[shivani]

ORIGIN OF THE MASTER PLANS

1919 : First Development of the Master Plans.

1940: (During 2nd. \Vorld War), Plans for roads, water supply and sanitation were made.

1946 : The Health and Survey Development Committee  (Bhore Committee) was set to
advice the British Government for the remedy of the three deficiencies (i.e. the roads, water
supply and sanitation) of the Indian towns. During this period many coastal towns and Nagpur
were developed.

1947 : An Act to make the Master Plans were passed. The schemes made under this Act
were known as Urban Improvement Schemes. The first Planning Organizations were the
Urban Improvement Trusts.

After 1947, in all British colonies, Master Plans were made mandatory

Upto 1955, only Rehabilitation towns were made like Nilokheri, Faridabad, Rajpura etc.
Only in 1952, Chandigarh was planned.

From early 1940s, a number of towns were planned in eastern India. Dr. Koenigsberger
planned towns like Jamshedpur, TELCO, TISCO plans, Bhubaneswar etc.

Before 1955 Town Planning was under the Ministry of Health, when the Central,
Regional,and Urban Planning Organizations were created. This was done to help the State
Governments to create the town Planning Departments. Then a number of towns came up like
that of Nangal, Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur etc. To date (1990), we have 118 New Towns
completed.

[shivani]

REASONS FOR FAILURE OF MASTER PLANS:
(i) The preparation of Master Plans took 3 to 3 1/2 years and by that time the data collected becomes obsolete.
(ii) Adoption of faulty techniques (like that of statistical projections formulae for the
future needs etc.
(iii) The 20 years perspectives that were taken in the master plans proved to be too much for the proper implementation of the Plans.
(iv) Most of the Master Plans were made very general, which needed detailed Zonal Plans.
(v) No serious planning was ever done.
(vi) The plan making body has no say in the implementation of the plans.
(vii) No qualified Town Planners were available at the time when most of our Master
Plans were done.
(viii) The Master Plans evoked a negative feeling for the Government Sector and the I
individuals.