Planning for Delhi

This paper reviews the planning and city building processes in Delhi in three periods — the imperial Mughal, the imperial British and the post-Independence. In the two earlier periods, the plans followed the ideals and tastes of the ruling elites and the cities were built to meet their needs. But the cities were well adapted to the technologies of the times and patterns of social interactions among the residents. Consequently, they provided to most of their residents a living environment which was efficient, healthy and satisfying. One reason for this was that Delhi was a relatively small city and increase in population was slow.The half century since 1941 has witnessed an unprecedented increase in population which has gone up from less than 700,000 in 1941 to 8.4 million in 1991. The increase has been due partly in response to expansion of employment in public administration, trade, finance and manufacturing industries, and partly to large in-migration of displaced persons from Pakistan during 1947–48, and from other states of India throughout the period.The efforts of the public agencies — the Central Government and the Delhi Development Authority — to expand housing have been matched by those of individuals and cooperative societies. But the efforts have been focussed on providing housing to people of medium and high income groups; the housing needs of the poor have been met by rapid growth of slums and unauthorised colonies. Expansion of physical and social infrastructure has also proved inadequate to meet the demands on it. The reliance in the absence of a mass transit facility, on a miscellany of motor vehicles for movement within the city, has resulted in very high levels of air and noise pollution.The hopeful beginning with long-term planning, made with successful implementation of the first master plan 1961–81, has suffered a set back as a result of the failure of the Central Government to approve the second master plan 1981–2001. The Regional Plan 2001 for the National Capital Region, approved in 1988 by all the governments concerned, is also not being implemented. In the resulting, impasse there is unplanned growth of a giant conurbation adding to its various problems. The paper recommends revival of metropolitan and regional planning for direction of growth of the conurbation to 2010.