CDP-II: Integration of city’s transport and devpt needs necessary

By Kartik Lokhande

With horizontal and vertical expansion of the city, the term ‘development planning’ has incorporated transportation as a major factor considering the growing requirement of citizens. However, if one takes a look at Nagpur’s growth so far, it still appears to be following the ‘development-oriented-transport’ and not the current concept of ‘transport-oriented-development’ being followed universally.

Let us take a look at the city. Nagpurians make around 33 lakh trips per day! This includes around 57,000 trips through inter-city buses, 78,000 trips through railways, remaining through motorised or non-motorised transport. These trips are made on road network, of which 79 per cent is tarred, 20 per cent is water-bound macadam (WBM), and remaining is concrete. There is no city-level railway network (like ‘locals’ in Mumbai), but the Government has given ‘in-principle’ nod to metro railway in the city and has entrusted Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) with the responsibility. With the city rising vertically, population is increasing day-by-day and there is increase in burden on roads as well as city bus service. Similarly, horizontal expansion is taking place owing to unaffordable land/property prices in the city. This is contributing to rise in transportation needs of the citizens from new areas on the periphery to the inner areas of the city where maximum economic activities are centred.

All these have thrown new challenges before the city planners and civic authorities including Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) as well as NIT. However, to ease out traffic congestion and providing a sustainable alternative to density of vehicles on roads, several fly-overs were constructed in the city. Most of them, like the one in front of Railway Station or Pachpaoli, were constructed without giving a proper thought to land use plan. While erecting such structures in the city, thought was given first to development and not regulating it sensing the transportation needs of the citizens in future. 

When the city’s transportation needs increased, and funding was available under Centrally-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the civic authorities roped in a private operator for running city bus service. Again, it was thought of in isolation and a vital element of public transport like city bus service was not integrated with city’s development. As a result, city buses do not have proportionate and adequate parking space. For want of proper designation of stands, auto-rickshaws are seen commonly in front of city bus shelters, adding to traffic chaos on city roads. Not ensuring provision of adequate parking space in multi-storeyed buildings has resulted in roadside parking of vehicles, which has effectively reduced the ‘available road length’ at many places.

Further, lack of integration of the public transport with old and new development in the city has created several spots of congestion in road network. There are several spots that can be mentioned – Sadar, Satranjipura, Sitabuldi, Mahal, Itwari, Gandhibagh, Ravi Nagar, etc. In many areas, even the city buses find it difficult to take a turn owing to non-integration of road design with public transport. This is a result of laying roads first and then introducing public transport at mass level. Road design was finalised in isolation and public transport, too, was thought of in isolation. There are several areas where people want public transport but it is not possible because of narrow roads. One reason is that the width and length of the roads are not in proportion to the main roads they join. Road-cuts and fly-over openings are at such spots in various parts of the city that people tend to go wrong-side, posing a risk to road safety.

Pedestrian safety is another issue because of parking of vehicles or encroachments on footpaths (pedestrian ways), and overall neglect towards ‘zebra-crossing’ by vehicularists as well as authorities. The problems are compounded due to lack of effective co-ordination among various agencies as far as maintenance of infrastructure facilities is concerned. As a result, once a new road is laid, another agency digs it either for laying utilities or cables or pipelines. Despite having norms, the dug up portion is not repaired for days together. In many areas, the dug up portion is repaired so badly that the repairs have done more harm than good to the road width available for smooth flow of traffic.

Several such aspects come to fore as one goes deeper into the subject. All this has happened because of lack of commitment of multiple agencies involved in traffic and transportation as well as planned urban development, and integration of both the aspects. Considering the challenges of rapid urbanisation, the aspect of traffic and transportation has been incorporated in the revised toolkit for preparation of City Development Plan (CDP).

The toolkit identifies a host of issues for proper integration of urban transport and city development. These range from ‘absence’ of integration of land use and transport, to ‘chronic’ parking problems in core areas, to encroachments, to ‘unscientific’ route selection for public transport. 

Pics by Satish Raut

The toolkit, which is a thorough and scientific document for preparation of CDP-II, stresses the need for study and analysis of certain aspects even for road projects. These aspects include missing linkages, intersections on the road, existing and proposed land use, employment generation nodes, traffic and circulation pattern, condition of roads, right of way, existing road network and ‘road hierarchy’, freight corridors, existing and proposed carrying capacity, existing infrastructure on the road, accident data, carrying capacity and utilised capacity of over-bridges. To ensure a harmony among traffic, transportation, and development of the city, the toolkit also provides for ‘conduct of traffic surveys in connection with the preparation of road projects’. These surveys are to be conducted on traffic counts, origin-destination surveys, and pedestrian surveys.

All these aspects are to be thought of while preparing CDP-II as the focus or urban planning is shifting from ‘development-oriented-transport’ (making available transport as per unregulated development of the city) to ‘transport-oriented-development’ (regulating development by making provisions in advance for future transportation needs). The transit-oriented-development or TOD is ‘characterised by compact, mixed use development’ near new or existing public transportation infrastructure that provides housing, employment, entertainment, and civic functions ‘within walking distance of transit’.

The objectives of the concept of TOD are clear -- densification and development of economic activities on transit corridor, reducing private vehicle dependence and inducing public transport use through design-policy-enforcement measures, and providing access to public transport to maximum number of people through densification and enhanced connectivity. That means, the concept of TOD revolves around connectivity-based focus on economic and infrastructure development of the city.

Unfortunately, the political leadership of the city and the administrators did not think of this so far. One fine example of how flawed has been the response of city fathers to the area of all-round city development including transportation, is the ‘Defence railway track’. The railway track that ran from Ajni-Narendra Nagar-Somalwada-Jaitala-Hingna-Ambajhari, was non-functional for a long time. But, instead of using this readily available track for metro rail project, the political leadership got it denotified from the Government. Then, from Wardha Road (Somalwada-end) to Suyog Nagar (through Narendra Nagar), a fly-over came up, blocking the availability of entire stretch till Ajni for any rail project. On the stretch towards Jaitala, NMC proposed ‘London Street’ project, which has proved to be a non-starter. But, this project also has blocked availability of the land.

Once the available land was blocked, the leaders and civic authorities started talking about expansion of the city and requirement for metro rail project. With the Rs 9,000 crore project getting ‘in-principle’ nod from the Government, the same authorities are giving a thought to land availability. As the time progresses, there may be land acquisition and the compensation to be paid to project-affected persons may add to the cost of the project. It may delay the metro rail project further, despite Nagpur having land available for further development.

There are several aspects that can be talked about to give a proper direction to city’s development, but the areas covered so far by ‘The Hitavada’ are indicative of major areas. CDP-II is an opportunity to correct the past mistakes and look at things with a fresh perspective. And, it is the duty of the civic authorities, political leadership, administrators, and citizens to come together and decide how they want this city of theirs to become a model of planned urban development, in all respects and aspects. Isn’t it?

Key issues identified in JNNURM toolkit for preparation of CDP-II

• Absence of integration of land use and transport

• Absence of integration of different modes of transport

• Absence of adequate mass rapid transportation systems (density, area coverage, quality of services) leading to uncontrolled growth of personal vehicles

• Absence of adequate studies to find appropriate solutions for the ever growing private vehicles

• Absence of policy and implementation to regulate public versus private transport

• Insufficient carriageway width to accommodate high volume of traffic

• Absence of travel demand management measures

• Improper traffic junctions

• Chronic parking problems in core areas

• Very high risks for pedestrians and cyclists from motorised traffic

• Absence of pedestrian walkways, separated paths, and level crossing facilities

• Absence of appropriate bicycle paths and separated lines

• Narrow bridges and inadequate number of railway over bridges

• Various types of encroachments

• Absence of proper link roads

• Unscientific route selection of public transport

• Inadequate bus terminals

• Lack of awareness of traffic rules by general public