In the absence of opportunities in rural India, it’s a
given that the poor will flock to the cities in search of jobs and a better
life. This puts enormous strain on the already fragile infrastructure in these
cities. But nowhere is the problem more acute than in Delhi and Mumbai, which
has little place left to expand into and attracts migrants from practically the
whole of northern India.
Counter-magnets
- Counter-magnet towns are identified as those that can be
developed as alternative centres of growth and attract migrants to them rather
than Delhi. Promoting growth of counter magnet towns are the principal
components of the strategy to reduce both migration and population explosion in
the Delhi metropolitan area.
- These towns are located in six states- Uttarakhand, Madhya
Pradesh and Punjab, in addition to Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, which
are already part of the national capital region.
- The criterion for selecting counter magnet towns are that
they should not be within approximately. 250 km. from Delhi, should have
their own established roots and potential of growth and should not be centres
of either religious, strategic or environmental importance.
These are:-
Initial list
- ·
Gwalior
- ·
Hisar
- ·
Kota
- ·
Patiala
- ·
Aligarh
Later additions
- ·
Ambala
- ·
Dehradun
- ·
Kanpur
- ·
Moradabad
Additional Reading !!
Some Urban Terms !
Satellite Town
A satellite town
is a town located near a metropolitan area that is neither totally independent
of the central city nor restricted in function, as a suburb; frequently an
independent city that has been engulfed by the metropolis.
The main
characteristics of satellite towns are that they predate that metropolis
suburban expansion
- ·
Are at
least partially independent from that metropolis economically and socially
- ·
Are
physically separated from the metropolis by rural territory or by a major
geographic barrier such as a large river; satellite cities should have their
own independent urbanized area, or equivalent
- ·
Have
their own bedroom communities
- · Have a
traditional downtown surrounded by traditional "inner city"
neighbourhoods
- ·
May or
may not be counted as part of the large metropolis' combined statistical area
EXAMPLES:-
- Gurgaon, Faridabad,
Ghaziabad, Noida, (satellites of Delhi)
- Shamshabad, Andhra
Pradesh (satellite of Hyderabad)
- Thane, Navi
Mumbai, Maharashtra (satellite of Mumbai)
- Rajarhat, Salt
Lake (satellite of Kolkata)
Suburbs
- Suburb mostly refers to a residential area. They may be
the residential areas of a city, or separate residential communities
within commuting distance of a city.
- Some suburbs have a degree of political autonomy, and
most have lower population density than inner city neighbourhoods.
- Modern suburbs grew in the 20th century as a result of
improved road and rail transport and an increase in commuting. Suburbs
tend to proliferate around cities that have an abundance of adjacent flat
land.
- Any particular suburban area is referred to as a suburb, while suburban areas on the whole are referred to
as the suburbs or suburbia.
Suburbs are generally spread out over greater
distances than other types of living environments. For instance, people may
live in the suburb in order to avoid the density and untidiness of the city.
Since people have to get around these vast stretches of land automobiles are
common sights in suburbs. Transportation (including, to a limited extent,
trains and buses) plays an important role in the life of a suburban resident
who generally commutes to work.
Suburbs typically
have more traffic congestion and longer travel times than traditional
neighborhoods. Only the traffic within the short streets
themselves is less. This is due to three factors: almost-mandatory automobile
ownership due to poor suburban bus systems, longer travel distances and the
hierarchy system, which is less efficient at distributing traffic than the
traditional grid of streets.
E.g.. Of Suburbs-
Dwarka sub-city in New Delhi..
The New Towns
- A new town is a specific type of a planned community, or
planned city that was carefully planned from its inception and is
typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area.
- This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a
more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are uncommon in new
towns.
- The new town movement refers to towns that were built
after World War Two and that have been purposefully, planned, developed
and built as a remedy to overcrowding and congestion in some instances,
and to scattered ad hoc settlements in others.
- The main reason for it was to decongest larger
industrialized cities, rehousing people in freshly built, new and fully
planned towns that were completely self-sufficient and provided for the
community.
E.g.:- Brasilia in Brazil, Shannon Town in County
Clare Northern Ireland, Washington, DC
Garden Cities and
New Towns movement
- The New Town Movement was derived from the Garden City
Movement, founded by Ebenezer Howard in the late 1800s, as an alternative
to the over-crowded, polluted, chaotic and miserable industrial cities
that had appeared in Britain.
- Arguably, New Towns are in fact Garden Cities. They
essentially contain all of Howard’s original ideas and concepts, but go
further by adapting to the context of time in which they were built.
- One could argue that this made New Towns more achievable
than Garden Cities.
- The existence of any Garden Cities is sometimes
questioned, but the general consensus is that there are two: Letchworth,
being the first to be built, and Welwyn Garden City the second.
