Most of the towns that are of any age do not seem to have been planned at all. Like the little negro girl, Topsy, in Mrs. Stowe’s famous novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” who, when asked who made her, said, “I expect I just grown,” these towns seem to have “just grown” without any plan at all.
Take any town in India like Calcutta, Bombay or Madras, or in England like Manchester, Leeds, or London itself, and you will find it began long ago as a small village, and, as the population increased, new houses and streets were built just as seemed most convenient at the moment, until the town gradually covered the surrounding country with bricks and mortar as it extended, without any definite scheme at all.
The result is a confused labyrinth of streets and roads and squares, that have been laid out with little consideration for convenience or health or beauty, and with none for any preconceived plan of the whole.
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The result is that old cities like Delhi, Agra and Allahabad, while being quaint and picturesque, are, with their narrow streets and lanes, very congested, inconvenient and unhealthy; and more modern manufacturing towns like Manchester, Sheffield, Warrington, etc., are very ugly and dirty in addition.
To alter such an old town is now very difficult, if not impossible, because of the enormous expense it would involve; for property in a large town is always very valuable.
But in laying out new towns, town-planning is possible, and is recognized as being absolutely necessary. A good example is, the laying out and building of the New Delhi or Chandigarh which was done according to a well-thought-out plan.
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What has to be kept in mind in planning a new town is the necessity for wide streets, and open spaces like public parks and garden (which are rightly called the lungs of a town) to provide plenty of fresh air for the inhabitants.
Another important point is to arrange that the business part of the town (shops and offices) should be separated from the residential part, and that all factories and workshops should be well outside.
The streets should be arranged in such a way as to provide easy access to all parts of the town, and the houses should be built in a beautiful style of architecture, and each should have its own garden.
Lastly, the most up-to-date system of drainage, water-supply, lighting and general sanitation should be installed. Such plans have been followed in the so-called garden-cities.