From 50 Years Ago: Bidhan Roy's Baby

With the passing away of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, it looked as if one of Dr Roy’s great dreams – and his last love, Calcutta City Planning – would pass away too. It looked problematic indeed whether the project of preparing a plan for the Calcutta Metropolitan area, which had been started with the assistance of a team of experts provided by the Ford Foundation, was going to be abandoned or left in cold storage, which would be worse...

It is against this background that Prime Minister Nehru’s vigorous support to the idea of metropolitan planning acquires a special significance. Last Sunday during his brief visit to Calcutta...Pandit Nehru was quick to note that the zeal and single-mindedness with which the late Chief Minister had been pursuing the city’s problems needed to be revived...

Pandit Nehru proceeded to emphasise the need for long-term planning, keeping at least a 20 year span in view. City planning, he patiently explained, was a complex exercise involving many different problems – sanitation, sewerage, traffic flows, industrial location and the like. If the exercise were to be successfully accomplished, Calcutta needed an expert team of town planners and should welcome any assistance that was offered. At this point, he brought in Delhi’s master plan to reinforce his argument and paid a handsome compliment to the Ford Foundation team which had helped in preparing that plan.