DIGITAL ASSIGNMENT – 1

NAME: MOHAMMAD FAIZAN

REG. NO: 17BME0286
SLOT: A1+TA1
COURSE CODE: CLE1016
COURSE NAME: URBAN PLANNING
TOPIC: URBANIZATION IN INDIA
FACULTY: DR. PAVAN KUMAR
KUMMAMURU
SEMESTER: FALL 2019-20

17BME0286 MOHAMMAD FAIZAN URBAN PLANNING DA-I

QUESTION: Write a brief note on the history of urbanization in
India. What are some of the planned cities in India? Give examples
and write a brief note on their characteristics.

INTRODUCTION: -
Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from
rural areas to urban areas, the gradual increase in the proportion of
people living in urban areas, and the ways in which each society
adapts to this change. It is predominantly the process by which towns
and cities are formed and become larger as more people begin living
and working in central areas. Although the two concepts are
sometimes used interchangeably, urbanization should be distinguished
from urban growth: urbanization is "the proportion of the total
national population living in areas classed as urban", while urban
growth refers to "the absolute number of people living in areas classed
as urban".
Urbanization is relevant to a range of disciplines, including urban
planning, geography, sociology, architecture, economics, and public
health. The phenomenon has been closely linked
to modernization, industrialization, and the sociological process
of rationalization. Urbanization can be seen as a specific condition at
a set time (e.g. the proportion of total population or area in cities or
towns), or as an increase in that condition over time. So urbanization
can be quantified either in terms of, say, the level of urban
development relative to the overall population, or as the rate at which
the urban proportion of the population is increasing. Urbanization
creates enormous social, economic and environmental changes, which
provide an opportunity for sustainability with the "potential to use
resources more efficiently, to create more sustainable land use and to
protect the biodiversity of natural ecosystems."
Urbanization is not merely a modern phenomenon, but a rapid and
historic transformation of human social roots on a global scale,
whereby predominantly culture is being rapidly replaced by
predominantly urban culture. The first major change in settlement

17BME0286 MOHAMMAD FAIZAN URBAN PLANNING DA-I

patterns was the accumulation of hunter-gatherers into villages many
thousand years ago. Village culture is characterized by common
bloodlines, intimate relationships, and communal behaviour, whereas
urban culture is characterized by distant bloodlines, unfamiliar
relations, and competitive behaviour. This unprecedented movement
of people is forecast to continue and intensify during the next few
decades, mushrooming cities to sizes unthinkable only a century ago.
As a result, the world urban population growth curve has up till
recently followed a quadratic-hyperbolic pattern.

HISTORY OF URBANISATION IN INDIA: -

In 1687- 88, the first municipal corporation in India was set up at

Madras. In 1726, Municipal Corporation were set up in Bombay and
Calcutta. In 1882,a resolution was passed and according to
which, panchayat were to be formed at village level, district
boards, taluq boards and municipalities also came into existence. At
that time Lord Ripon was Viceroy of India, and for this Lord Ripon is
known as father of local self-government in India.

17BME0286 MOHAMMAD FAIZAN URBAN PLANNING DA-I

Urbanization since independence has been focused through respective
five year plans as follows:

First two plan focused on institution and organization building and

same was instructed to the states to do.
For ex. Delhi development Authority, Town and country planning
organization came during this period.

Third plan (1961-66) was turning point in urban planning history, as it

emphasized on importance of towns and cities in balanced regional
development. So, it advised urban planning to adopt regional
approach. It also emphasized the need for urban land regulation,
checking of urban land prices, preparation of master plan, etc.

Forth plan (1969-74), continued with the theme of third plan and
development plans for 72 urban areas were undertaken. Regional
studies in respect of metropolitan regions around Delhi, Mumbai and
Calcutta were initiated.

During fifth plan, urban land ceiling act was passed in 1976. It also
advised the state governments to create metropolitan planning regions
to take care of the growing areas outside administrative city limits.
Mumbai metropolitan region development authority (MMRDA) in
1974 and Housing and urban development cooperation in 1975 were
established. It also emphasized the urban and industrial
decentralization.

The sixth five year (1978-83) plan stressed the need to develop small
and medium sized towns (less than 1 lakh), and a scheme of
Integrated development of Small and Medium towns(IDSMT) was
launched in 1979 by central government.

During the seventh plan, some important institutional developments

were done, which shaped the urban development policy and planning.
The National commission on urbanization submitted its report in 1988
and 65th constitutional amendment was introduced in Lok Sabha in

17BME0286 MOHAMMAD FAIZAN URBAN PLANNING DA-I

1989, this was first attempt to give urban local bodies a constitutional
status with three tier federal structure. But it was not passed and was
finally passed in 1992 as 74th constitutional amendment act and came
into force in 1993.

During Eighth plan, the Mega city scheme was introduced in 1993-94
covering five mega cities of Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore
and Hyderabad. Also IDSMT scheme was revamped through it
infrastructural development programs for boosting employment
generation for diverting migration from big cities to the small and
medium towns.

The ninth plan, continued with the schemes of the eighth plan and
also emphasized on decentralization and financial autonomy of urban
local bodies. A new program called Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar
yojna (SJSRY) in 1997 with two sub plan– 1. Urban self-employment
program and 2. Urban wage employment programme, i.e. targeting
for urban poverty reduction and employment. It was decided by
central government to revamp SJSRY in 2013 as National urban
Livelihood Mission (NULM).

The Tenth plan(2002-07) recognized the fact that urbanization played

a key role in accelerating the economic growth in 1980s and 1990s as
a result of the economic liberalization and also stressed that without
strengthening the urban local bodies, the goal of urbanization cannot
be achieved.
The eleventh plan (2007-2012) introduced some innovative changes
through capacity building, increasing the efficiency and productivity
of the cities, dismantling the monopoly of public sector over urban
infrastructure, using technology as a tool for rapid urbanization.

In this direction major initiative launched by central government

was JNNURM(Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban renewal
mission) in 2005 for focused and integrated development of the
urban infrastructure and services, initially for 63 cities. This
program was to be continued till 2012, but it has been extended,

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 covering more number of cities.

Focus of JNNURM was on provisions for urban poor, including

housing, water supply and sanitation, urban transport, road
network, and the development of inner/old city areas, etc. The
earlier programs, as mentioned above like Mega city, IDSMT,
etc. were merged with it.

Under JNNURM it was made mandatory for each cities to

formulate City Development Plan(CDP) for long term vision of
development. It also aimed to make private players part of urban
development through PPP(Public private partnership)

Rajiv Awas Yojana, was launched in 2011 for creating “slum free
India” as a pilot project for two years. But now it has been
extended till 2022. It is applicable to all slums in the city whether
notified or non-notified. It is also applicable to urban homeless

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 and pavement dwellers.

The 2011 Census was the first one that collected data on people
living in slums that have become commonplace in a rapidly
urbanizing India. It found that around one out of every six
households in urban India (17.4%) is in a slum, and that well over
one-third of all slum households in the country (38%) are in cities
with a population in excess of a million.

The twelfth five year plan (2012-2017) proposed to consolidate

JNNURM and envisaged its wider role in urban reforms. During
twelfth plan , the components of JNNURM are :-

 Urban infrastructure governance(UIG)

 Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY)

 Slum rehabilitation in cities not covered under RAY

 Capacity building
 The plan has also highlighted the reasons which are acting
as hurdles in the success of the program as:-

 Failure to mainstream the urban planning

 Incomplete reform and slow progress in project implementation

 Delay in securing land for projects

 Delay in getting approval from various regulators

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Despite being home to a lot of crammed and congested cities, India
has its share of the well-planned and aesthetically appealing cities, as
well. Backed by modern architecture, flawless designs, growing
IT/ITes sectors and educational hubs, these cities have been
witnessing an undisputed realty boom. Let us have a look at some of
them.

Chandigarh

Touted as the country’s most planned city, Chandigarh is situated in

the northern part of India. It is a Union Territory that serves as the
capital of Punjab and Haryana. The city was designed by Le
Corbusier, a Swiss-French architect and urban planner. It is known for
its neatly planned layout and is further divided into sectors that are
well-connected to each other via 6-lane roads.

“The streets running parallel to the roads are wide with narrow lanes
for cycle-rickshaws and pedestrians while streets within the sectors
are narrow and only allow slower traffic. Traffic control within the
city is also sound ,” avers Sumit Aggarwal, Partner,
HomzKraft. Beautiful trees planted on both sides of the road make a
wonderful sight to watch. To add to this, there is a park and a
dedicated shopping area in each sector. The traffic in the city is well-
managed too.

Gandhinagar

Situated in the north of Gujarat, Gandhinagar serves as the state

capital and is better known as Green City. The city was planned by
architect H.K. Mewada and his assistant Prakash M Apte, who

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worked as trainees under architect Le Corbusier on Chandigarh
project in the 1950’s. The city lives up to its name of being called a
‘Green City’ as it is covered by an extensive green belt. One can find
trees and plants along both sides of the roads. The city does not face
traffic congestion and like Chandigarh, it also has wide roads with
service lanes along most of them. Besides, separate areas have been
designated for residential, commercial and educational purposes and
for the IT industry. Unlike Ahmedabad, the city is not densely
populated and most of the area is not commercialised yet, which
leaves ample of scope for civic authorities for further planning and
development.

Lavasa

Based on the picturesque Italian fishing town Portofino, Lavasa is

India’s first privately planned city being built in Pune. Situated just
two hours’ drive from the IT Hub in Pune and four hours’ drive from
Mumbai, the hi-tech city is being visualised as urban yet simple and
close to nature. it is modeled on the principles of New Urbanism, an
urban design movement that promotes environment friendly habits by
creating walkable blocks, streets, neighbourhood and shopping
centers in proximity along with accessible public spaces. Majority of
the land is set aside for green and open spaces.

17BME0286 MOHAMMAD FAIZAN URBAN PLANNING DA-I

Jamshedpur

Founded by the late Jamshedji Tata and situated on the southern end
of Jharkhand, Jamshedpur is the first well-planned industrial city of
India. Jamshedji Tata had a vision of building a great city and a steel
plant in India, which led to the birth up of India’s first iron and steel
company here - Tata Steel and hence, Jamshedpur is commonly
known as Tatanagar. He urged upon setting up a city that would have
all the comforts and conveniences a city could provide. Most of the
areas in the city are thus well-planned with public leisure places such
as the Jubilee Park.

“Plenty of trees and space for lawns and gardens, good roads, clean
water and uninterrupted electricity are some of the highlights of the
city,” adds Aggarwal. Another high point of the city is that is has been
founded, built, developed and nurtured by the Tata Group and till
date, it remains the only city in India without a municipal corporation
(cities with over a million population).

Rajarhat

Rajarhat is an upcoming and planned satellite city located on the

north-eastern edge of Kolkata. It lies just on the outskirts of the
planned New Town in Kolkata. It was first conceived to be developed
in 1990 under the governance of Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya, the
then Chief Minister of West Bengal. The layout of Rajarhat is planned
in the following ways:

-Area 1 consists of malls and shopping complexes, residential and

commercial plots and a Central Business District (CBD).

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-Area 2 is planned to be the main Central District and will include IT
parks by DLF and Unitech. Besides, there is an eco-park and larger
apartment complexes are also planned

-Area 3 will be a mini township in itself and have high rise residential
projects.

Besides, several real estate companies and IT giants such as Genpact,

Ericsson and Accenture have already entered the city. Healthcare
institutions such as Tata Cancer Centre and Apollo Hospital have
their plans to set feet in Rajarhat. For entertainment purposes, a
number of entertainment and leisure zones such as Nicco Park,
Aquatica and Nalban are already present.

Despite a spurt in real estate activities in these cities, they have

maintained their aesthetic appeal. It will, however, be interesting to
see how these cities turn out to be different in the long run.

CONCLUSION:-
A planned community, planned city, or planned town is any
community that was carefully planned from its inception and is
typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts
with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion.
Urban growth leads to urbanization which in turn leads to some
changes such as-

17BME0286 MOHAMMAD FAIZAN URBAN PLANNING DA-I

  Migration of rural people to urban areas.
 Employment opportunities in urban centers.
 Transport and communication facilities.
 Educational facilities.
 Increase in the standard of living.

Urbanization can yield positive effects if it takes place up to a

desirable limit. Extensive urbanization or indiscriminate growth
of cities may result in adverse effects like-

 The problem of overpopulation, the growth of slums, etc.

 The disintegration of the Joint family
 Cost of living
 Increase in Crime rates
 Impersonal relations
 Problem of Pollution
 Stress

Most of these changes have a direct impact on the country’s economic

development.

THANK YOU

17BME0286 MOHAMMAD FAIZAN URBAN PLANNING DA-I