PLANNING OF

ISLAMABAD

HUMAN SETTLEMENT

Location : North-eastern part of Pakistan in

Islamabad Capital Territory

Climate : Humid Sub-tropical

Geography :
Part of the Potohar Plateau.
Undulating terrain with small patches of
alluvial
plains especially along the Soan and
Korang rivers.
The whole area is also dissected by local streams and
drains that
originate from Margalla and Murree hills & are significant
in drainage
system.
The area slopes from north to south.

Need Of A New Capital

Karachi was located at one end of the country making it
vulnerable
to attacks from the Arabian Sea.

H
I
S
T
O
R
Y

Pakistan needed a capital that was

easily
accessible from all parts of the
country.
Karachi, a business center, was also
considered unsuitable partly
because of
intervention of business interests in
government affairs.
Karachi started showing the sign of agglomeration
with
consequences of unhygienic conditions seriously
effecting
the health of the government servants.

Site selection :
The available site near Rawalpindi i.e present day
Islamabad was
chosen owing to various advantages which were

Close proximity to the existing urban area of

Rawalpindi helped in the development of
Islamabad by
providing the access to existing transport
network(GT
road) & supplying labour for the
development.
Rawalpindi was already main military center &
accommodated
initial government offices and personnel.
Topographical conditions such as a foothill of
Himalayas from
1600-1900 ft. above sea level & presence of river

Doxiadis & the Concept of Dynapolis /

Dynametropolis :
Greek architect-planner C. A. Doxiadis planned the
city of
Islamabad on his concept of dynametropolis.

It was proposed that

Islamabad
and Rawalpindi will expand
dynamically towards
southwest
along with their centre
cores (blue
area- spine of central
facilities)
benefitting from each other
with
He regularized grid layout on which the city was to
least possible adverse
grow sector
effects
in
by sector,
with each sector and sub-sector having
traffic.
its own
residences, shops and parks.

Islamabad will serve mainly administrative and

cultural functions. Rawalpindi will remain the
regional center serving
industrial and commercial functions.

It

was proposed that

Metropolitan area will

all

three

component

of

be connected by four major highways (1200 ft. wide),

Muree
Highway (now Kashmir Highway), Islamabad Highway,
Soan
Highway and Capital Highway, meeting at right angles
of which
only two highways (Kashmir and Islamabad) have
been built till
now. Street have equal width and they cross each other at
right angle.

Grid-Iron Pattern :
The city was conceived into grid-iron patterns
developed into 2 km
x 2 km sectors segregated by the hierarchy of wide
principal roads
(600 ft.) comprising Islamabad and Rawalpindi area.
The Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) is divided into Islamabad
City and Islamabad Rural:
-Islamabad Urban Area (city proper) including institutional and
industrial area(505 km2)
-The rural area divided into 12 union councils which are
comprised of 133 villages .(401 km2)

Islamabad Capital Territory is divided into eight zones:

Administrative Zone, Commercial District, Educational
Sector, Industrial Sector, Diplomatic Enclave, Residential
Areas, Rural Areas and Green Area.

Islamabad city is divided into five major zones: Zone I,

Zone II, Zone
III, Zone IV, and Zone V.
Zone I consists mainly of all the developed residential
sectors while
Zone II consists of the under-developed residential .

The sectors are lettered from A to I,

and each sector is divided into four
numbered sub-sectors.

Housing is provided in grid-iron pattern sectors on

disciplined
hierarchy of communities according to their income
groups
with four communities clustered around an
enlarged shopping
center at the centre.

Transport :
Transport Network :
The grid-iron pattern of sectors was served by a
hierarchically structured road network comprising
a width of
1200, 600, 300 ft intersecting at right angles.

Local and collector low

speed
roads,
wide
sidewalks,
pedestrian
roads and bicycles lanes
with
green
belts
are
provided.

A speedy and free traffic can be maintained but

with
disadvantage of no short- cuts provision.

Problems Faced :
The plan has focused on building hardware (physical
infrastructure) as compared to develop software
(institutional
framework) necessary for implementing the plan.

Absence of institutional framework resulted in administrative

fragmentation, CDA managed Islamabad in a much better way
as compared to RDA managed Rawalpindi but since both these
cities have many interdependent aspects, they effect each other
directly .
For instance Nala Lai, once a fresh water stream, connect the
two in such a way that the regular rains and floods have direct
impacts upon both with one city is seen impacting the other.

8% population of Islamabad city has been noted to

be residing in
its 34 squatter settlements or Katchi Abadis with
slum like
situation.

References :
www.cda.gov.pk
en. wikipedia.org
Sajida Iqbal Maria and Muhammad
Imran, planning of Islamabad and
Rawalpindi: what went wrong?

Abdul Shakoor Sindhu ,Rawalpindi and Islamaba

Multi Hazard Risk Mapping , published by Rural
Development Policy Institute (RDPI).

THE END
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