Measuring sustainability of development in planned hill towns: A case of new tehri town

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the sustainability of development, addressed in low-rise hill settlement. The study is done, in the context of New Tehri township in Uttarakhand that was developed to resettle the residents of settlements affected by Tehri Dam, completed in 1993 and which was awarded Prime Minister’s national award for excellence in planning and design in the hills in 2000. The findings reveal that accessibility has a direct relation to the population density and land use mix. The area with better accessibility and mixed land use proportions are performing better at sustainability level than the areas with poor access to public transport and community facilities. The study also emphasizes the need to develop an urban sustainability assessment framework/tool for hill settlements which could be useful for addressing the new development area and identifying the possible shortcomings of the developed area.