At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Tatas wanted to build a steel plant in India. Jamshedji Tata went to Pittsburgh and asked geologist Charles Page Perin to help him find the site to build his dream — India’s first steel plant. The search for a site rich in the resources needed for the plant, namely iron, coal, limestone and water began in April 1904 in today’s Madhya Pradesh.

The prospectors, C. M. Weld, Dorab Tata and Shapurji Saklatvala, took nearly three years in a painstaking search across vast stretches of inhospitable terrain to find a suitable location. One day, almost by accident they came across a village called Sakchi (now part of Tatanagar), on the densely forested stretches of the Chhota Nagpur plateau, near the confluence of the Subarnarekha and Kharkai rivers. It seemed to be the ideal choice and the place was selected.

Early development work was undertaken by Durrell & Co, a civil engineering firm run by Lawrence Samuel Durrell, the father of the naturalist Gerald Durrell (who was born here) and the novelist Lawrence Durrell. Commissioned by the Tata family in 1920, Durrell was responsible for building a tinplate mill, a brick-making plant, an office building, a hospital and over four hundred workers’ houses.

Jamshedji’s plan for the city was clear. He envisioned far more than a mere row of workers hutments. He insisted upon building all the comforts and conveniences a city could provide. As a result, many areas in the city are well planned and there are great public leisure places such as the Jubilee Park.

While building this beautiful city, Jamshetji Tata had said …

“Be sure to lay wide streets planted with shady trees, every other of a quick growing variety. Be sure that there is plenty of space for lawns and gardens; reserve large areas for football, hockey and parks; earmark areas for Hindu temples, Mohammedan mosques and Christian churches.”

What the city looks like today is a testament to his visionary plans. Jamshedpur is the only city in India without a municipality. The responsibility for its conservation and maintenance is entirely assumed by Tata Steel, very likely a unique situation in the world. Legend has it that in the late 1980s when the state government proposed a law to end the Tatas’ administration of Jamshedpur and bring the city under a municipality, the local populace rose in protest and defeated the government’s proposal. In 2005, a similar proposal was once again put up by lobbying politicians. The target audience was the working class. A large majority of this sided with the government and set up protest meetings outside the East-Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner’s office. However, the objective was never achieved and Jamshedpur remains without a municipality till date.