Making of Delhi City – Villages to Urban Centers

The growth of Modern Delhi city started with the foundation of Shahjahanabad in 1648 AD. The proper city covered hardly a radius of 5 km and all around it, there were small settlements. Up to 1857 the city continued to grow within the walls and rural areas were not disturbed. In 1857 after the suppression of the uprising the British cleared the whole area from Red Fort to Jama Masjid for military reasons. The people who lost their houses in the process migrated to settle outside the walled city. That was the first time when the city started expanding outside the walls into a rural hinterland.

In 1911 the shifting of the capital to the Delhi site was selected for the new capital near Raisina Hills to the south of the walled city. 7 villages were acquired, village Raisina, Malcha, Kushak, Pelanjee, Dasgarah, Talkatora, and Motibagh. The whole area was converted into a garden city measuring over 1,295 hectares and planned for a projected population of 65,000. Large tracts of rural land were acquired to develop a new township in the Civil Lines (military and administrative purposes), Paharganj in the west and Subzi Mandi in the north developed as shelters and a few more villages in the north were acquired for housing the military cantonment.

After the partition of the country, a large number of Punjabi refugees came to Delhi. A great need was felt to acquire land for their rehabilitation. In the South, the agricultural land of Nizamuddin, Ghari, Zamurdpur, Hauz Rani, and Begam Pur villages was acquired to build the rehabilitation colonies of Lajpat Nagar, Kalkaji, Malaviya Nagar, and Nizamuddin.

In the west agricultural land of Shadipur, Basai Darapur, Tatarpur, and Khampur Raya villages was acquired to build the new colonies of Rajinder Nagar, Patel Nagar, Moti Nagar, Ramesh Nagar, and Tilak Nagar. Kingsway Camp in the North and Gandhi Nagar in the East were built on the agricultural land acquired from the villages of Dhaka, Malikpur, and Seelampur respectively.

The laying of new railway lines and roads also brought changes in the structure of the city. The rail connection with Calcutta in 1867, Bombay in 1873, Karnal and Ambala in 1891 and Moradabad in 1897 brought about urbanization along these railway lines. The laying of railway lines and the building of railway stations necessitated the acquisition of large areas between Chandni Chowk and Kashmere Gate. The construction of the ring road in 1956 opened up new areas for development in the periphery of the city. Thus owing to urban expansion and structural changes the ruins of the historic cities of Indraprastha, Qila Rai Pithora, Tughlakabad, and Siri Jahanpanaha were joined together with Shahjahanabad and New Delhi to form a major urban conglomeration of economic changes.