CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING:

MPD 2001

Submitted by: Prachi (M.Plan, 1st Semester)

 “Of neighbourhoods, benevolence is the most beautiful. How can the man be
considered wise who when he had the choice does not settle in benevolence “
Confucius

INTRODUCTION

Definition of Neighborhoods: the area of a town that surrounds someone's home, or

the people who live in this area.

As we see that Neighborhood is all about people living there and the life style they have. It’s a
place which affects their life at a personal level. A place where people may grow old living there or
make some lifetime memories with their neighbors. I feel that neighborhoods should be given a
special attention while planning them. In India we have a strong social and communal background,
so it becomes a much basic need of a city to adapt to their lifestyle than people adapting to a
forced city plan.

It should possess the best qualities of small town to facilitate the acquaintance and neighbourly
relations and also be broad enough to accommodate sufficient people to enable each individual
to come in contact with people of different strata of society and compatible tastes (Slideshare:
neighbourhood planning by Sherchandra Shrestha).

By this paper I would like to critically analyze the neighborhood planning in Delhi as per MPD
2001.

MASTER PLAN of DELHI- 2001

Salient features as per DDA:

• The Master Plan of Delhi - 2001 projected population of 128 lacs.

• The plan proposed urbanization of further 18000 - 24000 ha. to accommodate the
additional population in urban extension areas like Dwarka, Rohini and Narela sub cities.
• In addition to above the holding capacity of MPD 1962 urban area was increased through
the process of low rise-high density development.
• The central city area (walled city and its extension and Karol Bagh) to be treated as special
areas with appropriate regulations.
 • The city center to be decentralized, development of district centres, freight complexes and
directional terminals etc.
• Mass Transportation System to be Multi Modal e.g. MRTS, Ring Rail and Road based public
transportation system.

Urban development to be hierarchical containing essential facilities e.g. housing clusters,

housing area, neighbourhood, community and district.

In addition, MPD-2001 introduced the following new concepts for further detailing at Zonal Plan
Level.

• Mixed Use
• Pedestrianization
• Urban Design & Policy on Tall Buildings
• Environment
• Heritage Conservation

PROVISON OF NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING IN MPD 2001

MPD talks about neighbourhood relatively but not specifically.

• Below is the only statement from the MPD which mentions how neighborhoods should be
like.
Housing Components: Shelter, to fully service the needs of the families, should have
the essential components like Socio-Economic Compatible Neighbourhood.
• Other than this, MPD only talks about the neighborhood parks, community halls and
transportation at neighborhood planning level.

Relative features of neighborhood under Shelter:

• Partially built plotted housing

- In addition to what was there in MPD 1962, amendments were made to add a second
floor i.e. Bharati floor, to increase the number of families per building. It further talks
about the land use efficiency, affordability and flexibility.
- How the plotting of the housing shall be done to improve neighbourhood relationships
was not mentioned. Neither were any examples given to help people understand &
 relate to how simple neighbourhood planning techniques can help them to improve
their lifestyle.
• Community module
- Need for integrated and affordable housing. But integration mentioned in detail is w.r.t.
economic aspect alone, the social or communal aspects are missing under it.
• Resettlement Colonies
- Focus on providing physical infrastructure to the existing colonies.
- To increase ways to improve earnings of the residents by providing work options in
near vicinity and observe them. But the radius of the vicinity was not defined.
- No mention of providing social spaces for interaction of communities at a mass level.
• Unauthorized Colonies
- Talks about public participation in various societies residing in these colonies to help
and plan various social and physical infrastructure.
- Examples or suggestion on the process was missing.
• Urban Villages
- As per MPD-2001

This is the only subhead where we see sensitivity towards the old settlements.

• Lutyen’s New Delhi

- It talked about the large size of plots with a pleasant environment. But its relation with
the walled city or existing settlements was totally ignored.

Conservation, Revitalisation & Environmental Improvement

- Shahjahanabad was discussed in detail w.r.t. the existing and proposed landuse and
physical infrastructure which it needs.
 - It did identify the future issues this area was going to face like complete commercialization
of the entire walled city.
- Shifting and Delimitations of non-residential activities. This included shifting of industries,
wholesale markets, wholesale vegetable markets away from the walled city.
- It emphasized on providing social and physical infrastructure to the walled city.
- Emphasized on Traffic and transportation management within
- Conservation and restoration of the monuments
- Revitalisation of the residential area was mentioned. It emphasized only on the physical
appearance of the heritage i.e. the tangible characteristics. Intangible heritage was missed
/ ignored completely. MPD mentioned to repair the old heritage properties, but nothing
was discussed related to revival of the communities living there.
- No defined policies on the process

OTHER RELATIVE FEATURES OF NEIGHBOURHOOD:

• MPD mentions the importance of weekly markets in Delhi and has planned to retain them
with additional infrastructure.
• It also talks about organized informal sector eating places. Which are great hubs for
socializing at local level.
• A specific head is specified as Environment whose attributes are:
- Ecology, nature conservation parks
- Urban design
- Conservation of urban heritage
- Community life
- Conditions for health, safety and convenience
• Importance to green public spaces is given like children parks, picnic spots, training parks,
sports activities.
• City level social infrastructure like theatres, museum, libraries, exhibition halls were given
importance.
• At a large scale it talks about designing of integrated community life, however fails to
mention any subjective policies related to planning.
• It emphasized on water and air quality, but no strong policies were frames in master plan.
• Pedestrianization of local areas was mentioned, but specific guidelines were not framed,
especially related to encroachment of footpaths.

HEIRARCHY IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Various standards were framed which one to follow at zonal level. Neighbourhood was considered
for 3000 families which is a huge number.
ANALYSIS

• Neighborhood is not defined, only numbers are mentioned for planning purpose.
• It doesn’t mention what vision MPD carries for existing and future neighborhoods.
• It talks about walled city as a special area, but it has not outlined the importance of
intangible aspects of communities living there and their rejuvenation at a neighborhood
level.
• MPD has not carved any policies for Local area plans for new developments which should
include public partnership in planning their local area. No reference has been given for in-
situ planning and its norms.
• Only physical infrastructure is given importance in the existing settlements; however, the
old settlements have no defined policies.
• The MPD is not transparent on the demographics considered for social and physical
infrastructure.