3.2 Practical Relevance
Delhi's planning is to be deemed an outright disaster as measured by what has been achieved since the 1962 master plan came into effect. The planning document was based on an car-oriented polynodal ideal. The ambition was to create an urban landscape comprising a downtown, at least 75 district centers for large-scale commercial activities, and 4,250 local and convenience centers, respectively. Until today less than 15 % of the proposed projects have been implemented. At this pace it would take nearly 400 years to realize what was regarded a reasonable hierarchy of centers for a then much smaller population base and, moreover, a population characterized by a much lower level of quantitative and qualitative demand.
Development plans are simply ignored by the people for planners persistently ignore essential problems of the population. Moreover, development plans are overridden by private activities due to insufficient public budgets. As Amitab Kundu bluntly puts it
The NIUA points out that the
In Delhi an estimated 60 - 70% of the residential units and buildings have been erected in violation of designated land use and admissible building density. Over 55 % of the inhabitants are living in areas other than regularized colonies. (3)
The continuing proliferation of land uses and construction not conforming with official plans is to a large extent a result of and evidence for the complete failure of planning and / or the sluggish implementation of planning schemes. (4)
Footnotes
(2) Amitab Kundu: Urban Development, Infrastructure Financing and Emerging System of Governance in India: A Perspective, MOST, Discussion Paper No. 18, 2001.
(3) Snigdha Dewal: Master Plan for Delhi 2021. A Critical Analysis. CSS Working Paper No 160, 2006.
(4) With respect to the implementation of planning schemes it has to be said that the common comparison with China is critical. China's past as a dictatorial system has, at least at the subliminal level, lead to a higher degree of acceptance of officially prescribed measures of city development. Moreover, China is still a camouflaged command economy, and certainly not a democratic country like India.