Planning New Delhi - Edited

8/13/2019 Planning New Delhi - Edited

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New Delhi

City Planning


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New Delhi is the capital of the Republic of India, and the

seat of executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of

the Government of India.

It also serves as the centre of the Government of the

National Capital Territory of Delhi.

New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and is

one of the eleven districts of Delhi National Capital

Territory.

The foundation stone of the city was laid on 15 December

1911.

It was planned by two leading 20th-century British

architects, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker.


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Concept

Planned in 1912-13, and inaugurated in 1931, as the capital ofthe erstwhile British Empire in India, is evidence of the

extraordinary fusion of two dominant themes of the early

twentieth century city planning- the City Beautiful (vistas) and

the Garden city (verdure) Movements.

The garden city movementis 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" (parks), containing

proportionate areas of residences, industry and agriculture.

New Delhi has now grown to 1,500 square kilometers, or

almost 600 square miles, expanding 60 times from the 10

square miles that was initially sought for it.


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Connaught Place,

It is one of the largest financial, commercial and business

centers in Delhi.

It is often abbreviated as CPand houses the headquarters of

several Indian firms. Its surroundings occupy a place of pride,

counted among the top heritage structures of the city. It was

developed as a showpiece of Lutyens' Delhi featuring a

Central Business District. Named after the Duke of Connaught,

the construction work was started in 1929 and completed in

1933.


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It was renamed as the Rajiv Chowk after the late Indian Prime

Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Today, Connaught Place is one of the most

vibrant business districts of Delhi. It is the fourth most expensive

office destination in the world, according to global property

consultant .


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Construction:

The circle was eventually planned

with two concentric circles, creating

Inner Circle, Middle Circle and the

Outer Circle and seven radial roads,

around a circular central park.

As per the original plan, the

different blocks of Connaught Place

were to be joined from above,

employing archways, with radial

roads below them, but the circle was

'broken up' to give it a grander scale.


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Even the blocks were originally planned to 172 meters high, but

later reduced to present two-storied structure with an opencolonnade.

Governments plans to have the New Delhi Railway Station to

be built inside the Central Park was rejected by the Railways as it

found the idea impractical, instead it chose the

nearby Paharganj area.


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The architects designed a plan not far removed from

Versailles and Washington, DC, with numerous diagonals

and wide avenues connecting important sites.

The viceroy's palace was placed at the focal point of the

plan, which was a purposeful reinforcement of the

colonizing power. In fact, there are sources that claim it is

the largest residence for a head of state in the world.

New Delhi is unique amongst the capital citiesexhibited here in that it was sited adjacent to a large

existing city.


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Originally, plans were made to extend a grand axis north

into the old city, to establish connections between old and

new.

From the beginning, social stratification was built into the

plan, with higher class residences built in the center of the

city, and progressively lower class residences fanning

outward.

Borrowing heavily from the Garden City movement, density

was extremely low, and, with few exceptions, these

densities have remain enforced to this day.


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Urban structure

The central axis of New Delhi, which today faces east at India

Gate, was previously meant to be a North-South axis,

linking Viceroy's House with Paharganj, as the end of the axis.

Eventually owing to space constraints and presence of a large

number of heritage sites in the North side, the committee

settled on the South site.

A site atop the Raisina Hill, formerly Raisina village,

a Meo village, was chosen for the Rashtrapati Bhawan, then

known as the Viceroy's House.

The historic reason for this choice was that the hill lay directly

opposite the Dinapanahcitadel, which was also considered

the site of Indraprastha, the ancient region of Delhi.


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New Delhi is structured around two

central promenades called the Rajpath and the Janpath.

The Rajpath, or King's Way, stretches from the Rashtrapati

Bhavan to the India Gate.

The Janpath (Hindi: "Path of the People"), formerly Queen's

Way, begins at Connaught Circus and cuts the Rajpath at right

angles.

19 foreign embassies are located on the nearby Shantipath

(Hindi: "Path of Peace"), making it the largest diplomatic

enclave in India.

At the heart of the city is the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan

(formerly known as Viceroy's House) which sits atop Raisina

Hill.


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The Secretariat, which houses various ministries of the

Government of India, flanks out of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Parliament House, designed by Herbert Baker, is

located at the Sansad Marg, which runs parallel to the

Rajpath.

The Connaught Place is a large, circular commercial area in

New Delhi, modelled after the Royal Crescent in England.

Twelve separate roads lead out of the outer ring of

Connaught Place, one of them being the Janpath.

Documents

Planning New Delhi - Edited