional"
The master plans drawn after independence however followed the introvert British model of a "neighbourhood" concept with segregate housing. Even in the new housing estates of big cities the same principle prevailed. There emerged a host of 'development authorities" like the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA), Madras Metropolitan Development Authority (M MDA) and so on. The master plans prepared by these authorities and also by the various town planning departments of state governments followed the same pattern. The main features of these plans were: a) designing of land use with a future perspective; b) a city without slums, or in other words, a standard "decent" house for everyone; c) detailed modernized Central Business District (CBD); d) division of major land use into zones, e) an efficient highway and transportation system, and f) adequate community facilities with residential areas divided into "neighbourhoods". But most of these beautifully designed maps could not be implemented because i) the time was slipping away or had already given way to land speculation, ii) there was overlapping of powers (implicit "confusion") between lacal bodies and development authorities, and iii) the land use had been changing at many a place unguided and haphazardly. Enforcement of regulations failed to work in many cities and many "master plans" became obsolete considering the context, comprehensiveness and objectivity. * All these "master plans" were greatly influenced by the regulatory controls prevailing in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and did not take into consideration the prevailing urban economic structure of the country. Hence the drawings remained much dominated by slogans and ideas of "city beautiful" rather than "city functional"
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