The history of Madras city clearly reveals that the city was born more out of chance or accident than on account of design. Starting from 1639-40, with the founding of Fort St George by Francis Day, Madras city has grown without any master plan. Although sporadic efforts were made from time to time to impose an architectural style on buildings or to introduce here and there some semblance of town planning, no systematic attempt at town planning in the real sense of the word was undertaken in Madras city till the end of the 19th Century.

The population of Madras city increased from 397,552 in 1871 to 509,346 in 1901. This growth created many problems with respect to roads, sanitation, market places, drinking water and educational facilities. In 1909, the Government of India decided that in the cities of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, a beginning could be made regarding town planning legislation and the form which such legislation should take. This question was discussed at the first All India Sanitary Conference held in Bombay in November 1911. The urban squalor, problems of sanitation and epidemics called for new thinking and urgent solutions.

The credit for launching the town planning movement in Madras city should go to Lord Pentland, Governor from 1912 to 1919. It was he who invited a genius called Patrick Geddes, an eminent British town planning architect, to visit Madras and advise the Municipal authorities, in 1914. Lord Pent­land, before coming to Madras, had been Secretary of State for Scotland and personally knew the work of Patrick Geddes in survey and town planning. Patrick Geddes arrived in Madras in November 1914. Lord Pentland requested Patrick Geddes to study the problems of the city of Madras and the major towns of the Madras Presidency and to give a series of lectures on the subject to the Municipal authorities and the general public. Geddes organised town planning exhibitions in the major cities and towns of the Madras Presidency, including Madras city. He can truly be called the ‘father of town planning’ not only in Madras city but throughout India.

During his stay in Madras from 1914 to 1916, he, accompanied by officials of the Madras Corporation, visited several slums then known as paracheris and also several other poor quarters in Madras city. He recommended to the Corporation authorities several measures that would improve the living conditions of the poor people without adversely disturbing them.

In all the cities he visited in South India, Geddes unsparingly explained that survey was more important than good surface planning. The planner must consider the citizens’ ­potential and evolution within his environment. Geddes had a vision of an utopia where man the world over would work in sympathy with his fellow men and nature to create a better world. Geddes was excited with what he saw in India.

He was particularly impressed by India’s urban traditions, its architectural forms and the various ways in which different communities had innovated urban living. This made him impatient with colonial notions of municipal reform and his writings showed him in combat and argument with the British authorities in India who were in charge of local self-government and municipal affairs.

In 1915, Geddes persuaded Lord Pentland to appoint an official town planning adviser and suggested the name of H.V. Lanchester, then one of the vice presidents of the Royal Institute of British Architect, to that office. He was among the founding members of the Town Planning Institute in London. In 1912, he had served as a consultant on the design of the capital city of New Delhi. The Madras Government accordingly engaged his services in October 1915. Lanchester was asked to undertake a comprehensive study on the requirements of Madras and lay down the future line of its growth and development in the manner commonly adopted in European cities. He was also asked to train some officials of the Government of Madras. While in India, apart from preparing on a plan for Madras city, Lanchester also worked in other Indian cities, both as a planner and as the architect of important buildings. His writings on planning include Town Planning in Madras & Zanzibar. Patrick Geddes and Lanchester were mainly responsible for persuading the Government of Madras to pass the historic Madras Town Planning Act, 1920. It established for the first time positive attitudes for including urban issues in public policy.

The Town Planning Act, 1920 outlined schemes for the Municipal areas and other local areas within urban centres. These schemes specified the designated use for different parcels of land and prescribed regulations governing each type of development. In areas not covered by the schemes, the Madras Corporation enacted a set of building rules to regulate the development, and land use was given secondary consideration. This system, however, was not adequate to cope with the development in later years.

After Independence, the Madras Metropolitan Development Authority was established under the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act, with effect from August 5, 1975.