tronic method of measuring traffic flow for speed and density of vehicles, in which a central computer determines the sequences of traffic signals best suited to immediate traffic conditions. Originally tried in Toronto, the system is expected to save over 9,000 vehicles hours of delay every day, in addition to eliminating the need for street widening.

A new automatic transit experiment in Pittsburgh may provide a solution to mass transport problems of cities with medium traffic density. The transit expressway involves the operation of many small vehicles with rubber tyres over a continuous loop at short intervals, 24 hours daily. During peak periods, vehicles are electronically added to form trains with capacity for 21,000 passengers in each direction. The plan is designed to be integrated with existing modes of transport.

But transport is only one of a series of of problems to be overcome and urban specialists have expressed the need for a coherent philosophy of city goals that will identify obstacles in order of priority Edmund Bacon, a foremost city planner, claims that there is a need for a new image of what the modern city may become, of how it is to grow physically, where its people will live and work, and how these areas will be functionally related to each other. Within this framework, the creative development of an urban culture can take place.

Philadelphia, America's fourth largeat city is a partial example of what such planning can achieve. An unhealthy slum district has been torn down and replaced by an industrial park. Private and municipal investment combined to make the improvement possible, with a scheme for the entire downtown area. A new office complex has been completed with a plaza and sunken gardens and waterfall beside subway car exits. One result has been an increase in business activity, department store sales, and the level of private construction. Two hundred and fifty green malls and little parks have been designed in once congested neighbourhoods and tall blocks of "highrise" flats with modern patterns of concrete balconies have replaced deteriorat

ing houses. Historical buildings (some built in the 1700s), have been preserved and blended architecturally with modern structures. A huge shopping centre with spaces for 3,000 cars, bus terminals, hanging ésplanades, a hotel and restaurants has transformed Philadelphia's main thoroughfare and a new vitality has been infused into an old city with a once decaying centre.

Arch Of Steel

In St Louis a 630-ft stainless steel arch has revitalized the Mississippi waterfront. Pitts burgh, a steel and coal centre for long known as the "Smoky City", spent 10 years in tearing down ugly warehouses, now replaced by a park. Rigid smoke control laws affect both industry and residents, many of whom see city sunshine for the first time. Boston's central area was decaying as people and firms moved away, but a new planning-minded mayor brought Federal funds to rejuvenate the city, partly as a memorial to the late President Kennedy.

now

Twenty miles from Washington a new city, Reston, Virginia, is designed to provide for 80,000 people in seven neighbourhood villages with an artificial lake. The town is so planned that every section is within walking distance.

Forty miles up the Hudson River from New York, Sterling Forest embodies a modern departure in subarban planning with industrial research centres, three residential zones, and a shopping mart threaded with natural lakes and landscaped gardens. This exemplifies a new tendency for department stores to build in suburban shopping plazas rather than downtown. In fact, some theorists claim that the concept of the city core is obsolete, and the focal points of city life-shops, cultural facilities and offices should be built vertically in tiers and spread out along the arteries of the highway

network.

Artistic Growth

Underlying these and other developments in Milwaukee, Denver, and San Francisco is a Federal campaign seeking to replace drabness with aesthetic growth. The impetus has (Continued on page 12 )

2.50 lakh people initially in an area of 3.75 square miles at a cost of Rs. 38 crores. The procedure has to be followed by the filing up and development of further two square miles to accommodate an additional population of approximately two lakhs; one at Kona to accommodate 70.000 people at a cost of Rs. 2.70 crores and the third at Sonarpur for a population of about another two lakhs at a cost of Rs. 14 crores.

As For Calcutta and Howrah the Plan

ning Organization prepared two major urban renewal projects in the heart of the Metropolitan Centre-one in the New Market area, near the Cen ral Municipal Office Buildings

and the other in Howrah Maidan area. A sum of Rupees Three Crores has been provided for the implementation of these two projects and as expected would initiate a long term programme of central area

renewal.

An Exhibition-Challenge For Calcutta' as designed, was put up on the occasion, in the Information Centre. This was scheduled to remain open till the 31st January. It drew a daily crowd of visitors. It depicted in pictures the main feature of the plans and principal problems of Calcutta, which needed immediate attention. The opening series of photographs dealt with the problems that faced everyday. There one could find a realistic view of its open drains, unhealthy bustee life and intolerable traffic condition in the city and in its fringes. A brief graphical presentation of the major recommendation of the Basic Development Plan was shown in the next series of panels. How the Calcutta Metropolitan District was related to the region of Eastern India and what it means to West Bengal depicted therein. The last section was devoted to photographs of already completed projects that marked the

beginning of better life in Calcutta. These projects were in accord with the ideas set forth in the basic plan and represented_private as well as public enterprises. They symbolize the joint public and private efforts that were necessary to ensure the succes of the rescue of Calcutta and restore its future.

Metropolitan Districts Basic Needs

The Schemes for the Metropolitan Transportation System, in addition to work planned by the agencies responsible for the Port, the Railways and the Airport, were two new Ghat to link more effectively the two parts bridges across the Hooghly-one at Princep of the Metropolitan Centre, and the other to link the two halves of the proposed new centre at Kalyani- Bansberia. It also suggested modernization of traffic operations in the central areas of the Metropolitan Centre and, through this, better utilization of the capacity of the existing street system; and adequate approach roads and links to connect the two additional bridges with the system of current and proposed highways and

arterial roads.

Further the Plan recommended the establishment of several new Metropolitan Authorities. In addition to the Calcutta

Metropolitan Water and Sanitation Authority already started functioning, there should be four other initial bodies: a Metropolitan Traffic and Transportation Authority, the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners, a State Housing Board with a division responsible for housing in the Metropolitan Districts and a Metropolitan Park and Recreation Authority.

The total cost of the water supply and environment sanitation schemes was expected to be Rs. 47.18 crores, of which Rs. 3.53 crores had been spent during the Third FiveYear Plan. Rs. 27.53 crores has been earmarked to be spent during the Fourth Five-Year Plan period, and the rest during the Fifth Plan.

A Few Suggestions

Among the items for perspective development, the Plan suggested the establishment of a West Bengal Industrial Deve

lopment Corporation. A land policy within a State Planning frame-work should also be initiated to ensure that developed land in quantities sufficient for the needs of the existing and anticipated urban population was made available in right places and at the right times. It pleaded for proper co-ordination of Central and State Government policies.

The Plan suggested that Governmental action should be focussed on four kinds of programme: a programme for economic growth, a strengthening of the governmental and administrative system, major improvements to the physical environments and the provision of key community services and facilities.

The private construction of industry should be supported as fully as possible in providing housing. The Plan recommended experimental public-sector housing in order to stimulate the private sector and to provide prototypes for later public sector housing on a greater scale were further recommended. The Twenty-Year Programme

In its recommendation for the 20-year period, the Planning Organization emphasized the importance of the Governmental renewal and development efforts on two strategic centres within the Metropolitan District-The Metropolitan Centre, which consists of Calcutta and Howrah and the areas immediately around them, and a new urban centre in the north of the Metropolitan District, as the commercial and cultural heart of the State. Both the Metropolitan Centre and the new centre recommended at KalyaniBansberia are considered excellent locations for additional urban growth,

The setting up of a Special Administrative Authority for bustee improvement was also recommended in the new plan. It suggested the desirability of establishing a Metropolitan Commission on Education. This should be examined early. Last but not the least there should be a State Planning Authority to co-ordinate the effort of several agencies and exercise capital budgeting for

the State.

New Urban Centres

Of all actions recommended for the

Metropolitan District during the 20-year period, including those recommended for immediate execution, presuppose a simultaneous major effort to develop Urban Centres elsewhere in the State. In particular, it is assumed that three other centres of industrialization and urbanization-AsansolDurgapur, Haldia and Siliguri-will be given immediate attention. Public-sector industrial planning has also to be co-ordinated with urban planning throughout the State. It has been assumed also that the

State's regional transportation system will be developed to support the desired urbanization.

Port Needs Thorough Over-hauling

In the concluding chapter it was stated that its recommendations have to be viewed as part of a comprehensive whole, to be implemented in a co-ordinated manner by the many agencies involved, all moving together towards the same objectives.

There is no indication as yet of any major expansion of Calcutta port being undertaken. But it has been accepted on all recognized centres that Calcutta should have modern facilities to enable the existing port function effectively and competitively. The current proposal of Calcutta Port Commissioners is to spend about Rs. 15 crores during the Fourth Five-Year Plan for improving the cargo-handling plant and machinery.. The proposed improvement would increase the handling capacity by about 20 per cent.

The present deteriorated situation can be described even in the manner that ships bigger than 10,000 tons, with drafts of over 26 feet, have virtually no chance of entering the port. As the best drafts are available for only a limited period during spring tides, deep draft ships have to plan their voyages. so as to enter or leave the Port during this short period.

Silting Up Of River Causing Anxiety

Apart from crippling the port, the threat to water supply as well. If timely silting up of the Hooghly poses a serious measures are not taken to increase the flow of fresh water into the river, the raw water received at Palta intake point may become too saline to be potable for weeks or even

months. The threat is serious, because indications point out that the salinity of the Hooghly will increase to a degree in only a few years' time.

With less and less water in the Hooghly, the river's delta-building activities have stopped. The silt is being carried downstream and deposited in the river bed itself. The Union Government has calculated that 90 to 100 million cubic feet of silt come into the Hooghly every year and twothirds of it is deposited in the river below Bansberia.

Town Planners Urge Effective
Measures To Save Calcutta

The problems of Calcutta have attracted the attention of the town planners of the whole world. This was proved by a seminar held in the second week of January in the city.

The seminar was attended by nine town planners of international fame.

These experts have called for urgent implementation of the Calcutta development programme "because the time unhappily, is fast running out for the city".

They "diagnosed" the "malaise" as "acute urban concentration".

They felt that unless something was done quickly, there would be a complete breakdown of the city's economy, transport, sanitation, housing and other essential services. If that happened, it would "be a disaster for mankind. That would be a concession given to failure".

The town planners have commended the plan for Calcutta's development prepared by the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organization. The 200-page document was formally given to the State Government by the Organization on January 17.

The experts have described this plan as "a social document of great significa ace".

According to them in order to make a fundamental change in the situation, "the State Government as well as the Central Government must change their fiscal policies."