Case study of Delhi

Urban Design

Submitted by - MUKUL PRATAP SINGH (20BAR1153)

NANCY RUPAL (20BAR1142)
YASHAS CHANDRA (20BAR1160)
 Introduction

● Delhi, city and national capital territory,

north-central India. The city of Delhi actually
consists of two components: Old Delhi, in the
north, the historic city; and New Delhi, in the
south, since 1947 the capital of India, built in
the first part of the 20th century as the capital
of British India.
● One of the country’s largest urban
agglomerations, Delhi sits astride (but primarily
on the west bank of) the Yamuna River, a
tributary of the Ganges (Ganga) River, about
100 miles (160 km) south of the Himalayas. The
national capital territory embraces Old and
New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan
region, as well as adjacent rural areas. To the
east the territory is bounded by the state of
Uttar Pradesh, and to the north, west, and
south it is bounded by the state of Haryana.
 Topography
● The topography of delhi can be divided into
three different parts- the plains , the yamuna
flood plains and the ridge.
● As per the topographical, delhi is located on the
western fringes of the gangetic plains.
● The other topographical feature is ridge, which
reaches the height of 1043 ft above sea level .
● Delhi is bounded by the Indo-Gangetic alluvial
plains in the North and East, by Thar desert in
the West and by Aravalli hill ranges in the
South. The terrain of Delhi is flat in general
except for alow NNE-SSW trending ridge which
is considered and extention of the Aravalli hills
of Rajasthan. A computer image of the surface
topography of Delhi is presented in the figure
below.
● Seismicity around Delhi appears to be
associated with a major geological structure,
which is known as theDelhi-Hardwar Ridge. It
coincides with the extension of the Aravali
Mountain belt beneath the alluvial plains of the
Ganga basin to the northeast of Delhi towards
the Himalayan mountain
 History
Delhi-
● The earliest reference to a settlement in the Delhi area is found in the Mahabharata, A small settlement by the Pandavas
with in the khandva forest near yamuna river around in 2500 bc.
● Later in 736 AD, Tomar kings established a new city named the lal kot and the chauhans replace the Tomars in mid 12th
century and extedet Lal Kot to form Rai Pithora.
● Delhi grew to be a capital of an empire in the time of delhi sultanate with the establishment of siri.
● Ghiysduddin Tuglaq the first of tuglaq kings who established tughlaqabad in AD 1327, Mohammad Bin Tughlaq linked the
old cities of Lal Kot and Siri with two walls to build Jahanpanah.
● Firoz Shah Tughlaq built Firozabad on the bank of river Yamuna.
● Mughal emperors, Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) and Jahāngīr (reigned 1605–27), preferred to rule India from Agra. In 1639,
however, Shah Jahān, Akbar’s grandson, instructed his engineers, architects, and astrologers to choose a location with a
mild climate somewhere between Agra and Lahore (now in Pakistan). The choice was on the western bank of the Yamuna,
just north of Purana Qila.
● Shah Jahān started the construction of the new capital, focusing on his fort, Urdu-i-Mualla, today called Lal Qila, or the Red
Fort. The structure was completed in eight years, and on April 19, 1648. Shahjahanabad today is Old Delhi. The greater part
of Old Delhi is still confined within the space of Shah Jahān’s walls, and several gates built during his rule—the Kashmiri
Gate, the Delhi Gate, the Turkman Gate, and the Ajmeri Gate—still stand
BUILDING THE SHAHJAHANBAD
Under British rule
 ● Legislative bodies with representatives of the local population were formed to control development and regulate the deteriorating
city. Infrastructure upgradation became the top priority of the authorities. A number of roads were built to connect newer parts
of Delhi to the older parts of the city and the ease of mobility was a major concern. Housing in the new imperial capital complex
was limited to high officials leading to over-densification of Old Delhi. Proximity to the railway station and ease of access for
goods and passengers, further intensified the problem. Even though infrastructure was continuously upgraded, the services were
inadequate because of rapid population growth, which Delhi witnessed post Independence. This led to the need for a new
perspective on Old Delhi. Therefore major sections in the Master Plans were dedicated to the Old City. A chronological account of
events which led to the present structure of Shahjahanabad is given below.

Present day old

delhi
Legislative setup
Redevelopment of Jama Masjid Precinct
(2010)
Agencies involved: SRDC, MCD
and Pradeep Sachdeva Design Associates
Status: In process for clearance and
implementation
Objectives:
• Identifiable urban form for the precinct
• Contemporary environment befitting the
heritage
of this precinct
• Open up visual and physical links
• Create democratic multi-use civic space and
streetscapes
• Development of a new physical plan,
incorporating
modifications in land use, built fabric, movement
networks, parking, urban infrastructure services,
rationalization of spaces for commercial and other
uses
PROJECT 2: Chandni Chowk Redevelopment Plan
Red Fort To Fatehpuri Masjid Road Stretch (2011)
Agencies involved: CSIR, MCD
and Abhimanyu Dalal Architects
Status: Report submitted
Objectives:
•Create an unique culturally significant destination and public
urban space
•Creating a pedestrian and user-friendly public
transport system
•Restating physical, visual and historic linkages.

PROJECT 3: Conservation and Development

Guidelines around Protected Monuments: Ajmeri
Gate (2006)
Agencies involved: DUAC and TVB
Status: Study
Objective: Devising a development plan that identifies PROJECT 2: Shahjahanabad Streetscaping:
Core Zone and Buffer Zone with different levels of SP Mukherjee Marg (2010)
controls guided by the specificity of context. Thus, the Agencies involved: SRDC, MCD
blanket ASI rule to be done away with. and Pradeep Sachdeva DesignAssociates
Status: Report submitted
Objectives:
• Easing out congestion by means of segregated and
controlled traffic movement
• Design for a pedestrian-friendly environment
• Facilitating access to the Old Railway Station
 Landuse

Indicative Land use within the

Walled City Within the core of the
Walled City, residential areas have
mixed-use development owing to
the organic nature of its growth.
Following older development
patterns, major streets connecting
landmarks have developed into
commercial corridors for wholesale
trade and warehousing.
Public/Semi-public facilities are a
bare minimum.
 History
● The Capital shifted from calcutta to New
Delhi.
● The foundation stone of the city was laid
by the George V , Emperor of delhi during
the Delhi Durbar of 1911, At a durbar
under a purposely built shahjahani dome.
The message was clear the britishers are
the legitimate successor of the mughal
empire.
● And their new capital was intended to
express the power of Raj, just as shah
jahan capital had expressed the authority
of mughals.
Reasons to shifting the capital-
● Controversial partition of bengal in 1905 to vote
between bengali muslims and hindus.
● Delhi’s Geographical position at the central
portion of the north India.
● Delhi’s historic importance ( important seat of the
mughal empire.(For Hindus Mahabharata era city
of Indraprastha.
● Perceived political need to rearticulate british
power.
 Criteria for site selection

The committee which was setup to choose a site recommended that if the imperial capital is to be favorably situated to present an
effective appearance, it should be approached along a line of rising ground. Lord Harding chose the Raisina Hill for locating the
viceroy’s palace because:

● It was a well drained.

● Constituted of slopes and plains between the ridge and the river.
● Its eastern and southern margins were studded with monuments of vanished empires.
● A broad crescent from Shahjahanabad and Kotla Firoz Shah, south to Tughlaqabad and the Qutub with tombs of
Safdarjung and Lodhis as well as Jantar Mantar in the foreground could be viewed from the site.
● Delhi as a site as was untouched at the time so the whole city could be planned from scratch. In Delhi, the site of the
Raisana hill was selected so that the Viceroy’s House could be higher than the rest of the city as a symbol of power and
majesty.
Major landmarks
 The Initial Design Of New delhi

● Lutyens had designed the delhi with all the streets

crossing at right angles, much like in the New
York.
● However, Lord hardinage told him of a dust
storms that sweep the landscape in these parts,
insisting on round abouts hedges and trees and
break their force, giving him the plans of rome ,
paris and washington to study and apply to delhi.
● The Plan of New delhi is purely geometrical.
● Tree lined streets radiate from the central vista,
and coverage into hexagonal nodes.

The plan showing a typical

hexagonal node with roads
covering into the roundabouts.
 Imageability of New Delhi :

Kevin lynch’s 5 principles in New Delhi :

● Landmarks : India Gate, Humayun’s Tomb, Red Fort, Lotus Temple, etc.

● Pathways : Lodhi Road, Rajiv Chowk, Kartavya Path.

● Nodes : Charles Venn Park, Motilal Nehru Place.

● Edges : Janpath road, Akbar road.

 Morphology :

● Analysis of urban sprawl was carried out by using the support vector machine (SVM). Through the CA-Markov chain analysis, we expect
that built-up area will grow from 285.68 Sqkm to 383.54 Sqkm in 2022 and 2054, as inferred from the changes that occurred from 1990
to 2022.

December 5, 1989 June 5, 2018

 Urban Density :

City Size and Population Density :

● Delhi covers a large area, totaling around 1,484

square kilometers. The city has a population density
of 29,259.12 people per square mile, which is one of
the highest in the world.
● In 1950, the population of Delhi was 1.3 Million.
● Now Delhi’s population is estimated at 3.2 Billion.
● Delhi has grown by 875,548 in the last year, which
represents a 2.73% annual change.
Major Networks of the city
Tourist attractions in NCT
Transportation mode
NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION
Regional Plannning
Thankyou