DELHI

MASTER PLAN AFTER 1962

THEORY OF SETTLEMENT

MIPHAM NAMGYAL | SHRAVAN KUMAR M.

It is futile to plan a citys appearance, or speculate on how to

endow it with a pleasing appearance of order, without knowing
what sort of innate, functioning order it has.
(Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities)

It is futile to plan a citys appearance, or speculate on how to

endow it with a pleasing appearance of order, without knowing
what sort of innate, functioning order it has.
(Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities)

WHAT IS A MASTER PLAN ?

"A Master Plan is the long term perspective plan for guiding the sustainable planned
development of the city. This document lays down the planning guidelines, policies,
development code and space requirements for various socio-economic activities
supporting the city population during the plan period. It is also the basis for all
infrastructure requirements."

BRIEF HISTORY
HIGHIGHTING IMPORTANT CHRONOLOGICAL
EVENTS
1638-48: Shahjahanabad Shahjahan as Emperor.

Red Fort, Jama Masjid built.

1803:

British East India Company Invasion.

1911-31: Sir Edwin Lutyens designs New Delhi

1912: Capital shifted from Kolkata to New Delhi.

JAMA MASJID

1931: New Delhi Capital inaugurated and Delhi

Improvement Trust constituted.
1947: Independence and partition of the country.
Immigration of half million population to
Delhi.
1948: Rehabilitation townships planned.
1957: DDA constituted.
1962: First Delhi Master Plan passed.
LUTYENS NEW DELHI

THE SPRAWL OF REHABILITATION TOWNSHIP

The partitioning of India brought its
own problems.
Delhi witnessed one of the largest
immigration in human history.
Approximately half a million sought
refuge in Delhi; which was not
prepared for doubling of its population
in just 2months.
A total of 36 rehabilitation townships
were planned and developed on all 4
sides of Delhi.

These included Nizamuddin, Lajpat

Nagar, Malviya Nagar, Patel Nagar,
etc.
These townships were planned on the
basis of 80 sq.yards (66msq) plots for
each family; modest single story
asbestos cement sheet roofed houses.

These houses were offered at a subsidized price of Rs.2000 to Rs.10,000 with facilities of long term
payments.
These were emergency projects with no time available for immaculate planning.
Delhi started expanding in all directions without any overall plan; the congestion continued and
the city grew haphazardly.

 MAKING OF MASTER PLAN

The partition fractured the old elite coalition that managed the Delhi Improvement Trust
and it came to an end in 1950.

The DIT suggested setting up of a single planning and controlling authority for the
development of Delhi.

It also suggested developing of the city under the frame of a Master Plan.

Hence the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was set up by the Government in 1955; its
objective being to promote and secure the development of Delhi according to plan.

A massive planning process undertaken by the Nehruvian administration to imagine a new

city with the support of Americas Ford Foundation.

A foreign team of planners led by Albert Mayer was recruited as the Master Plan
consultant.

Ford Foundation support and expertise enabled Nehrus attempts to foster the Delhi Master
Plan as a version of mother art-the utopian architectural signature of a new sovereign
nation dreaming of an Indian modernity.

This planning process was to introduce a prominent regionalist American paradigm to

Indian urban design in the form of Delhi, namely an English garden city set in a region - a
network of decentralized new towns, with green areas and open spaces, with cellular
neighborhoods, sub-centers and district centers and most importantly zoning.

The First Master Plan for Delhi,1961- 81, was published by DDA in 1962, envisaged
development of urbanisable area of 448sqkm by 1981, catering to an urban population of
4.6 million.

GARDEN CITY CONCEPT

The garden city movement is a
method of urban planning that was
initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer
Howard in the United Kingdom.
Garden cities were intended to be
planned, self-contained
communities surrounded by
"greenbelts", containing
proportionate areas of residences,
industry and agriculture.
Albert Mayer adopted this concept
in case of Delhi Master Plan 1962
and called for an urban planning
based on rigorous ZONING.

1889 plan for Port Sunlight, England

Source: [ONLINE] Available at: http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=7264.

DELHI MASTER PLAN 1962

BASIC PLANNING PRINCIPLES:
The idea was not to develop colony by
colony, but zone by zone. The thinking
was that each zone should be selfsufficient:
have
its
own
social,
educational and health infrastructure.
(Sengupta, Ranjana. (2007). Delhi
Metropolitan: The making of an unlikely
city. 1st ed. India: Penguin Books.)

KEY POINTS:

The Plan was a regionalist model

which worked to manage the
sprawl of the city through a green
belt and neighbouring towns that
could deflect the population inflows
into Delhi.
The city was broken up into various
planning divisions, as well as cellular
neighbourhoods, sub-centers and
district centers, to contain social life,
commerce and work.
The 1962 Master Plan expanded the
urban area while simultaneously
managing it through strict zoning
and demarcation of urban and rural
forms of life.

The plan orchestrated an ambitious

separation of industry, residence, and
commerce.
In the 1962 Master plan industrial
production was broken into a hierarchy
where a shift was mandated to
designated areas, with various time
limits. The zones included areas for
extensive, service, and light industry
and "flatted factories" and work-cumindustrial centers for "non-nuisance"
small and household enterprises, to be
set up near
places of residence,
limiting travel time.
Heavy industry was not permitted in
Delhi as it would not fit the nonindustrial "form" of the city - it would be
based in the regional towns. "Noxious"
and village-like trades and industries
were prohibited by the Master plan and
had to be removed from the city.
Commerce was organized in wholesale
markets, central business districts, subcentral business districts, and district
centers, the latter to be built by the
DDA. Some wholesale markets were to
be shifted out of the old city.

Land Use Plan

SOURCE: http://www.dda.org.in/planning/map_mpd_1962.htm

MASTER PLAN 2001

To accommodate the 12.2 million urban population
by the year 2001, the Second Master Plan envisaged
expanding the urbanisable area of Delhi to 688 sqkm.

Ecological balance to be
maintained.
The Central city area to be
treated as Special Area
and will be developed
carefully.
Urban
heritage
to
be
conserved.
The urban development to be
low rise-high density.
The
plan
proposed
urbanization of further 1800024000 ha. To accommodate
the additional population in
urban extensions like Dwarka,
Rohini and Narela sub cities.
The concept of Mixed Use to
be
adopted
for
further
detailing of Zonal Plan Level.

Land Use Plan

SOURCE:http://www.dda.org.in/planning/map_mpd_2001.htm

MASTER PLAN 2021

Third Master Plan of Delhi, projected
population of 23 million by the year 2021 on
about 978sqkm of total urbanisable area.

MASTER PLAN SCHEDULE

The Interim General Plan for Delhi was

released in 1956.

The First Master Plan for Delhi,1961- 81, was

published by DDA in 1962, envisaged
development of urbanisable area of
448sqkm by 1981, catering to an urban
population of 4.6 million.
After 1981, the master plan faced a setback
because of the Asian Games in 1982 which
had its own plans for urbanization and
beautification of the city.
The Second Master Plan was published in
1990 expanding the urbanisable area of
Delhi to 688 sqkm to accommodate the 12.2
million urban population by the year 2001.
The Third Master Plan was published in 2005.
It projected population of 23 million by the
year 2021 on about 978sqkm of total
urbanisable area.

Shortfalls of MasterPlans
Data insufficiency and contradictions: The land use figures that have been
prescribed have not been substantiated with any line of reasoning as to why such a
distribution should be preferred over any other.

Tone of the document: The MPD is a legally enforceable document, supposed to

provide clear guidelines on urban planning and infrastructure yet this document reads
more like a policy document and not a clear legally enforceable text.

Conceptual Flaws: The plan repeatedly states that the problem of in-migration
into Delhi is a chronic one. But the solutions suggested are to limit migration by
discouraging labour intensive units from coming up in the capital. It proposes a
deliberate clamp on the growing economy of the city and limiting it possibly only to
supposedly less problematic administrative uses.

There is a great demand for the kind of services rendered by the migrant labourers,
ranging from rickshaw pullers to hawkers, construction labourers to domestic help.
These people form a vast network of people providing informal services and
contributing very actively to the economy. Limiting this is simply not a feasible option.
There is a great demand for the kind of services rendered by the migrant labourers,
ranging from rickshaw pullers to hawkers, construction labourers to domestic help.
These people form a vast network of people providing informal services and
contributing very actively to the economy. Limiting this is simply not a feasible option.

 Ignorance of new theories and concepts in urban planning: In trying

to preserve the old structure of the city it prescribes greater growth in the suburbs and
shifting of economic activities out to these areas to tackle the growing population.

Increasing suburbanization leads to a large growth in the number of vehicles, problems

of pollution, congestion and parking.

Policy on Special Areas: In its policies for Special Area (Walled city, Pahar Ganj,

Karol Bagh) and urban villages, the plan in its eagerness to maintain their essential
character and preserve this urban heritage, forgets to take into account the needs of
the actual residents of these areas.

As per MPD 2001, when the move to transfer industrial units within the walled city to
other areas was passed, the affected people were left in a lurch. New shops and lands
were not allotted to them on time, they did not have adequate infrastructure in the
new areas, users were asked to cough up higher rentals.

Slum Rehabilitation Policy: Till March 2005, DDA had acquired land totaling

upto 69,890 acres. Of this, about 1475.85 acres of DDA lands are under encroachment
by JJ clusters. There is no clear policy on slum resettlement given in the plan despite
the figures revealing that it is a chronic and growing problem

Zoning Regulations/ Development Controls:

Plans for only 7 zones have been approved and notified whereas plans for zones G west
Delhi, H North West Delhi I, M North West Delhi II, and P Narela are still at various
stages of approval. In fact, it is ironic that with the master plan for 2021 about to come
into operation quite soon, DDA officials are still in the process of formulating zonal plans
for MPD 2001.
Another significant drawback of land use regulation, besides it being an infringement on
the right to private property, is its impact on housing development and its pricing. The
inevitable outcome of these regulatory constraints is that a large and increasing
proportion of urban land development in developing countries is being undertaken
outside the formal, officially sanctioned process.

THE GROWTH OF UNAUTHORISED

SETTLEMENTS
An unauthorized colony is precisely one that is built on land not included in the
development area in the plan or one built on land within the developmental area
but not yet zoned for residential use.
Before 1975, most of Delhis unauthorized colonies fell in the latter category as
land acquired under theMPD62 was not fully developed, i e, infrastructural
services were not provided and the land parcels not notied to be ready for
planned housing to be built. Since 1975, however, most unauthorized colonies
belong to the former category and fall outside the development area of the plan
precisely in the built-up areas that the MPD 01 and MPD 21 selectively included
or continued to leave out of the development area.
Densities, size of dwelling units and layouts vary considerably unauthorised
colonies range from working poor neighbourhoods to elite single-family homes.
Many unauthorised colonies look, for all purposes, like residential layouts with no
claims to agriculture. The violation here is not one of squatting that the residents
of these colonies paid for their land is undisputed. Such payment and the written
documents produced therein are proof of a documented and, indeed, formal
process of purchase by the buyer. Yet though the purchase is formal, it is not legal.
none of these can be registered with the local authorities as recognized, legal
property titles because the colony does not exist in the plan. Titles cannot be
legally transferred. Municipal services cannot be provided to these colonies since
they do not exist in the plan.

There are three major waves of regularisation in Delhis history. A hundred and
two colonies were regularised in the rst wave in 1962 itself as part of the rst master
plan. The second wave was in 1975.

Source: Planned Illegalities: Housing and the 'Failure' of Planning in Delhi 1947-2010 | Gautam Bhan - Academia.edu. 2014.

Lal Doras
The rapid pace at which Delhi spread lead to
outlying villages getting surrounded or eaten
up by urban areas. This has created, quite
literally, urban villages. These are areas where
Delhis normal construction regulations and bylaws do not apply, resulting in dense land use
and cheap housing for those unable to afford
the steep prices of Delhis upmarket areas.
Delhi has more than 135 such urban villages.
Examples include Munirka, Khirki village,
Taimoor Nagar and several others, which do
not strike one as rural, but are under the Lal
Dora classification. Typically, they exhibit a
high amount of mixed land use.
This has allowed for blatant political
manoeuvring, as recently seen when 360 more
villages were announced to be added to this
category just before elections were due to
happen.

1. Munirka Village; 2. Hauz Khas Village