Satellite Town Development in Retrospect and Prospect

Abstract

In the latter half of the 20th Century, urban development policies in India focused on growth control strategies of metropolitan cities and megacities, and the idea of satellite town emerged widely. Countries like the UK, USA, and France, during the sixties and seventies, has shown excellent results in satellite development. Between 1960 and 1980, for Asian cities like those of Japan, China, India, etc. attempts were made in developing satellite cities particularly close to capital cities. This chapter reviews the earlier efforts made to create satellite towns around metropolitan cities, particularly around Delhi, Greater Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and also try to find out their role in sharing the concentrated activity load in the main city. This chapter also attempts the experiences of developing satellite towns around metropolitan cities in the UK, USA, Japan, China, Egypt, etc. and also critically assesses their responsibilities in pulling the activity loads of the metropolitan city. This chapter also identifies the set of factors that explain the success and failure of satellite city development. Giving a concise and prolonged account of the Indian satellite development scenario, it also focuses on international trends and practices in this regard.