NEW NEEMRANA

ASHOK BHALOTRA

Ashok Bhalotra (1943) studied Architecture in Delhi and received practical training from members of Team X, the group of architects who, from the mid 1950s on, had challenged the doctrinaire approach of the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne. He worked in India and Kuwait, and later in Paris at Woods & Candalis, as well as for Anatole Kopp.

From 1971 onwards he was attached to KuiperCompagnons, a firm based in Rotterdam, specialized in urban planning, architecture, and landscape. For Bhalotra, city plans and building types present a rich pattern of diversity and contradictions: pleasure and functionality, symbols and rituals, tradition and modernity, the sublime and the banal, order and chaos, reality and dream–all couched in the dialectic of dwelling and travel.

In late 2009 Bhalotra became the founder and director of FEWS for More. Sustainability is the key word related to FEWS for More: not only sustainability in the field of energy and use of materials, but also in the social, natural, cultural, and economic fields. FEWS for More advocates food, energy, water, and shelter for everyone across the globe.

The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is at present likely to be India’s most ambitious infrastructure programme. The project entails the development of industrial zones spanning six states in India, as well as creating new industrial ‘smart cities’ where next-generation technologies are converged across infrastructure sectors. In addition to new cities, the programme envisages the development of infrastructure linkages, such as power plants, assured water supply, high capacity transportation, and logistics facilities, as well as softer interventions, including a skill development programme to aid employment of the local populace.

Conceived as a global manufacturing and trading hub, the corridor is expected to spur economic development in these regions and to help develop industries. Its promotors claim that the planned USD 100 billion investments in the corridor will double employment potential, triple industrial output, and quadruple exports from the region in five years. In the first phase seven new industrial cities are being developed.

The programme was conceptualized by the governments of India and Japan, with funding shared equally by the two countries.

Probably currently India’s most ambitious infrastructure plan, the DelhiMumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project entails the development of industrial zones spanning six states in India, as well as the creation of several new industrial ‘smart cities’–cities where new technologies are converged across infrastructure sectors. Conceptualized, supported, and funded by the governments of India and Japan, the programme envisages the development of infrastructure linkages, such as power plants, assured water supply, high capacity transportation, and logistics facilities, as well as softer interventions, including a skill development programme to aid employment of the local populace. Conceived as a global manufacturing and trading hub, the almost 1500-kilometre-long corridor is expected to spur economic development in these regions and to help develop industries. Its promotors claim that the planned USD 100 billion investments in the corridor will ‘double employment potential, triple industrial output, and quadruple exports from the region in five years’.

PLANNING FOR MILLIONS

In the first phase seven new industrial cities are being developed. One of the first master plans to be completed was designed by one of the Netherlands’ best known architects and planners: Indian architect Ashok Bhalotra of KuiperCompagnons in association with Royal HaskoningDHV, Ecorys, Cushman & Wakefield. Bhalotra shares some of the thoughts behind the planning for New Neemrana: a plan for an area of 165 square kilometres and a city of more than one million people located in the Khushkhera-BehrorNeemrana Investment Region (KBNIR), 107 kilometres south of New Delhi.

‘When the urban planners and designers of KuiperCompagnons visited the KBNIR for the first time, they were impressed by the beauty of the arid Rajasthan landscape. Endless agricultural fields, groups of trees, dramatic hill ranges, scattered villages and even the presence of a historical fort reflect the environmental, social and cultural assets of the region. After experiencing this environment, we wanted the existing context of this area to play an important role in the development of our new metropolis for a million or more inhabitants.’

CITIES WITH HEART AND SOUL

Their appreciation of and sensitivity to the pre-existing cultural, geographical and urban context was in line with the vision of the planning team on what a city is and should be. ‘In many rapidly urbanizing areas, large-scale developments have given limited attention to the local context. Too often this resulted in modern areas that lack “heart and soul”.’ And this although ‘cities are the mirrors of society, reflecting the state of its culture, the economy, social relations, human values and, above all, the care for the environment and the climate. When one listens carefully, the city narrates the dreams, aspirations, fears and struggles of its inhabitants.’ Keeping their first impressions of the region and their vision on cities in mind, Bhalotra and his team chose a different approach for New Neemrana. ‘Besides providing for basic needs such as food, energy, water, and shelter, a city should give its people a sense of being at home.’ ‘People feel comfortable when they can identify themselves

FACT SHEET CLIENT Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Development Corporation Ltd.

CONSULTANTS KuiperCompagnons (lead consultant), in association with Royal HaskoningDHV, Ecorys, Cushman & Wakefield

START OF PROJECT 2010 Notification Master Plan: 2013

DEVELOPMENT PLAN AREA 550 sq. kms

MASTER PLAN AREA 165 sq. kms

PROJECTED POPULATION 1.5 million (2040)

PROJECTED EMPLOYMENT 537,000 persons (excluding agriculture)

MAIN PROJECTED LAND USES Knowledge, Residential, High-tech Industry, Hightech Agriculture

PROJECTED DWELLINGS 345,000 units

PROJECTED WATER DEMAND 380 MLD (2040)

RAIN HARVESTING Mandatory for all land uses

PROJECTED ENERGY DEMAND 6,000 MW (2040)

SOLAR POWER Minimum 25% of demand

ECOLOGICAL PROTECTION ZONES 6.5 sq. kms

SOLAR POWER Minimum 25% of demand

EXISTING VILLAGES 42 (all integrated in Master Plan)

EXISTING POPULATION 65,000

with the local characteristics, when they are in an environment that they feel connected with.’ Thus, ‘the region’s existing social, cultural, environmental and economic infrastructures were taken as a starting point.’ The design embedded all natural and cultural assets, and most importantly no fewer than 42 existing villages. ‘These villages are the place of significant informal social and economic infrastructures. We took great care to include them in the plan to ensure they will not be demolished and that new infrastructure, roads, and developments will pass alongside.’

RURAL REDEVELOPMENT AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

The planners did more than just bypassing villages though. Bhalotra shared that his team took up the assignment as a combination of urban development and rural redevelopment. ‘A key part of embedding the villages in the Master Plan concept is the inclusion of almost all existing local roads and tracks between villages.’ ‘We recognized that these roads and tracks are routes of habit, which have been used for generations. These routes form a fine layer at the local scale below the formal traffic circulation plan and add an extra dimension to the urban fabric. They also perform an important role in the landscape design concept, by becoming primary leisure and nature routes. Although retaining a limited vehicular function, these routes should be safe for all forms of nonvehicular traffic.’

GREEN CITY

In addition to making it a ‘Smart City’, Bhalotra also strived to plan New Neemrana as a ‘Green City’. ‘Special attention has been given to provide sufficient food, energy, water, and shelter for all the people in the new city in a sustainable manner. The region’s most fertile grounds have been integrated into the Master Plan for high-yield multi-cropping agriculture. These hightech agriculture grounds are located inside or in the close vicinity of the New City, therefore decreasing the negative effects of long-distance food-travel. Energy will be largely harvested from the abundant sun of Rajasthan. The Master Plan regulates that a minimum of 20% of all roofs must be covered with solar panels. This is in addition to the solar plants in the city. Finally, water will be harvested, re-used and recycled. This will significantly reduce the demand for water and only water-efficient (high-tech) industries will be allowed. In addition, areas are reserved for water infiltration during the monsoon period and existing water ponds and vegetation is maintained.’

In sum, New Neemrana will not just encompass a smart city, but will have a city that is ‘rooted in the local identity, grows organically from the existing context and aims to offer a clean environment and fresh food in a compact and integrated urban environment.’

This article is based on the essay ‘Moulding the Region to a New City’, which first appeared in the July-September 2014 issue of the magazine My Livable City.