By Kartik Lokhande
Come
monsoon, and within first few spells one gets to see a lot of
photographs of waterlogged streets in almost every major city in India
including the national capital New Delhi. Year after year, this problem
is engulfing more number of areas in these ‘urban islands’. The reason?
Poor urban planning.
What has happened to the cities that have grown
leaps and bounds? The cities are becoming the powerhouses of
development, capital inflows, investments, job opportunities,
high-rises, and pockets attracting migrants from vast rural meadows.
With more and more economic activities, many cities are expanding
horizontally. However, for want of proper planning, there are not many
cities that have come up with ‘walk to work’ units. As a result, most of
the cities are witnessing a vertical growth, with more number of
high-rise buildings adorning the urban skylines, or, one shall say,
choking the view of blue sky.
The plots with single-storeyed houses
with courtyard and a little garden are fast dying, and the tall tombs
with well-lit but shrunk flats are coming up. Thus, the plot that housed
a family of four to ten people, is today housing over a hundred or a
thousand (depending upon floor-to-space index or FSI) persons.
Obviously, there is more consumption of resources like electricity and
water. If there is more consumption, there is more wastage. Sadly, the
cities are not prepared to handle this generation of more waste. For,
there is something wrong with urban planning.
What is wrong with
urban planning, then? The biggest thing that has gone wrong is timing.
Most of the cities, not only in India but in other countries too, first
allow high-rises to come up, When there are problems with handling of
the waste, the so-called city planners come up with solutions like
garbage collection, acquiring more land for dumping yards, widening
drainages to carry enormous waste. However, there is no integration of
granting of permission to high-density living areas with that of
creation of suitable infrastructure to satiate the need for resources as
well as handling of waste.
As a result, buildings come up in large
numbers, but drains are not wide enough to carry sewage generated there
daily. Further, the civic bodies are not keen on increasing the number
of sanitation workers, with growth in cities. As a result, at some
point, the sewage that also includes plastic and paper and stones and
hair and what not, gets stuck in the drainage system. These choked
drainage systems fail to carry not only waste, but also the water during
monsoon. And, the result is waterlogged roads.
Were not there
cities earlier? Was the concept of urban planning totally absent
previously? There were cities and urban planning also was present.
However, the practice of urban planning has changed. Instead of proper
town planning, more importance is being given to architectural
aesthetics. Instead of time-worthiness of a structure, more importance
is being given to business propositions. Instead of qualitative
education that will produce better quality urban planners with long
foresight, emphasis is being laid on improving their design and
presentation skills with the help of high-end computers. Many times, in
the name of futuristic designs, the character and heritage of soothing
sights of a particular place is lost.
There is another dimension to
it. Sometimes, good architects with a good sense of urban planning, and
good urban planners with architectural awareness, do come up with sound
plans. These plans do accomodate the future requirements and also aim at
building upon the basic character of a city. However, since the date of
a ‘presentation’ before the Government or local body or city fathers,
its implementation gets caught into a vortex of delays for one or the
other reason. Many times, as is the case in every Indian city, good
plans often invite only one question from vested interests -- How many
contracts will it generate? Most of the times, plans are changed to
accomodate the needs of these contracts. And, the end result is a plan
oriented more towards money-making for a few and lesser towards larger
public good keeping in mind the vision for the future.
And, given
the situation right now, when even open spaces are being sold out for
vertical growths and gardens and playgrounds and public amenities are
taking a back-seat with growth of the cities, there is little hope for
correction in urban planning. Though it sounds disappointing, there is
not much happening around to provide evidence that change will come. So,
till something radical happens in the process of urban planning, one
should enjoy reading newspapers with photographs of waterlogging in most
of the cities of India including the national capital New Delhi.
(12-07-15)
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