1.

Principles of Town Planning

Town planning cannot be studied in isolation. It involves the study of various subjects such as engineering,
architecture, surveying, transportation planning etc. The intention of the town planning is to satisfy the needs of our
future generations and prevent the haphazard growth of the town. Some of the guiding principles of town planning are
as follows:
1. Zoning

The town should be divided into suitable zones such as commercial zone, industrial zone, residential zone, etc and
suitable rules and regulations should be formed for the development of each zone.

2. Green belt
Green belt is non-development zone on the periphery of the town. It prevents the haphazard sprawl of the town
restricting its size. In essence, a green belt is an invisible line designating a border around a certain area, preventing
development of the area and allowing wildlife to return and be established. Greenways and green wedges have a
linear character and may run across the town and not around the town.

3. Housing
Housing has to be carefully studied and designed to suit the local population. Care should be taken to see that there
is no development of slums since it would be responsible for degrading the life of the citizens. There are
various types of housing styles. When a landuse plan is made, zones for independent housing, midrise buildings,
high rise buildings are allocated. Landuse maps are of two types. Type 1 helps us study the landuse on a broad
range. All we can see are the residential, commercial and recreational zones.
4. Public buildings

Public buildings should be well grouped and distributed throughout the town. Unnecessary concentration of public
buildings should be avoided. Factors such as parking facilities, road widths have to be taken into consideration while
allocating the space for public buildings.
 5. Recreation centres

Recreation centres have to be given importance while designing a town. They are necessary for the recreational
activities of the general public. They include parks for walking and cycling, amusement parks etc.

6. Road systems

Road network hierarchy is very important. The efficiency of any town is measured by the layout of its roads. A nicely
designed road system puts a great impression in the minds of people, especially the visitors to the town. The
provision of a faulty road system in the initial stages of town formation proves to be too difficult and costly to repair or
to re-arrange in future.

7. Transport facilities
The town should be provided with suitable transport facilities so that there is minimum loss of time from place of work
to the place of residence. Efficiency in transport facilities includes both public and private networks. Public
transportation network includes access to buses, trains, trams and trolleybuses. Efficiency in using the public
transport will determine the success of that town in terms of design.

Town planning has gained a lot of importance today. New towns are being developed. It has become very important
for the town planners to concentrate on old development as well as the new development. It is essential that old and
new development are linked properly. Energy efficiency in planning should be the goal of any town planner, urban
designer or an Architect.

What is town planning?

Town planning is an art of shaping and guiding the physical growth of the town creating buildings and environments to meet the
various needs of the public such as social, cultural, economic and recreational etc. and to provide healthy conditions for both rich
and poor to live, to work and to play or relax, thus bringing:
 Physical and social planning of an urban environment.
 Encompassing many different disciplines and bringing them all under a single roof.

The objective of town planning:

 To create and promote healthy conditions and environments for the public.
 To make right use of the land for the right purpose of zoning.
 To ensure orderly development.
 To avoid encroachment of one zone over the other.
 To build social, economic and recreational amenities such as open spaces, parks, gardens, and playgrounds, town hall stadiums,
community centers, cinema houses.
 To preserve the individuality of the town
 To preserve the aesthetics in the design of all the elements of a town or a city plan.
Principles of Town Planning :
The basic intention of town planning is to satisfy the needs of our future generations and to
prevent the disorganized growth of the town or a city. Some of the principles of the town
planning are as follows:
1. Zoning: the towns are divided are into suitable zones such as commercial zone, industrial zone, residential zone, and certain rules
and regulations should be implemented for each zone.
2. Green-belt: is a non-developmental zone which is located on the periphery of the town. It usually prevents the chaotic spread of
the town, confining its size. A green belt is an invisible line designating a border around a certain area, preventing development
of the area and allowing wildlife to return and be established.
3. Housing: should be carefully designed to suit the local population and care should be taken to make sure that all the facilities are
there inside the housing complex.
4. Public buildings: should be well organized and distributed throughout the town. Unnecessary concentration of public buildings
should be avoided. Factors such as parking facilities, road widths should be taken into consideration while allocating the space
for public buildings.
5. Recreation centers: are essential while designing a town. They are necessary for the recreational activities of the public. They
include parks, for walking, cycling, amusement parks etc.
6. Road systems: road network hierarchy is very important while building a town or a city. The efficiency of any town is measured
by the layout of its roads. The provision of a faulty road system in the initial stages of town formation proves to be too difficult
and costly to repair to rearrange in future.
7. Transport facilities: the town should be provided with suitable transport facilities so that there is minimum loss of time for
commuting between the work place and the residence. Efficiency in transport facilities includes both public and private networks.
Public transportation network includes access to buses, trains, trams and trolleybuses.
Town planning has gained a lot of importance today. New towns and cities are being developed
on a regular basis and it has become very essential for the town planners to concentrate on old
development as well as the new development. Energy efficiency in planning should be the goal
of every town planner and urban designer for a sustainable living and development.

2. TOWN PLANNING IN ANCIENT INDIA ( separate PDF is there)

3. Indus Valley Civilization

The Indus Valley Civilization was an ancient civilization located in what is Pakistan and northwest India today, on
the fertile flood plain of the Indus River and its vicinity. Evidence of religious practices in this area date back
approximately to 5500 BCE. Farming settlements began around 4000 BCE and around 3000 BCE there appeared the
first signs of urbanization. By 2600 BCE, dozens of towns and cities had been established, and between 2500 and
2000 BCE the Indus Valley Civilization was at its peak.

The Life of the Indus Valley Civilization

Two cities, in particular, have been excavated at the sites of Mohenjo-Daro on the lower Indus, and at Harappa,
further upstream. The evidence suggests they had a highly developed city life; many houses had wells and
bathrooms as well as an elaborate underground drainage system. The social conditions of the citizens were
comparable to those in Sumeria and superior to the contemporary Babylonians and Egyptians. These cities display a
well-planned urbanization system.

THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THEY HAD A HIGHLY DEVELOPED

CITY LIFE; MANY HOUSES HAD WELLS AND BATHROOMS AS
WELL AS AN ELABORATE UNDERGROUND DRAINAGE
SYSTEM.
There is evidence of some level of contact between the Indus Valley Civilization and the Near East. Commercial,
religious, and artistic connections have been recorded in Sumerian documents, where the Indus valley people are
referred to as Meluhhaites and the Indus valley is called Meluhha. The following account has been dated to about
2000 BCE: "The Meluhhaites, the men of the black land, bring to Naram-Sin of Agade all kind of exotic wares."
(Haywood, p. 76, The Curse of Agade)

The Indus Civilization had a writing system which today still remains a mystery: all attempts to decipher it have
failed. This is one of the reasons why the Indus Valley Civilization is one of the least known of the important early
civilizations of antiquity. Examples of this writing system have been found in pottery, amulets, carved stamp seals,
and even in weights and copper tablets.

Another point of debate is the nature of the relationship between these cities. Whether they were independent city-
states or part of a larger kingdom is not entirely clear. Because the writing of the Indus people remains undeciphered
and neither sculptures of rulers nor depictions of battles and military campaigns have been found, evidence pointing
in either direction is not conclusive.

Decline of the Indus Valley Civilization

By 1800 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization saw the beginning of their decline: Writing started to disappear,
standardized weights and measures used for trade and taxation purposes fell out of use, the connection with the
Near East was interrupted, and some cities were gradually abandoned. The reasons for this decline are not entirely
clear, but it is believed that the drying up of the Saraswati River, a process which had begun around 1900 BCE, was
the main cause. Other experts speak of a great flood in the area. Either event would have had catastrophic effects on
agricultural activity, making the economy no longer sustainable and breaking the civic order of the cities.

Indus Valley Seals

Around 1500 BCE, a large group of nomadic cattle-herders, the Aryans, migrated into the region from central Asia.
The Aryans crossed the Hindu Kush mountains and came in contact with the Indus Valley Civilization. This was a
large migration and used to be seen as an invasion, which was thought to be the reason for the collapse of the Indus
Valley Civilization, but this hypothesis is not unanimously accepted today.

Thus, the Indus Valley Civilization came to an end. Over the course of several centuries, the Aryans gradually settled
down and took up agriculture. The language brought by the Aryans gained supremacy over the local languages: the
origin of the most widely spoken languages today in south Asia goes back to the Aryans, who introduced the Indo-
European languages into the Indian subcontinent. Other features of modern Indian society, such as religious
practices and caste division, can also be traced back to the times of the Aryanmigrations. Many pre-Aryan customs
still survive in India today. Evidence supporting this claim includes: the continuity of pre-Aryan traditions; practices
by many sectors of Indian society; and also the possibility that some major gods of the Hindu pantheon actually
originated during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization and were kept "alive" by the original inhabitants through
the centuries.

Necessity of Town Planning

Regional planning

deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across
a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is a sub-field of urban
planning as it relates land use practices on a broader scale. It also includes formulating laws that will
guide the efficient planning and management of such said regions.[1]
Regions require various land uses; protection of farmland, cities, industrial space, transportation
hubs and infrastructure, military bases, and wilderness. Regional planning is the science of efficient
placement of infrastructure and zoning for the sustainable growth of a region. Advocates for regional
planning such as new urbanist Peter Calthorpe, promote the approach because it can address
region-wide environmental, social, and economic issues which may necessarily require a regional
focus.
A ‘region’ in planning terms can be administrative or at least partially functional, and is likely to
include a network of settlements and character areas. In most European countries, regional and
national plans are ‘spatial’ directing certain levels of development to specific cities and towns in
order to support and manage the region depending on specific needs, for example supporting or
resisting polycentrism.

Principles[edit]
Specific interventions and solutions will depend entirely on the needs of each region in each country, but generally speaking,
regional planning at the macro level will seek to:

 Resist development in flood plains or along earthquake faults. These areas may be utilised as parks, or unimproved
farmland.
 Designate transportation corridors using hubs and spokes and considering major new infrastructure
 Some thought into the various ‘role’s settlements in the region may play, for example some may be administrative, with others
based upon manufacturing or transport.
 Consider designating essential nuisance land uses locations, including waste disposal.
 Designate Green belt land or similar to resist settlement amalgamation and protect the environment.
 Set regional level ‘policy’ and zoning which encourages a mix of housing values and communities.
 Consider building codes, zoning laws and policies that encourage the best use of the land.

 IM & OBJECTIVES
The overall objective of Regional Plan is to achieve sustainable development harmonizing social, economic and environmental
needs through appropriate planning and management of land and its resources.

The specific objectives of the study are:

  To study the physical, socio-economic and infrastructural characteristics of the State;
 To identify the environmental resources and sensitive lo.nes in the State;
 To identifying the development needs of various parts of the State;
 To identify development potential for various sectors in the State;
 To suggest a spatially balanced settlement structure for a harmonised relation between urban and rural areas; and
 To suggest development options to achieve balanced and sustainable development of Tripura.

The Regional Planning Study employed mapping tool. The thematic maps are prepared in 1 :2,50,000 scale. GIS was used for mapping and
analysis. Field surveys and ground checks were made. However, the major limitation of the study is that it depended upon the secondary
sources of data, though mainly on the data published by the Government departments, institutes and other agencies.