CHASE THE CULPRIT

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING WITH RESPECT TO

MASTER PLAN DELHI 2021

AMEESHA YADAV | AYUSHI BIRLA | SHAGUN KRISHALI | SWATI SHARMA | ZOYA AFTAB
 NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
“CHASE THE CULPRIT”

What is the right population for a neighbourhood?

This comes from the anthropological evidence, a human group cannot coordinate itself to reach
decisions if its population is above 1500. For every other person, the idea of neighbourhood would
differ. Someone would relate it to the number of blocks, some to the number of families, while
some to what community lives in the area

For a neighbourhood to have a strong identity, it is very much needed that it has a defined
boundary. To have a strong identity and defined boundary it should be protected by heavy traffic.
And it is found that the heavier the traffic in an area, the less people think of it as a home territory.
Not only do residents view the streets with heavy traffic as less personal, but they feel the same
about the houses along the street.

The quality of the neighbourhood begins to deteriorate with maximum number of cars on the
streets. Because of this neighbors never gather in the street to meet and talk. And that is the reason
major roads become a barrier to free pedestrian movement, because they need to give way to
vehicles. Some degree of autonomy as far as taxes and land controls are concerned can be given
to neighbourhood, keeping major roads outside these neighbourhoods.

A neighbourhood can be marked by the following:

 Gateways wherever main path enter it.

 Modest boundaries of non-residential land between the neighbourhoods.
 Keeping major roads with these boundaries – parallel roads
 Giving the neighbourhood a visible center.
 A common or a green accessible green or a small public square.
 And arrange houses and workshops with the neighbourhood in clusters.

The strength of the boundary is essential to neighbourhood, if the boundary is too weak the
neighbourhood will not be able to maintain its own identifiable character. The formation of a
boundary around each neighborhood should be encouraged, to separate it from the next door
neighbourhood.
The mix of households in an area does almost more than anything else to generate or destroy the
character of an identifiable neighbourhood of a house cluster of a work community.

The question is, what kind of mix should a well-balanced neighbourhood contains?
Encouraging growth towards a mix of household types in every neighbourhood, every cluster, so
that the one person households, couples, families with children and group household are side by
side. The right balance can be derived straightforwardly from the statistics of the region by
determining the percentage of each household type for a region as a whole and using the same
percentages to guide the gradual growth of the housing mix within the neighbourhoods.

There are provisions for old people in every neighbourhood-old people everywhere and that even
this mix, young people have enough playmates-connected play and build the details of the different
kinds of households ,according to the appropriate more detailed patterns to reinforce the mix –The
family, house for a small family, house for a couple, house for one person.

The idea and requirements of a neighbourhood have also been mentioned in the Master Plan Delhi
2021 in a generalized manner, irrespective of the context of the neighbourhood. These
requirements are as follows:
A neighbourhood, be it in an unplanned area or a planned area, needs to pass through the same
parameters to be recognized as a neighbourhood. Though there is a stark contrast between
neighbourhoods of different areas, there is still a similar pattern on which they work. This pattern
is generated by the norms and guidelines laid down for their planning.

This stark contrast can be seen with the help of the following examples.

1. Dwarka Sector 4
2. Mayur Vihar
DWARKA SECTOR 4

Dwarka is divided into sectors and each sector is self-sufficient in

terms of infrastructure: both social and physical. Each sector has
arterial roads running around it to facilitate transport access. Each
sector has several group housing plots with the basic social
infrastructure to support them; like schools (primary and senior
secondary), commercial areas like local shopping markets, service
markets and open spaces like parks and open grounds. However, all
sectors still don’t fulfill the requirements of a neighborhood
mentioned in the Master Plan Delhi 2021. This example is of
Dwarka Sector 4. The map shows different schools, commercial
zones and open spaces in the area. However, it lacks an anganwari,
and a banquet hall.
However, each group housing has its own community hall in its premises. Further, there’s no
neighbourhood level religious building present in the area as each group housing also has its own
place of worship. Also, there’s no formally designated taxi/ three wheeler stand, but there are spots
around the main sector market where autos can be easily found.

Every group housing society has its own underground water tank for water supply, and waste
collection system. The area doesn’t have its own dispensary, but the local market has clinics; also,
there is a health centre in the nearby neighbourhood which is accessible to people.

CULPRIT:

The absence of mixed housing typology leads to the lack of strong social fabric in the area. All the
group housings work as independent units (in terms of social interaction). There are parks present
in the neighbourhood to facilitate social interaction, but the lifestyle of people is a major hurdle in
the same. Most of the people are at office during the day and hence can’t take their children to
parks. Further, because of some planning faults, these parks have unsafe, vulnerable spots around
them which discourages people to go to these parks alone. The designated area for local shopping
market is not sufficient for the population that uses it, and hence, it is generally over crowded.

The area lacks significantly in the presence of places of neighbourhood level congregation, hence
making its social fabric weak.
MAYUR VIHAR

Mayur Vihar is situated across the Yamuna River and one of the
densely populated residential colonies of Delhi. It is an organic
settlement which develops with time. Both of these area combined
creates one neighbourhood in Mayur Vihar. Both the area, i.e,
Pratap nagar and Acharya Niketan has arterial roads and sub
arterial road running along. In terms of housing, builder’s flats are
majorly available with basic social infrastructure; including
primary and secondary schools; commercial areas such as local
shopping centers and service markets.
This area does not, however, comply with the neighborhood criteria referred to in the Delhi 2021
master plan as it does not includes space for any recreational activities i.e, tot lot area, housing
area or neighbourhood park and community areas such as Banquets and housing area playground.
Hardly any designated space for parking causing on street parking. The ROW, specified in the
master plan is not followed. Also, lack of open spaces at the neighbourhood level. No playgrounds
and common parking spaces, even in a school premises.

CULPRIT:

As it is an unplanned and organic neighbourhood which evolved with time that focuses mainly on
housing there is lack of community spaces and recreational areas for children to play and elderly
to walk and spend time. Houses are so closely packed creating unsafe living conditions for those
residing in the narrow streets who lack natural light and ventilation. Moreover, there are unplanned
& unsafe road networks & junctions. Also, the road width is not uniform, lack of parking spaces,
unsafe electrical poles and hanging cables, etc. contributes to low the physical infrastructure.
CONCLUSION

Ensuring shelter for all has been the policy of Master Plan Delhi 2021. However, the
problem has always been looked upon quantitatively. The idea of a neighbourhood
has been discussed in a much quantified manner in the Master Plan Delhi 2021. The
major focus has been on how many parks, schools, markets, etc are needed for a
functional neighbourhood but not about how far from a house or where these
facilities should be located in a neighbourhood. As a result, many neighbourhoods
fulfill the idea of a neighbourhood in a quantitative aspect effectively, but fail to do
the same qualitatively. As seen in the example of Dwarka sector 4, the lack of
neighbourhood level congregation spaces weaken the social character of the area, as
each group housing works as a separate unit.

For a developing nation like India, it is indeed important to set standards in terms of
numbers, but it is equally important to set standards in terms of the intangible
character of an area to raise the quality of living of people by making the area more
livable.