The Rangoon Development Trust (RDT) was as an organization founded in 1920 by way of the

Rangoon Development Trust Act Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

. The Trust oversaw

town planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

in the Municipality of

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(now Yangon).

History

The founding of the RDT was one of many early twentieth-century initiatives aimed at improving increasingly difficult living conditions in Rangoon; the municipality was underdeveloped, many thoroughfares were marshy and laden with wooden planks in order to make them navigable. Although the city centre did feature numerous masonry and to a less extent concrete buildings, its residents were housed primarily in flimsy timber structures. The RDT oversaw the creation of new housing for Rangoon's poorer residents, an increasingly limited supply of housing in a town which saw 50 years of British, Chinese and Indian immigration in turn resulted in a property price spiral, pricing many out of the property market. The RDT sought to alleviate these conditions by encouraging migration outwards of Rangoon City Centre towards newer suburbs through the building of better roads as well as reclaiming land East and West of the centre of Rangoon.

Responsibilities

* Maintenance and extension of utilities such as lighting and water-supply. * Determining suitability and viability of unused land for the purpose of new building projects. * Allotting land for roads, parks, gardens schools, markets and any other public space intended for public use. * Preservation of structures of historical interest or natural beauty. The RDT was responsible for the opening of Scott Market (now Bogyoke Aung San Market) on the site of a former train depot.

References

{{Reflist Organizations established in 1920 Yangon