How did the development or expansion of Bombay differ or similar from London ? State any three points of difference between the two.
Similarities and differences between the development of London and Bombay were as mentioned below : (1) Similarities : Both cities are capital modern cities – London in Britain and Bombay in India. Industrialisation was responsible for the expansion of both cities. Both cities faced housing, transport and other problems. Like tenements in London, chaw Is were largely owned by private landlords such as merchants, bankers and building contractors looking for quick(ways of earning money. (2) Differences : Bombay was more crowded than London. While every Londoner in the 1840s enjoyed an average space of 155 square yards, Bombay had a mere 9.5 square yards. By 1872 when London had an average of eight persons per house, the density in Bombay was as high as 20. In London transport problem was solved by the first underground railway in the world but in Bombay there is local railway and no underground railway. In London attempts were made to decongest localities, green the open spaces, reduce pollution and landscape the city. Large blocks of apartments, particularly single family cottages, to solve the housing problem suburbs were developed too. In Bombay with the rapid unplanned expansion of the city, crisis of housing and water supply became acute by the mid-1850s. Town planning in London emerged from fears of social revolution, planning in Bombay came about as a result of fears about the plague epidemic (1898). In Bombay land reclamation of more land from the sea took place. In London the suburbs were developed to decongest the city. In London, rent control was introduced during the First World War to ease the impact of a severe housing shortage. In Bombay, high rents forced the workers to share homes either with relatives or caste fellows who were screaming into the city.
