The Urban Pattern of Calcutta, India

This journal article was very interesting because it really discussed the city of Calcutta in detail. I feel like I learned a lot about the city itself, and the information includes things that I can look out for this summer while I am in the city. The author also did a really good job of breaking the article up into different sections to adequately explain the different areas of the city.

The author first discusses the importance of Calcutta because of its location. This was also mentioned in the previous article I read, but a lot of the importance is due to its excellent position at the mouth of the Ganges Valley. The water source near Calcutta provides a great advantage to this particular city. For factual information, Calcutta is the capital of the province of West Bengal, it is the focus of trade and commerce of all eastern India, and it is the center of modern life of Hindu Bengal.

While Calcutta is located in, what seems to be a prime area, the city has grown in a haphazard way during the course of two and a half centuries. The population density of Calcutta is approximately 100,000 people to the square mile. The way the city is organized and the congestion in the city can be quite overwhelming. The author mentions the over strained municipal services, the large amounts of garbage that is accumulated, the lack of filtered water, etc. due to the make up of the city. These are some of the general characteristics mentioned by the author of this article.

The author then goes on to discuss the functional areas of the city, which were divided into six different categories. The first category is Fort William and the surrounding park. This Fort stood as a symbol of British power in eastern India. It is generally still well kept with lakes and trees around. The second category is the administrative and commercial "core." This area contains government administrative buildings along with secondary retail business districts. The third area is the foreign residential section, consisting of substantial buildings and large apartment houses. Well planned streets as compared with the rest of the city are also found here. The next area is the old residential district. This is an extremely congested area that exhibits "reckless" growth of homes. The newer residential district, number five, shows evidence of a planned peripheral development of the city. The last area the author mentions is the dock area that is located on the river used for loading and unloading large steamers.

The author also discusses public utilities within the city. The water supply is a large issue in this big city. Unfiltered water is typically in adequate supply during the majority of the year, but it is inadequately supplied during the hot and dry seasons of the year. Typically 25 gallons of filtered water per heard per day are supplied (I wonder how many gallons are supplied here on a typical day?). During the hot season, water is only supplied during certain hours of the day. Power, sewage disposal, and slum areas are also briefly mentioned by the author.

Finally, physical handicaps of the city were discussed. Some of these include the difficulty that comes when the drains overflow because of the way the city is built. Calcutta is built in a way that the water during the rainy season inundates areas for days and weeks at a time. Wide stretches of salt marshes cause physical obstacles along with breeding grounds for mosquitoes which can result in an unhealthy environment in general. The soil in the city is clay and clay loam. This results in difficulty building roads and construction work, especially during the rainy season. This also increases the cost of construction. The author does not go into detail, but mentions a "Master Plan" to fix some of the constraints in the city. He lists four areas that desperately need improvement, these are: de-congestion of urban area, zonal distribution of functional areas, improvement and possible removal of slum areas (I would like to know how the author thinks that will happen...), and finally proper distribution of communication facilities. While I appreciate the author's suggestions, I wish I knew ways he expected people to go about making these changes. They seem a little idealistic to me--but maybe I'm just cynical! : )