Members of the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies and other Faculty members of both institutions have begun work in various capacities toward creating a new city in central Venezeula.

The $900,000 project will analyze the Guayana region at the Caroni and Orinoco Rivers, an area of rich resources. The new city, to be called Santo Tomas de Guayana, is epected to be ready for a population of 250,000 by 1970.

Currently some staff members are in Venezuela to work on city planning for the region, and several others are doing research in Cambridge on economic, social, industrial, and transportation factors.

Started Last Summer

The proect was launched early last summer after the appoinment of a Director, Norman Williams, Jr., formerly chief of the Office of Master Planning in New York City. Wilhelm V. von Moltke, chief designer of the city planning commission of Philadelphia, will be in charge of urban design.

Martin Meyerson, Director of the Joint Center, and Lloyd Rodwin, chairman of the faculty committee, expect to visit the region in November in connection with further planning. The Center is now seeking a top-flight economist and sociologist to complete the planning team.

A prominent problem for Joint Center members in Cambridge will be advising the country on a governing system for the new city.

Already, substantial industrial development has started, including a recently completed dam on the Caroni River, a government-owned steel mill, and railroad installations which bring iron ore down the Orinoco.