Urban Update August 2016

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate Volume III, Issue IV

August 2016

Rs 100

Indian cities Need Designed future ‘Urban design is fundamental to build cities people love’

The project is funded by the European Union.

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

Union Ministry of Urban Development has empanelled AIILSG on the list of consultants qualified to work for Smart City Mission.

AIILSG has been selected to work for Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

Community Based Interventions

Professional Empowerment Project Management

Advisory Services Customised Training

Knowledge Management Capacity Building Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

Policy Research

All India Institute of Local Self-Government No. 6, F-Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, TPS Road-12, Bandra-East, Mumbai-400051, Maharashtra Tel.No.: +91-22-26571713, 26571714, 26571715, Fax: +91-22-26572286, Email: contact@aiilsg.org

UrbanUpdate A monthly magazine published by the AIILSG — a project funded by European Union’s ‘Equi-City’ programme for India.

Ranjit Chavan President-AIILSG Capt. Anant Modi Editor-In-Chief Director General-AIILSG, dg@aiilsg.org Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor Abhishek Pandey Editor Ravi Ranjan Guru Executive Editor

Mail Box Readers’ comments, criticism and suggestions are welcome. Letters to the Editor can be sent by e-mail, or regular mail. They should include name, address, phone number(s), and e-mail address, if available. The subject of the communication should be clearly mentioned, and we reserve the right to edit for sense, style, and space.

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Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor Lojy Thomas Associate Editor Arzoo Arora Editorial Assistant Meenakshi Rajput Graphic Designer Volume III - Issue IV Printed and published by Ranjit Chavan on behalf of All India Institute of Local Self-Government.

Printed at Artz & Printz, 208, DSIDC Shed, Okhla Industrial Area Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 Published at Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area D-Block Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058 Despite careful selection of sources, no responsibility can be taken for accuracy of the contents. The magazine assumes no liability or responsibility of any kind in connection with the information thereof. The views expressed in the articles are the personal opinions of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the All India Institute of Local Self-Government.

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The project is funded by the European Union.

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

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August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

EDITORIAL

Better cities, by design I

Capt. Anant Modi Editor-In-Chief dg@aiilsg.org

City design calls for special care to make urban spaces friendly for the differently abled so that such persons are able to access all opportunities and benefits of the city with a sense of pride and dignity. Urban Local Bodies have been mandated to ensure that design of various aspects of city infrastructure takes their needs into account

n the words of the legendary Steve Jobs, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”. This is true not just in the context of technology sector players such as his own Apple Computer Co. but for most others.

It is particularly relevant in the case of Urban Design where cities need to be crafted not just as visually appealing projects but as functional entities too.

With cities hosting over half the world population now and racing towards the two-thirds mark in the next three decades, there is an urgent need to build new cities or re-orient existing ones in order to meet the aspirations of this large population. As the locus shifts from Europe and North America to Latin America, Asia and Africa, these regions will account for a larger fraction of the urban population.

There are numerous stakeholders who have different needs and priorities, often competing and sometimes conflicting. Cities need to ensure that children, women, the aged, the poor, the working, business and commerce, though having different needs, are all able to avail of the urban dividend equitably.

City design calls for special care to make urban spaces friendly for the differently abled so that such persons are able to access all opportunities and benefits of the city with a sense of pride and dignity. Urban Local Bodies have been mandated to ensure that design of various aspects of city infrastructure takes their needs into account.

In addition to the needs and aspirations of various categories of citizens, city design also needs to

address the crucial aspects of city safety and security, and resilience to natural disasters. Adequate and appropriate space for police stations, fire-fighting facilitiesand trauma centres, well-designed traffic signals, and street lighting all help in enhancing city security andeffective response to accidents.

With Climate Change and rapid urbanisation, cities are now more vulnerable to natural disasters.

Coastal cities are particularly at risk due to dangers of flooding, storms and sea level rise. Building the ability of cities to mitigate these risks and to bounce back from such events, i.e., building resilience of cities needs to be incorporated in the design.

Aspects such as building vigilant communities, capacity building of local government personnel and others need to be institutionalised.

To achieve all this, city design has to go beyond writing building codes and publishing regulations.

City planners and designers need to embrace Local Area Planning which calls for intense citizen engagement to understand various needs and priorities, pick up ideas, generate proposals, test them out with all stakeholders and finally implement them. In this context one is reminded of the words of Jane Jacobs, the renowned journalist, thinker and urbanist. She said “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody,only because, and only when, they are created by everybody”.

This issue of Urban Update carries viewpoints from a number of urban practitioners on Urban Design. We trust this will be a further step in our endeavour towards more efficient, sustainable and equitable cities.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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Quotes

PIN POINT BUZZ

Cities are powerful leaders: as owners, investors and regulators, they shape the sustainability of our future.

Buildings that are efficient improve the productivity of both people and energy systems

Urbanisation is one of the most challenging issues faced by Pakistan. Yet, at the same time, it also offers immense opportunities for investments in addition to climate change mitigation and adaptation

Jennifer Layke Director, Building Efficiency Initiative

Zahid Hamid Climate Change Minister, Pakistan

Compact of Mayors @CompactofMayors Global Coalition of Mayors

Cities must expand the frontiers of urban sustainability via collaboration, transparency & broader global action

CMO Maharashtra @CMOMaharashtra Office of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra

All Municipal Corporations will get their proper share of revenue including Mumbai and interest of local bodies will be protected

Naveen Patnaik @Naveen_Odisha Chief Minister of Odisha

Cities and the buildings which make them up consume around 75 per cent of global energy, putting them at the coal face of our fight against climate change... Through collaboration with cities, our Green Building Councils will provide on-the-ground expertise to help realise this opportunity

We can’t exclude half of the humanity from political decisionmaking. We know equality can bring added value to our policy development and we are determined to bring about change of mentality needed to achieve this

Terri Wills CEO of the World Green Building Council

Anne Hidalgo Mayor of Paris and co-president of UCLG

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August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Committed to transparent & accountable local governance for enhancing urban services on #LocalSelfGovernanceDay

Joan Clos @Joanclos Executive Director of UN-Habitat

Well Planned urbanisation generates economic value & prosperity

Inside

Volume 3, Issue 4

Inside August 2016

Article

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Let’s give TOD a fair chance

36

Special design for special people

Urban Update speaks to eminent urban designer and academician KT Ravindran (Dean Emeritus at the RICS School of Built Environment) to know how government and local bodies can utilise urban design fundamentals to improve operational efficiency and quality of life in cities

Cities around the world exhibit high levels of inequity and exclusion. This is however more due to failure of planning and inadequate attention than any inherent discriminative character of cities

CURTAIN RAISER

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Streamlining ‘urban transition in BRICS’

The 3rd Urbanisation Forum brings together prominent voices from the BRICS member countries to address the key issues of urbanization and envision sustainable and liveable urban future with knowledge and experience sharing

Cities are changing ‘everything’ The book takes the reader on a guided tour of some of world’s best cities and virtually makes him sit face to face with the typical challenges these cities face.

The author analyses the problems in a lucid, racy style

RegularS

6 10

Pin Point Newscan

Cover story

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Indian cities need designed future Urban design deals with the imagination, visualization and conceptualization of existing and future built environment of our cities. The quality of life that we aspire for, in our urban environments at one end and the existential realities that we face at the other are both, part of the agenda of urban design contribution

LEADerspeak

GOOD READS

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City Images Urban Agenda

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Governance can steer urban regeneration on right path With urban settlements, metro cities and small towns around the world becoming increasingly modern in their looks and infrastructure, there is a growing need to revamp the mechanism of governing cities to make them efficient and inclusive

ONE ON ONE

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Urban design is fundamental to build cities people love Urban Update speaks to eminent urban designer and academician KT Ravindran (Dean Emeritus at the RICS School of Built Environment) to know how government and local bodies can utilise urban design fundamentals to improve operational efficiency and quality of life in cities

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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feature | Equi-City

Steps towards an Equi-City Equi-City programme, funded by the European Union, is moving ahead along with the formation of City Development Forum, Intercity Forum & Diversity Committee. The members have been finalised to give its key stakeholders a clear vision and strategy about Equi-City and its progress in the coming years Equi-City Team

P

romoting the inclusive and sustainable growth of Nagpur city through collaborative multistakeholder approach is the heart of the Equi-City programme.

Using participatory governance as a medium between the urban local body (ULB) and its different stakeholders, the programme aims to ensure equitable provision of municipal services besides leveraging the advantages of diversity within through municipal institutional strengthening and capacity development. In order to promote the municipal governance compatible to growth and development of the city, establishment of participatory forums envisage bringing in ULB and diverse stakeholders to a common platform to work in tandem and thus endorse identifying solutions and coordinated action resulting in impartial municipal service delivery.

Different participatory forums planned at this stage are Inter-City Forum (ICF), City Development Forum (CDF) and Diversity Committee. The Forums, established as part of the programme, are supposed to ensure that the local citizens, urban poor and CSOs are adequately represented in the governance process and able to reflect the true needs of diverse target groups.

One of the milestones for the first year of Equi-City programme, establishment of these three forums target to set up supervisory and advisory groups to steer the Equi-City programme for the

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August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

project period and beyond. Through mobilising resources for development in a participatory manner and counting excluded groups like urban poor, these forums are planned to steer the project to its successful conclusion besides achieving its objectives.

City Development Forum (CDF)

The forum is expected to provide strategic directions to the programme through guiding the Equi-city cell, the programme executing unit with a bunch of professionals. The CDF will be composed of Nagpur municipal officials, elected representatives, CSOs, academics, NGOs and other key stakeholders representing different interest groups, sector expertsand minority communities from Nagpur to represent different facets of such a vibrant city. The aim of the CDF is to mobilise resources in the form of ideas, expertise and other necessities for the betterment of Nagpur in a participatory manner, including but not limited to poor urban dwellers.

Envisaged to be headed by a Convener, the CDF is supposed to hold regular meetings with the Equicity Cell every quarter. In addition, the Convener will also call meetings of the CDF members to discuss various issues related to the thematic areas of the programme and provide tactical directions. A core group to assist the Convener in monitoring the project is planned to be formed with ten elected

representatives of Nagpur. On the basis of priority areas, they may be chosen as part of the CDF. City Development Forum is scheduled to meet at regular intervals for appraising the progress of Equi-City project besides seeking feedback about the same. This enables the said forum to trace, scrutinize and steer the progress of the project as per the action plan alongside advising proactive strategies.

Inter-City Forum (ICF)

The idea behind having an Inter-City Forum is to establish a platform to share the best practices and knowledge amongst local authorities across geographical boundaries to promote civic service efficiencies respecting the existing diversities. Replicating its success to other cities besides equitable growth of Nagpur is envisaged as an

The idea behind having an Inter-City Forum is to establish a platform to share the best practices and knowledge amongst local authorities across geographical boundaries to promote civic service efficiencies respecting the existing diversities

important notion to put up such an overall advisory forum. The ICF is planned to consist of an Advisory Committee comprising of selected officials from Local Authorities (LAs), Civic Society Organizations (CSOs), elected representatives and key stakeholders alongside some distinguished sector experts across India. Annual forums of ICF are planned to be conducted in the second, third and fourth year of the project to promote the core values of the EquiCity programmes besides infusing ideas on smarter participatory urban governance and delivery of civic services to stakeholders. The ICF will endorse the awareness about the best practices with relevant issues, challenges, opportunities and way forward. Such platform of discussion with diversified perceptions and interpretations relative to on-ground realities is envisaged to nurture broader analytical sense of the Local Authorities about the municipal governance needed at the backdrop of latest stage of urban development in our country. This will further assist the Local Authorities to imbibe the positive learning in policies and strategies of relative action plans.

Members selected for the Forum

After organized discussion held between the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) Officials and Equi-City Cell, more than a hundred members for

the forum have been primarily listed.

Further, with the approval of the Municipal Commissioner, NMC, 70 members were selected for CDF and ICF. Selected people for the forums belong to various fields like Environment, Health, NGOs/CSOs, Management experts, Journalists, Teachers and Social Workers. Out of the shortlisted 70 members, City Development Forum (CDF) tentatively comprises 40 members, while Intercity City Forum (ICF) and Diversity Committee comprise 15 members each.

Collaborative working of City Development Forum and Inter-City Forum

Under the supervision of CDF, status report are to be drafted by the EquiCity cell for the project at specified intervals including details of quarterly assigned targets with its relative status and expected outcome. The draft status report/s will act as the basis of discussion for Inter-City Forum. The members of the Inter-City Forum will share experiences based upon their diverse knowledge and modern-day practices about the concerned issues and challenges to facilitate achievement of targeted outcomes through strategic interventions.

Diversity and Equality Perspective

For the purpose of addressing the concerns over respecting diversities,

a questionnaire has been prepared in consultation with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) officials for a semi-structured departmental survey. The diversity survey is planned to facilitate designing a Diversity and Equality Framework which will enable municipalities, in this care NMC, to assess their human resources from an equality and diversity perspective. The survey is expected to map and recognize the needs, values and contribution that employees from diverse backgrounds can make to local government. The survey will not only deliver the current status of the NMC departments but also enable the formulation of future municipal institutional strengthening policies and strategies, based on facts and not on assumptions. Some of the specific objectives of such a survey can be noted as follows♦♦ To develop the understanding about the diversity and equality within the organizational setup of a local body ♦♦ To identify the issues, which need critical attention with regard to developing better diversity and equality framework in municipal bodies with due respect to diversities ♦♦ To analyze and study departmentwise Human Resource framework and their existing policies to meet civic service delivery requirements ♦♦ To identify the disparity with regards to income, benefits, incentives, etc. to map the intervention requirements

Conclusion

The Equi-City Team monitoring the Competition

Silver lining over the horizon of contemporary urban governance has started appearing through several initiatives of a diligently crafted programme like Equi-City with aspirations to match relevant global standards. Local residents and municipal employees have also started acknowledging the ingenuity through distinct interventions across different zones of Nagpur. In time one will definitely see the shaping of an “Equi-City” with state-of-the-art welfare intentions.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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NEWSCAN | Feature BRIEFS News

NEWSCAN

Naidu launches Swachh Survekshan for 500 cities ♦♦ Swachhata Helpline ‘1969’, Swachhata App launched to promote people’s participation ♦♦ Swachh Bharat Mission not a mere slogan, a people’s movement for Clean India, says Naidu ♦♦ Minister also unveils ‘Asli Tarakki’ campaign to promote use of toilets ♦♦ 3 sanitation workers felicitated for exemplary work, RWAs. Corporates, TV artistes also honoured ♦♦ 115 cities become ‘Open Defecation Free’; 739 cities to achieve ODF status this financial year New Delhi: Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu launched ‘Swachh Suvekshan-2017’ to assess and rank 500 cities and towns based on levels of sanitation and efforts made by respective urban local bodies and also to capture progress towards achieving ‘Open Defecation Free’ status.

The Minister also released in New Delhi recently various publications and mobile applications to help the cities and towns prepare for the survey to be conducted in January next year. Quality Council of India will conduct the survey.

Naidu addressed Mayors, Municipal Chairpersons, Municipal Commissioners and other concerned officials of 500 cities and towns to be surveyed via video conferencing. He informed the city officials that cities will be ranked based on the reports by urban local bodies on the progress made towards construction of toilets, feedback of citizens and independent observation of sanitation levels. Cities with a population of one lakh and above each, heritage and tourism cities, capital cities with less than one lakh population are included in this survey, the second since the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission.

Referring to the stress being laid

by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on creating a ‘Jan Andolan’ (Mass movement) to ensure ‘Swachh Bharat’ by 2019, Naidu launched a web portal

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‘Swachhata App’ and ‘Swachhata Helpline 1969’ to enable citizens associate more and more with Swachh Bharat Mission in urban areas. Citizens can post photos of unhygienic places in urban areas on Swachhata App and they will be informed of action taken by respective urban local bodies in specific time period. Using toll free Helpline Number 1969, citizens can seek information about the ways of participating in cleanliness mission and can also enquire about the status of their applications for construction of toilets.

Stressing on the need for behavioral change in favour of using toilets, Venkaiah Naidu launched ‘Asli Tarakki’ campaign highlighting the need for

construction of toilets and using them well. This campaign to be mounted on TV channels and in print media soon brings out the message that having two wheelers, air coolers, TV sets, etc. is not ‘Asli Tarakki’ (real development) if such people did not either have toilets or don’t use them.

Naidu said that since the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission by the Prime Minister in October, 2014, there has been a huge positive upsurge of attitudes towards cleanliness and urged city officials to rise to the occasion and meet the aspirations of the people by helping them in construction of toilets.

Emphasizing on the importance of sanitation workers, Naidu felicitated three such workers for their exemplary contribution to ensure cleanliness in their respective cities. These were: T. Venkataiah, a garbage collector of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for working without taking a leave for 16 years, N. Gaurav of Guwahati Municipal Corporation for similar commitment and B. Nagaraj of Coimbatore Municipal Corporation for his sincerity to the cause besides contributing Rs 50,000 for the education of poor children.

Adar C Poonawalla, who contributed Rs 100 cr to Pune Municipal Corporation towards sanitation measures besides Tata Chemicals and Mahindra & Mahindra were honoured for donations for cleanliness initiatives. Highlighting the role of

UD Minister M Venkaiah Naidu speaking at a workshop on Swachh Bharat Mission in New Delhi

NEWSCAN

Resident Welfare Associations to ensure cleanliness, Jawaharnagar RWA of Kochi in Kerala for promoting biodegradable waste, Raj Hans RWA of Surat for promoting organic waste conversion and DLF Garden City RWA of Indore for promoting compost making, were felicitated by Naidu.

TV artists Deepika Singh, Dhriishti and Jennifer were also honoured for contribution towards generation of awareness about cleanliness.

Naidu said that 122 cities have achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status so far and a total of 739 cities will achieve ODF status in this financial year. He said that three States – Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala have committed to be 100% ODF by March 2017.

The Minister said that 21 lakh individual household toilets and 90,000 community and public toilet seats have been constructed so far and another 21 lakh individual household toilets and 1.4 lakh community and public toilet seats are under construction.

The Minister said that there is a need to scale up citizen engagement and participation, in a more structured and institutionalized manner. He said that, for SBM to become a true ‘people’s movement’, it will have to become institutionalized within the Mission framework itself, with necessary policy interventions, and supplemented by capacity building of the states and cities in engaging people’s participation.

Naidu said that 122 cities have achieved Open Defecation Free (ODF) status so far and a total of 739 cities will achieve ODF status in this financial year. He said that three States – Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala have committed to be 100% ODF by March 2017. The Minister said that 21 lakh individual household toilets and 90,000 community and public toilet seats have been constructed so far

BRIEFS

Intensive Swachhata awareness drive to be launched in 5 cities of NCR Region Delhi: Ministry of Urban Development will soon launch an ‘Asli Tarakki (Real development)’ campaign in the six cities of the National Capital Region with 450 select youth with communication skills and leadership qualities as lead motivators to promote awareness about the need for sanitation. The Ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nehru Yuvak Kendra in the presence of Minister of Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu and Minister of State for Urban Development Rao Inderjit Singh.

The MoU was signed by Praveen Prakash, Joint Secretary on behalf of the Ministry and Major General Dilawar Singh, Director General of Nehru Yuvak Kendra. As per the MoU, NYK will deploy 50 enthusiastic, experienced in public speaking, motivated and educated youth for 52 days each in the five municipal areas of Delhi (NDMC, NMCD, SMCD, EMCD and Delhi Cantonment), Faridabad, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Noida for a mass awareness movement for successful implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission. The youth will be selected during a two day orientation workshop and will be given further training to undertake awareness and motivational campaigns through elocution, cultural performances, nukkad nataks, etc. The 450 youth will be engaged to spread the message of ‘Asli Tarakki’ suggesting that having and using toilet to be a major priority, encouraging citizens to give feedback on different components of ‘Swachh Survekshan-2017’ launched earlier this month, encourage people to take Swachh Bharat Pledge for a clean India and to inform targeted beneficiaries about the government support for building individual, community and public toilets.

Four chariots will be deployed in each of the nine municipal areas with banners and posters on sanitation, public address system for addressing people on key issues with facilities for showing audiovisual films and for distribution of IEC material. The selected youth would also use social media extensively. Naidu lauded the pilot youth engagement and asked the officials and NYK to ensure its success so that the same could be replicated in other parts. The Ministry would enable a dedicated page on Swachh Bharat Urban portal for weekly uploading of activities and furnishing information on number of citizens reached out, activities, etc.

Under the Rs.4.70 cr pilot youth engagement, a total of 23,400 man days would be spent promoting Swachh Bharat Mission objectives in urban areas. This youth engagement will be launched after completion of preparatory work like organizing workshop, selection of youth, fabrication of chariots, etc.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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BRIEFS

NGT bans dumping of waste near school in Delhi A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notice to East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) and sought its reply in two weeks on a plea filed by a former scientist. “In the meanwhile we restrain the EDMC or any other person from throwing municipal solid waste or any other kind of waste in front of the school in question and the Corporation should also take all steps to remove the waste that has been dumped in front of the school gate,” the bench also comprising justices M S Nambiar and Raghuvendra S Rathore said.

The green panel was hearing a plea filed by retired scientist C V Singh seeking directions to “collect, segregate, dispose and transport” the solid waste of the dump sites as per the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

PMC to offer free water meters Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) administration has decided to offer meters free of cost to the citizens from September. “The aim behind giving the meters free is to create awareness about judicious use of water.

Commercial organizations in the city have been using this system. We want to promote it in residential areas too,” said V G Kulkarni, head of PMC’s water department. He said those who wish to measure their water usage can contact the civic body. Civic officials will reach their places and fit the meters. Each meter costs Rs 6,000. According to data, around 150 litres of water (nearly six buckets per person) is used by a citizen every day.

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NEWSCAN

Funds from UK to boost Smart projects PUNE: The city is likely to receive a major chunk of the 4.5 million pounds financial assistance the UK government would provide to three smart cities Pune, Indore and Aamravati.

A British delegation led by the secretary of state, Department for International Development (DFID), Government of UK, Priti Patel, held a meeting with Union minister of urban development M. Venkaiah Naidu last week. After deliberations, the India-UK joint statement mentioned that DFID would collaborate with three Indian cities - Indore, Pune and Amaravati - to support their urban development goals through technical assistance, expertise sharing and business engagement.

“DFID has agreed to position a Strategic Programme Management Unit as a part of the technical assistance programme for the Smart Cities Mission at central-level.

It has also agreed to provide a financial assistance of 4.5 million pounds over a period of four years,” states the release issued by the Union urban development department.

A source said Pune would get a big chunk of UK’s financial aid. “Our city is leading in the implementation part of

the Smart Cities Mission. So, it will be naturally the biggest claimant of the UK funds,” he said confidently.

DFID has also indicated interests to help in bringing the best UK expertise and experience to pilot smart urban solutions in the three smart cities.

PMC commissioner Kunal Kumar, also a director Pune Smart City Development Corporation Limited (PSCDCL), said, “UK has a tremendous experience and expertise in urban master planning and urban transport planning. Pune is already working with UK and we shall enhance the collaboration. Urban planning and transport are two major sectors which need transformation in the city because it will impact everyday life of citizen.

During the survey, citizens have listed transport as the biggest problem.”

Kumar said, “The UK Prime Minister will be in India in November for a formal announcement of some projects and innovations in Pune will be formally announced during that period. After being selected for the Smart Cities Mission, we have been working closely with the UK government for the past six months. A master planner from UK will be on board this week.”

‘Implement building codes strictly’ Kathmandu: Urban Development Minister Arjun Narsingha KC said he would strictly implement the building code and take action against the violators.

Addressing media persons in Kathmandu, the newly appointed minister shared his priorities.

“At first, I will check why the code was not implemented earlier. If it has some errors, I will make corrections within three days and begin its implementation.”He warned that action would be taken against those who violate the code.The Minister said big buildings alone would not make any city developed and he would work to manage electricity and drinking water among others amenities to make urban areas developed.

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BRIEFS

HC orders Maharashtra to decide the status of Panvel Corporation A division bench of the Bombay high court directed the state to announce a decision on Panvel Municipal Corporation formation in a week. Petitioner Shrinand Patwardhan, ex-vice president of Panvel Municipal Council, said, “The government has not announced a decision even after submission of a report by the Konkan Divisional Commissioner. We came to know about the issues faced during formation of Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation wherein 30 villages were left out. The inclusion was later objected to by the Election Commission”. He added, “The formation of a municipal corporation will solve development issues.”

SMC to develop Tapi riverfront for recreation Surat Municipal Corporation will take up the work for Tapi riverfront development on public-private partnership mode. The civic tender scrutiny committee has already selected an agency from the tenders it had received. The committee will send its proposal to the standing committee for its approval, a senior civic official said. Even after spending crores of rupees to develop Tapi riverfront, SMC failed to woo public in large numbers to the riverfront as it lacked recreational facilities and poor upkeep, the official added.

For proper maintenance and to set up recreational facilities for the common public on the riverfront, the SMC had floated tenders. The civic tender scrutiny committee had received many tenders among which the tender of one Parchhai Exhibitors meets all its specifications.

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August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEWSCAN

Shillong to revamp solid waste management

SHILLONG: A new solid waste management scheme will come up shortly in the state. The scheme will be implemented by the State Investment and Project Management and Implementation Unit (SIMPIU).

B. Dutta, Director, Urban Affairs, said, “The new solid waste management will be implemented by SIMPIU and it will later be handed to the Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) to complete the process.”

“We have bought the vehicles which were handed to the SMB and officials of the civic board will be trained in this area. SIMPIU will be the implementing agency whereas ownership is with SMB,” he added.

Dutta informed that currently to control waste management, there is the door-to-door collection of garbage with an aim to reach every locality in the capital city. Another plan is the reconstruction of the compost pit plant to increase the capacity from 100 tonnes to 170 tonnes per day.

“After composting, materials like fertilizers and rejects (non-organic materials) are formed, the latter will be kept separately at a sanitary land fill to trap wastes,” Dutta said and added that the inorganic wastes segregated at household levels and collected by SMB workers in separate vehicles, are sold off to a recycling plant in Guwahati.

He added that with the financial assistance of Asian Development Bank for the development of infrastructure

in five North Eastern Capital Cities under the North Eastern Region Capital Cities Development Investment Program (NERCCDIP), Shillong along with Agartala (Tripura), Aizawl (Mizoram), Kohima (Nagaland), Sikkim (Gangtok) are some of the capital states set to improve the urban solid waste management for a sustainable future and for overall well-being of the residents.It is learnt that the overall investment for Shillong is expected to be in the range of $51.66 million (Rs 251.45 crore).

Since the NERCCDIP will be implemented in three tranches (or more if necessary) over 7 years (2009-2015), the period of implementation in Shillong is till 2018 in which different phases will be evaluated.

Tranche I will cover Solid Waste Management i.e. development of an emergency short term landfill site with associated works at Mawiong and two consulting services for design supervision and management and institutional development works. For the Tranche-I project, ADB loan amount finalized is 4.622$ million. Tranche II and III will cover Solid Waste Management including development of a permanent landfill site with related works, a Sewerage System for Shillong and institutional reforms.

The overall investment for NERCCDIP is to the tune of 285.7 $ million of which 200$million (70%) will be ADB funding and 85.7$ million (30%) will be Ministry of Urban Development, GOI funding.

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BRIEFS

City Images

Chock-a-block cities

Many cities were badly affected during the heavy downpour in various parts of the country this monsoon.

Cities faced water logging, sinking of roads, collapse of buildings and long traffic jams. In Gurugram, people were

stuck in traffic jams for several hours on the evening of July 28. After seeing no way out, people abandoned their vehicles and waded through waterlogged streets to reach their destinations.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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Odisha to appoint 3,213 under new municipal cadre

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently announced that 3,213 posts will be created in eight areas under the Odisha Municipal Cadre. The government will appoint people in the areas of cleanliness, health, e-governance and finance under the municipal cadre launched by the chief minister at an official function held in Bhubaneswar. He asked his officials to take necessary steps for filling up of the posts very soon. “Cities play important role in the development of the state. We should create a positive atmosphere for creation of jobs and financial growth in the cities,” he said, adding, “We will give emphasis on construction of roads, covering of drains, proper lighting system, parks, playground and Kalyan Mandap in the urban local bodies (ULBs) by 2019.”

National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi was bestowed with special appreciation award for the installation of PlanPlus and ActionSoft programmes which has brought transparency in the preparation of annual action plan in urban local bodies (ULBs).During the programme, ULBs were awarded for their commendable work. For 201415, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Cuttack Municipal Corporation, and Rourkela Municipal Corporation bagged first, second and third prize respectively.

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August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

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Town & Country Planning (Amendment) Bill introduced in Himanchal SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma introduced the Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill seeking to regularise illegal constructions “as is where is” basis.

The Bill provides for regularisation ofillegal constructions in Municipal and planning areas in the state even in the cases in which building plans have not been approved at all.However, there would be no exemption for regularisation of constructions in green areas and heritage areas, encroached lands and pockets kept for parks, sewerage or other facilities and the parking converted into other use would not be regularised except in cases where alternate equivalent and excess space is available for parking.

The regularisation fee would be very nominal, Rs 800 per square mts would be charged in case of deviation from building plan within Municipal areas and the same would be half in case buildings outside municipal areas.

In case no permission had been taken for development, the regularisation fee would be Rs 1200 per sqmtr in Municipal areas and Rs 600 per sqmtr in areas outside the Municipal limits. The regularisation fee would be doubled in case of commercial, hotel, tourism,industrial or other use. Introducing the Bill, Urban Development minister said that the government had tried to address the issue of regularisation of unauthorised buildings from constructions raised in violation of the Act by bringing retention policies from time to time.

Under the said retention policies/ guidelines, 8198 cases of unauthorised construction were received out of which 2108 were retained and 6090 are yet to be regularised and at present there were 13,000 unauthorised buildings upto March 2016 and demolition of such a large number of unauthorised constructions was neither feasible nor desirable as it would result in undue harm to owners and occupants.

Maha govt mulls stricter safety norms at construction sites Mumbai: The urban development department of Maharashtra has decided to bring in a stricter policy on safety at construction sites and unauthorized constructions, according to a report in Accommodation Times. The change in thinking has been necessitated by the recent collapse of a slab in an underconstruction building in Pune.

“In a closed-door meeting with civic bodies, the state Urban Development Department decided to come up with a stricter policy relating to the safety at construction sites and unauthorized constructions,” the report said. The move will affix responsibility for mishaps and will be modeled on the Centre’s Model Building bye-laws, it said.Nine labourers had died at an under construction building in Balewadi, Pune on July 29 when a slab collapsed.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has asked for the work to be stopped at the construction site. PMC has also suspended registration of the architects and structural engineers associated with the project, the report said. Under the new laws being planned, the state UD department will define the responsibilities of stakeholders in the project. The urban development department of Maharashtra has decided to bring in a stricter policy on safety at construction sites and unauthorized constructions.

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BRIEFS Green Cities | NEWSCAN

Not Part of Smart City, Will Rather Go For Green Cities: West Bengal KOLKATA: West Bengal would not be a part of the Centre’s smart city project and instead go for building its cities as green cities, a state minister said.

According to the senior minister, the state government would not apply for the smart city status for Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) City, the deadline of which was August 30. The state would send an official communication in this regard to the Central government next week, a draft of which is being prepared by the Chief Secretary, he said.

“The reason behind this is that the state has to spend Rs. 500 crore for the smart city initially and then in the next five years, the Centre will spend another Rs. 500 crore in phases... But if we can spend so much then why should they get the credit for it? Now we have decided not to go for the project and do it ourselves,” the minister said.

The Centre in its smart city project was erecting buildings whereas the state government has “plans for a complete city with international standard facilities”, he said. “We have already done it in New Town. We have built the Eco Park and other show pieces there...

We have done everything there in a very planned manner. And our plans

to build Green cities is not to bring up buildings but develop an entire city so that we can attract investments there,” he said.

In fact, the state would ask all the municipalities to join the Green City project, he said. New Town had qualified for the Centre’s smart city project in the second attempt. Salt Lake, Asansol and Durgapur were the other three places nominated for the same.

The Smart City Mission is an initiative of the Narendra Modi government to develop 100 satellite towns across the country.

“Green City is an inclusive strategy.

It does not favour one area over another. In Smart City project, there was an element of bias. We will have all requisite infrastructure like solar lighting, water recycling and WiFi among other facilities in the Green Cities. We will come out with the final guidelines soon,” said Debashis Sen, principal secretary, urban development department, West Bengal.

Further, according to Sen, The Smart City project envisages floating a special purpose vehicle, which would work as a corporate, which is against the 74th Constitutional Amendment. The

CM Mamta Banerjee said that the Smart City “idea” and “theory” was “wrong”. She had made the case that it would not be wise to spend the Rs 500 crore on the Smart City project, adding that the money should rather be spent as per the state government’s own understanding amendment gives power to urban local bodies in day-to-day governance.

The decision was finally taken in a meeting between CM Mamata Banerjee and state’s Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim. Hakim confirmed that “the government was preparing to send official communication to the Union ministry about its decision.”

In her first public appearance after winning the 2016 elections, the CM had said that the Smart City “idea” and “theory” was “wrong”. She had made the case that it would not be wise to spend the Rs 500 crore on the Smart City project, adding that the money should rather be spent as per the state government’s own understanding.

Officials said that 10 cities in the state are being developed in a planned, sustainable manner — New TownRajarhat, Durgapur, Bolpur, Kalyani, Baruipur, Gangasagar, Debanandapur, Raghunathpur, Phulbari and Jaigaon.

The West Bengal government had first decided to develop New Town-Rajarhat as a Green City in 2015 and at the time, the idea was for it to be a ‘Smart, Green City’. Since then, the state urban development department has been planning the project with the inputs of the Indian Green Building Council, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, IIT Kharagpur and CREDAI.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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BRIEFS

ConveGenius, Save Children India tie-up with Thane Corporation ConveGenius, an educational technology company, committed to enhance the quality of education in India and has partnered with Save the Children India(STCI) and the Thane Corporation to digitize the municipal schools.

The program is aimed at creating a nexus for CSR and philanthropists to support the digitization of more schools in Mumbai and Thane. STCI, a leading NGO in the education space will be overseeing the growth of the program as an implementation partner. CG Slate, the flagship product

by ConveGenius, is enabling classrooms via ‘Gamified Learning’ and holistic analytics.

The technology has shown positive results in its ability to transcend barriers of poor infrastructure.

EDMC to lease out schools to coaching centres East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has decided to lease out its schools to private coaching institutions after teaching hours. Premises of only schools that work in morning hours - or the first shift - will be leased out, officials said. The EDMC has come out with a list of 200 such schools.

The civic body faces an acute fund crisis with a projected a deficit of Rs 2,100 crore for the current financial year, the officials said. It is to be noted that the monetary deficit triggered a civic crisis in late January when municipal staff, including teachers and doctors, stayed away from work to protest non-payment of salaries.

Approximately 2.5 lakh students are enrolled in 380 EDMC.

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August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

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Chairmen of Tamil Nadu municipalities & town panchayats to be elected indirectly Chennai: Tamil Nadu government recently introduced a Bill in the State Assembly to end direct election of chairmen of municipalities and town panchayats. Introducing the Bill in the House, Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani said at present, elections to the councils of the urban local bodieswere conducted on party basis and the chairmen were elected directly. In certain circumstances, the chairmen could not get the cooperation of councillors and vice versa and thereby, there had been impediments in the proceedings of councils and to arrive at consensus in passing resolutions to provide civic services to the public, as both the chairmen and councillors were elected directly.

“Having felt the difficulties faced by the Councils of the Municipal Corporations, the Tamil Nadu Municipal Corporation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2016 was enacted to enable the councillors to elect a councillor from among themselves as Mayor for the Municipal Corporation. As such, in order to have a uniform election procedure in all the urban local bodies in the State, the government has decided to elect the chairmen of municipalities and town panchayats also indirectly by the councillors or members from among themselves”, the Minister added. On June 23, the State Assembly adopted the Bill to do away with the practice of direct election of Mayors amidst opposition from the DMK and its allies Congress and IUML.

Siddhivinayak temple may soon be energy efficient Mumbai: The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), which is spearheading the green building movement in the country, is in talks with the trustees of city-based world famous Siddhivinayak Temple to make it more energy efficient.

“So far, we have been focusing on government institutions, residential and commercial buildings, hotels, among others. But now we want to extend our programme even to places of worship. In Mumbai, we are in talks with the trustees of Siddhivinayak Temple to make it more energy efficient,” IGBC Chairman Prem Jain told media.IGBC certifies government institutions, IT parks, offices, residential buildings, banks, airports, convention centres, institutions, hospitals, hotels, factories, special economic zones, townships, schools, metros, among others. “Our endeavour will be to ensure that temple building is energy efficient. We also want proper waste management system to be implemented.

We are hopeful that the trustees will support us and in the next 6-7 months, we hope some of our ideas will be implemented,” he said.

Jain also said the Badriya Masjid in Karnataka is the first IGBC certified green structure. “For this structure, cooling of the building has been achieved by using elements of nature. The building orientation minimises solar heat gain, thus making it more energy efficient. We will implement similar initiatives in many such places of worship across the country,” he added. IGBC ‘Chair Policy and Advocacy Committee’ said, “With several states offering incentives to green building projects, our rating system is evoking excellent response from the stakeholders. In days to come, IGBC will play a more important role in building a greener and healthier India.”

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African countries must better harness urbanisation, says AfDB African nations must do more to harness urbanisation to ensure the continent grows sustainability as millions more people head for its cities, according to the African Development Bank

NEW DELHI: The bank’s annual African Economic Outlook, launched in Nigeria last week, argued that the continent needed to get a better handle on historically rapid urbanisation to realise its opportunities and overcome its challenges. The report said that “little attention has been paid” so far to the ways in which the process might be harnessed to “accelerate the continent’s transformation in a more effective and sustainable manner”.

By the 2030s, 50% of Africans are expected to live in cities, an increase from 40% today. By 2050, that is expected to rise to 56%.It took Europe 110 years to move from 15% urbanisation to 40%. Africa has achieved the same urban growth in just 66 years.However, the report noted that, unlike that of other regions in the past, Africa’s growth has not been accompanied by a “structural transformation” such as industrialisation.

Some African nations have skipped this phase of development altogether, and are creating a service-based economy such as those in many OECD countries. But the AfDB warned against this, as this kind of economy cannot sustain as much growth as industry. Many people living in African cities have moved into informal and low productivity work, it continued, access

to public goods is unequal and it looks as though urban infrastructure investments will not keep pace with growth. Twothirds of infrastructure investments in and between Africa’s urban centres until 2050 are yet it be made, it highlighted.

A more environmentally friendly and less resource consuming process of urbanisation is also required due to the “magnitude” of city growth in Africa, it continued. The bank called on African cities to pursue policies that step up investment, promote connectivity, match formal housing markets with demand, manage urban expansion and address environmental and climate issues.

Bold, integrated and context tailored policies are needed to seize the potential “urban dividend”, African Development Bank president Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, OECD secretary general Angel Gurría and United Nations Development Programme administrator Helen Clark agreed in the report’s foreword.

Overall, the report found that the continent’s growth held firm last year, despite less than favourable global conditions and regional shocks. The report put Africa’s GDP growth at 3.6%, compared to 3.1% for the global economy and 1.5% in struggling regions like Europe.

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SDMC to conduct dog census South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) will conduct a dog census in its territory to know the impact of its animal birth control programme. The municipal body commissioned Humane Society International to conduct a detailed dog population survey to understand the effect of its ongoing animal birth control programme. According to the organisation, volunteers will conduct the census in teams of two, wherein one volunteer will ride the motorbike and the pillion volunteer will use a specially designed mobile app to record the data.

Vijayawada Corporation moots 60 litter-free roads Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has decided to extend the litter-free roads to other parts of the city after Krishna Pushkaralu to keep the city clean and free from litter.

The VMC has already made the MG Road, Eluru Road, Canal Road and national highway route from Ramavarappadu junction to Benz Circle as litter-free zone areas and is taking measures to maintain hygiene round-the-clock. Now it will be extended to 60 more main roads of the city, said the VMC Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr M Gopi Naik. He said 200 sanitation workers will be drafted for the duty to lift the garbage 24x7. He said two dust bins will be attached to the bicycles so that the sanitation workers can easily pickup garbage and dump into these dumping bins. He said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is insisting that the litter-free zone areas be extended to other parts of the city so that the city looks clean round the clock.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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NEWSCAN | Wild LifeBRIEFS

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Urbanisation affects diets of butterflies: NUS study SINGAPORE: A study led by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) revealed that most tropical butterflies feed on a variety of flower types, but those that are ‘picky’ about their flower diets tend to prefer native plants and are more dependent on forests. These ‘picky’ butterflies also have wings that are more conspicuous and shorter proboscis. The reduction in native plants due to urbanisation affects the diet of such butterflies, and researchers suggest that intervention may be needed to manage their preferred flower resources.

These findings are the outcome of a three-year study on how urbanisation affects the diets of tropical butterflies.

“Butterfly species exhibit different levels of flower preferences and flower specialisation. Understanding the complex phenomenon of flower specialisation of butterflies is important as butterflies are known to be important pollinators of tropical forests. Changes in vegetation structure

20 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

“

Butterfly species exhibit different levels of flower preferences and flower specialisation. Understanding the complex phenomenon of flower specialisation of butterflies is important as butterflies are known to be important pollinators of tropical forests. Changes in vegetation structure due to urbanisation could alter butterfly behavior, and in turn, result in changes in native plant pollination and reproduction Anuj Jain Researcher

due to urbanisation could alter butterfly behavior, and in turn, result in changes in native plant pollination and reproduction,” explained Anuj Jain,

who conducted the study as part of his doctoral research at the Department of Biological Sciences at NUS Faculty of Science. “It is worrying that butterflies that are flower specialists may become increasingly dependent on fewer native flower sources. To conserve such butterflies, there is a need to develop intervention measures to maintain the availability of suitable flowering plants,” Anuj added.

Impact of urbanisation on tropical butterflies When butterflies hunt for nectar, they collect pollen on their legs and body, which helps in pollination for the reproduction of plants. “So far, studies on the flower-feeding patterns of butterflies have been concentrated in temperate countries, such as the United Kingdom and Spain, but this area is not well-studied for the tropics.

With massive landscape transformation that is happening in the tropics, there is a need to understand flower use by butterflies, to assess the implications on pollination and plant reproduction, as well as conservation of butterfly species,” said Associate Professor Edward Webb from the Department of Biological Sciences at NUS Faculty of Science, who supervised the study.

To address this research gap, Anuj collaborated with Assistant Professor KrushnameghKunte from the National Center for Biological Sciences in India, and butterfly experts from the Nature Society (Singapore) to look deeper into the flower-feeding patterns of tropical butterflies. Over a period of three years, the research team surveyed 62 sites in Singapore, which included both forested areas and urban parks, and recorded 3,092 flower visits by 190 butterfly species feeding on 149 plant species.

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Pakistan minister calls for making safer, sustainable cities SURABAYA: Federal Minister of State and BISP Chairperson, Marvi Memon, has recently said that Pakistan will continue to support UN habitat’s new urban agenda for sustainable urbanisation.Marvi represented Pakistan as the head of the NDI delegation in the Global Women’s Leadership Program, held at the third session of the Preparatory Committee for UN Habitat 3 at Surabaya Indonesia.

She also highlighted that urban population has increased tremendously in Pakistan and is further expected to become predominantly urbanised by the year 2025. She said that Pakistan had launched its Vision 2025, a perspective plan, which already has implications

for managing urbanisation as well as changing urban demography in line with UN-Habitat New Urban agenda.

She also maintained that Pakistan is already committed to making Pakistan’s growing cities safer, sustainable, economically productive and equitable for its vulnerable populations in both rural and urban areas. She reiterated that Programs like Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), Pakistan’s largest social safety net for the poorest women living in rural and urban Pakistan, are highly critical for this New Urban Agenda.

“Being the only custodian of the gender issues and women empowerment, BISP will be key to ensuring gender equity,” she added.

Europe, Japan team boost smart cities with open data project

BENGALURU: A new EU-Japan collaboration looks to take smart cities to the next level with a cloud-based open data platform.Telecom Paper recently reported on the summer launch of the research project “City Platform-asa-Service – integrated and open,” or CPaaS.io for short.

The EU-funded initiative is a partnership between government and private sector players in Japan and Europe, with a key role played by Bern University’s E-Government Institute.

This project comes amid increased

interest in collaboration between smart cities around the globe.

The collaboration aims to develop cloud-based urban data infrastructure that will be used as a key foundation that smart cities can be built on. The experimental platform will work toward linking such technologies as big data, Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud computing with Linked Open Data and open government data. This will allow cities and private firms to develop new applications and services for the public and businesses.

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Durg corp replicates Vizag model to protect trees Durg city civic body has initiated action to protect the trees by surrounding them with cemented tree guards. Taking a cue from Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, the commissioner has launched this project aiming towards environment conservation.

Commissioner of Durg Municipal Corporation Sudesh Sundarani said, “Cemented and iron guards are being brought in for covering saplings and fully grown trees in the city. And around 2,000 trees are sealed with these guards. The iron guards are made of scrap iron to promote the concept of recycle and reuse among the residents.”

By the end of this year, the corporation aims to cover another 3,000 trees in the city.

BMC announces free parking in pay-park sites in South Mumbai Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to allow free parking in 39 pay-park sites in South Mumbai. The corporation, in an official release, announced that till the contracts are taken up, motorists won’t be charged anything at these sites.

The decision will allow 7,146 vehicles — 4,924 four-wheelers and 2,222 two-wheelers — to be parked without any fee in and around commercial spaces of Colaba, Crawford Market, Fort, CST and Cuffe Parade, where several parking lot contracts have expired. “There were no bids for these parking hubs.

Even after three rounds, no contractor applied; hence, till the time we re-calibrate the contract terms, the parking will be free,” said a senior official.

“No one can charge citizens for parking in these 39 hubs.”

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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COVER STORY | Urban Design

COVER STORY | Urban Design

Indian cities

need designed future

22 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Urban design deals with the imagination, visualization and conceptualization of existing and future built environment of our cities. The quality of life that we aspire for, in our urban environments at one end and the existential realities that we face at the other are both, part of the agenda of urban design contribution

C

ities across the world today are confronted with some of the most critical problems that affect us collectively. Many of these problems have their roots in our own decisions and choices on how we have managed and planned our cities over the past few decades. Issues of climate change triggered by large scale destruction of natural systems and bio-diversity; environmental pollution and spiraling health problems; rising class disparities with extreme poverty and homelessness; infrastructural shortfall and unequal access to basic amenities; overwhelming motorized traffic and rapid erosion of social safety and security; chaotic and indifferent built form coupled with dwindling public spacesand decreasing levels of attachment and belonging…..these are but a few of the most prevalent issues on urbanization patterns over recent times that worry us.

Importantly, all these challenges are inter-connected and overlapping both in terms of causal factors as well as for remedial paths. In this scenario, by taking a holistic view of our situation rather than a piece-meal sectoral approach, the profession of urban design offers wholesome, robust and creative solutions to address the above issues of our rapidly emerging urban conditions of today.

Role of Urban Design

Within the broad development framework that determines the urban condition, the profession of urban design has

Arunava Dasgupta Head of Urban Design Department School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi

a significantrole to play. Positioned ‘ínbetween’ various aspects of this framework, urban design operates at three distinct levels- (i) as a bridging discipline – between the perceived gaps of planning and architecture; macro and micro;art and utility (ii) as a mediating discipline – between contesting domains of public vs. private; communities vs. the state; wealth creation vs. public good and (iii) as a balancing discipline – between the dilemmas of environmentor development; local or global;ideals or actions.

Very importantly, urban designers deal with the ‘form’ of our cities which has been one of the most ignored attributes of our urban setting. ‘Form and space’ are the two basic components of any urban environment which along with use, movement and activity cycles, constitute the primary palette of built environment characteristics.The threedimensionality of our cityscape is one of the most critical conditions that determine our everyday inhabitation and occupation and which directly affects our experience as well as level of engagement with any city space.

Using the primary tool of a twodimensional land use-mobilityinfrastructure plan and corresponding development regulations, this vital dimension of our urban condition has been consistently overlooked in the planning process of our cities. Today, cities are criticized as being faceless, without memorable identity and unable to foster a collective sense of belonging and attachment. They are seen to be indifferent, anonymous and

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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COVER STORY | Urban Design

chaotic outcomes of forces that are in operation without any clear strategy of channelizing the same to help create desirable and meaningful experiences.

Using planning and design principles as the base, urban design offers possibilities of imagining these desired qualities in our built environment by focusing on urban form – as the third dimension, which over time and seen in totality, becomes identifiable as the unique collective image of the city.

Basic fundamentals

Urban space, the other basic component, is the most vital ingredient that qualifies our urban life. It is clear that better the spatial quality, better is the lived experience of the city. In fact, when urban spaces are accepted by citizens as special, meaningful, attractive and happily engaging, they become ‘places’ which everyone wants to go to, spend time, enjoy and use positively.

The making of ‘places’ therefore becomes a necessary task in the creation of joyful city experience, a quality that has almost disappeared in our cities of today. Place-making is central to the urban design agenda and its application at all scales - right from city level to the local neighborhood level, is one of the most important contributions made by urban designers through which our everyday, purposeful engagement with city spaces become more pleasant, comfortable and enriching.

The modulation of form and space

Urban designers deal with the ‘form’ of our cities which has been one of the most ignored attributes of our urban setting. ‘Form and space’ are the two basic components of any urban environment which along with use, movement and activity cycles, constitute the primary palette of built environment characteristics

24 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

therefore, is what determines the physical quality of our urban life which in turn, is an inseparable facet of our existence in the cities we inhabit. This is the professional task of an urban designer and the expertise in creatively dealing with form-space configurations ofanyurban area makes him an invaluable participant in the overall city-building process. It is important to note that so far, this role has been unfortunately understood specially by the planning profession in India to be only of enhancing the aesthetic quality of our built environment. This is undoubtedly one of the roles that an urban designer undertakes but is otherwise a gross simplification of the multi-dimensional contribution that falls within the realm of urban design tasks. Across the world, there is a clear understanding that urban design is the profession which in complementarity with planning, offers holistic, creative solutions to the shaping and most importantly, the making of our ‘real’ environments for livable and memorable cities.

The Indian city is a multi-layered, plural, diverse, complex assembly of human enterprise and action which through centuries has charted its unique processes of negotiated urbanism interspersed with formal development inputs. The comparatively short planning history of our cities after Independence, over the last six decades or so had put forth a fresh trajectory of growth and change to some of our erstwhile urban centers while creating a handful of new ones. In response to the aftermath of Partition, following global trends of modern city planningafter industrialization, the foundations of formal town and country planning in India relied strongly on principles, standards and norms from European and American counterparts.

The idea of the Master Plan or City Development Plan that was used for shaping the future of our cities offered spatial development patterns for projected populations over a specified time period (15-20 years) with an estimated quantum of resource allocation and infrastructural inputs

as necessary for realizing ideal urban living conditions for the same. Both projected and existing population, as well as required uses and functions, were sought to be distributed across the designated urban area through prescriptions of density and land-use zoning. The magnitude of permissible built-up space through norms of FSI/FAR and ground coverage determined the extent and use of land (as primary urban resource) while alluding to the nature of resultant urban form. Transportation and other infrastructural networks followed this pattern, and an overall “plan” of urban expansion and growth established for the next 15-20 years. This era of ‘master planning’ our cities, has had mixed outcomes especially with regard to stated goals, achieved targets and ground realities.

The connect between urban planning and design

After almost six decades of urban development modeled on horizontal expansion of our cities (barring a few) we have just about started comprehending that land as a resource for urban growth is an increasingly extinct commodity and that it may be wise to look inwards within existing city boundaries to accommodate growth needs. Also, in our urge to expand into new areas of city expansion with more and more lavish standards of spatial organization, which in turn increasingly cater tothe more affluent population and their demands, inner areas of our cities have been degrading and their conditions deteriorating to an abysmally low level of livability. Such areas, which included our historic urban cores in many cities as well as urban villages, housed the less affluent and less catered communities within our urban social composition.

With the advent of JnNURM, this anomaly of the planned, expansionbased development of our cities in surrounding green-field areas at the expense of built-up inner areas was confronted squarely and a new focus on inner city urban renewal was initiated.

Presently, with AMRUT and HRIDAY

initiatives of the Central Government, the shift in development inputs from the periphery of the city to its inner domains has been further consolidated.

Considering that inner city precincts are already built up, the case for urban renewal, re-developmentand rejuvenation, envisages technical expertise that is equipped to handle the process of transformations of existing built conditions in correlation with changing dynamics of use and guide them effectively towards a renewed urban future. This expertise lies singularly with the urban designer and urban conservationist who, through their methodical tools of assessing built form aspects as well as visualizing changes for the same, can effectively contribute to such a vital task.

The above precinct or area-based approach to urban change is gaining ground for two specific reasons.Firstly, the fruits of the prevailing top-down master planning process of determining city futures in the long term has left much to be desired with respect to actual positive change in the everyday urban environment at the local level and secondly, maybe more importantly, this process excludes the collective voice of citizens in contributing to the shaping of their own urban spaces. A comprehensive urban design scheme for localities and precincts of a city takes into consideration the needs of the local with continuous dialogue and participationof and by the community therein, using assessment and visualization techniques to determine possible directions of future desired growth and change. Today, Indian cities have been propelled towards the path of ‘smart’ development and the Smart City Missionalso uses the area based development (ABD) strategy as focal to the realization of its objectives. Urban design inputs have been correspondinglyrecognized as one of the fundamental and necessary contributions in this new endeavor.

In contrast to this locality driven, community oriented approach to urban development we see the juggernaut of mega infrastructural projects pushed into existing urban zones

as well as deep within surrounding hinterland areas. Whether through the now ubiquitous metro or through the numerous expressway projects crisscrossing our urban spectrum, the consequent upsurge in urban change is unprecedented across all scales of urban centers. Led by capital cities of each state, this new trajectory of infrastructural infusion with negligible ‘master planning’ correspondence is charting its own canvas of rapid and widespread transformations.

While virgin tracts of agricultural, forest and nature-intensive land is getting unscrupulously engulfed by successive ‘ring’ expressways and radial connectors, large swathes of new development corridors are suddenly surfacing within city boundaries along proposed metro and other mass-transit corridors challenging existing city structures and erstwhile development patterns.

Transit- oriented- development (TOD) has become a new tool to capitalize on this mobility based upheaval in our cities. Without adequately balanced attention, this new mechanism runs the risk of being swallowed by forces of the real estate market ushering in uncontrolled gentrification of inner city localities along such movement lines. In this tumultuous condition with no apparent cohesive direction, urban designers become leaders in mapping, analyzing and conceptualizing integrative restructuring possibilities that soften the impact of such mega-investments while upholding the virtues of humanized living conditions and re-stitching disjointed and fragmented localities in consonance with newly inserted infrastructural provision.

The scenario at the turn of Independence which ushered in the formal planning era of our urban centers is no longer what we face today. In an inter-connected global world, cities have increasingly become primary arenas of international economic, social and cultural interface.

Beyond local, regional and national imperatives, cities today perform roles far beyond the immediate needs of

Urban space is the most vital ingredient that qualifies our urban life. It is clear that better the spatial quality, better is the lived experience of the city.

In fact, when urban spaces are accepted by citizens as special, meaningful, attractive and happily engaging, they become ‘places’ which everyone wants to go to, spend time, enjoy and use positively

the local population of any state or nation. While this is the inevitable reality confronting our urban centers, what becomes crucial is to connect with the unfolding dynamics of a new hybridized urbanism that present day forces are generating.

How can our cities be made more liveable? How could inclusivity be enhanced across all our urban centers? How can environmental erosion and degradation be arrested and nature given its predominant role in our urban lives? How could the experience of our everyday lives in cities be memorable…… of pleasure, inspiration, excitement and fun? And finally, how can all this happen simultaneously while we confront the enormous realities that surround us today? These are some of the fundamental questions that all of us are talking about regarding our urban condition…..questions that are as important for our own cities as they are for anywhere in the world.

These questions lie at the core of what we are yet to achieve so far and as importantly,what we want our urban future to be.

Cities need to be designed, not just planned. Building upon negotiated realities rather than only idealized imaginations……the future Indian city has its future through urban design.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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Leaderspeak | Urban Regeneration

Governance, urban regeneration go hand in hand Ranjit S Chavan President, AIILSG

Governance can steer urban regeneration on right path With urban settlements, metro cities and small towns around the world becoming increasingly modern in their looks and infrastructure, there is a growing need to revamp the mechanism of governing cities to make them efficient and inclusive

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ities are growing in numbers and size. According to the United Nations, around seven billion people will live in cities by the year 2050. Such growth of cities presents a wide array of challenges for municipalities as they have not updated the way they manage and run cities. In the times when cities are undergoing a phase of urban metamorphosis, city leaders have to sync their management approach with the process of urban regeneration, and rising aspirations and requirements of new age urban dwellers.

Significance of governance in ‘urban regeneration’

A few years ago, the World Bank conducted a study on urban regeneration projects and their outcomes in eight cities. The study says that every city has pockets of underused and underutilized land or distressed and decaying urban areas. These pockets of underused land weaken the city’s image, livability, and productivity. They are usually the result of changes in the urban growth and productivity patterns. The study covered urban regeneration projects and their outcomes in Ahmedabad, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Santiago, Seoul,

26 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Shanghai, Singapore, and Washington DC. To tackle the issues of decline and urban decay, these cities and others around the world have designed complex processes of urban regeneration. Rarely are urban regeneration projects implemented solely by the public sector. The need for massive financial resources is one factor. However, even if the government could provide the necessary resources for regenerating urban land, the buy in from the community and business sector is needed to ensure the sustainability of regeneration efforts. As a result, participation of the private sector is a decisive factor in success of regeneration of underutilized urban land.

It has been argued by urban experts that urban regeneration largely depends on cities’ ability in different spheres such as governance and leadership model at local level, economic activities, coordination between different tiers of governments and agencies involved, and private stakeholders.

The success of cities completely depends on how it delivers economic opportunities and better living conditions to its population.

Overall economic growth is limited when lowincome populations aren’t connected with

new job opportunities. Consequently, social equity must be at the center of regeneration efforts. Urban regeneration projects are generally executed with the involvement of private stakeholders and the financial feasibility of such projects is notably important for its long term success.

The role of governing bodies such as municipalities or development agencies need to ensure that lower income and minority residents benefit from rising demand and economic growth. The whole concept of urban regeneration is based on the philosophy of bringing together urban planning and operation mechanism efforts in a holistic way to create places for the benefit of local communities. To make such projects successful, the role of local governance and leadership is of paramount importance.

Global perspective

Many cities around the world have initiated the process of urban regeneration to enhance the efficiency of their eco-systems and delivery mechanism so that all city residents are equitably benefitted with the process of urban development. European cities have showcased a range of solutions to the governance of urban regeneration processes. A report ‘Sustainable Regeneration of Urban Areas’, published by European Union as part of its URBACT II programme, presents existing urban knowledge and good practices about urban regeneration in cities worldwide. The report features the experiences of a wide range of cities.

Many cities around the world have initiated the process of urban regeneration to enhance the efficiency of their ecosystems and delivery mechanism so that all city residents are equitably benefitted with the process of urban development.

European cities have showcased a range of solutions to the governance of urban regeneration processes

As per the report, the City of Hamburg has opted for a city-owned enterprise to spearhead the regeneration of Wilhelm burg, while Vilnius has focused on partnerships between the municipality and either relevant stakeholders in the case of the Park of Architecture (a postindustrial brown field regeneration), or community and resident organisations in the case of Zirmunai Triangle, an existing large housing estate regeneration. The creative and cultural industry can be used as a tool within the governance model to push urban regeneration), particularly in historic neighborhoods and cities. The City of Berlin introduced a governance model within the ‘Socially integrative city’ programme by involving crosspolicy actors and stakeholders of all kinds in order to improve living and housing conditions in socially deprived neighbourhoods. The strategy involves cross-departmental municipal cooperation and an integrated action plan, setting up new structures for directing neighbourhood management operations. The new neighbourhood management enables co-operation

between all relevant actors and stakeholders, thus extending the scope of local policies.

Good urban governance is must for making any urban development successful and sustainable. The Governance and Sustainable Human Development Programme (1997) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and European Governance White Paper (2001) enunciate five principles of ‘good governance’ that, with slight variations, appears in much of the literature. The five principles of ‘good governance’ (UNDP) are: 1-Openness or Fairness: All should have equal opportunities and the rule of law should be fairly applied; 2-Participation or Legitimacy & Voice: All should have a voice in decisionmaking and differences in interests should be mediated; 3-Accountability: Decisions should be accountable to the public and transparent; 4-Effectiveness or Performance: Outcomes should meet needs and make best use of resources; 5-Coherence or Direction: Decisions should take a long-term and holistic view.

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Article | Transit Oriented Development

Let’s give TOD a fair chance

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ities are a direct manifestation of the policies that try to control and manage how they grow, redevelop and evolve. Policy frameworks at the city level, often seen in India as being cumbersome, restrictive and regressive, have the potential to become the

Mriganka Saxena Co-Founder, CityAnalytics and Founding Partner of Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU)

28 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

greatest enablers for the creation of great cities. However, this requires long term vision, commitment to city building and a comprehensive multidisciplinary understanding of how cities perform and behave. Unfortunately, our administrative structure at the city level fails to create a framework to enable such an approach. New brave policy initiatives to restructure, regenerate or catalyse cities are often met with great opposition.

The three biggest barriers to bringing about positive change in our urban environments are: a) Lack of data. There is no platform for comprehensive, high quality data on cities that can not only underpin sound planning but also help convince decision makers of the key imperatives of the policy; b) The need to ‘fit into’ the existing policy framework or structure i.e ‘round pegs for round holes’. A new approach to city building or ‘Square pegs’ not only challenge the familiar but also reveal the shortcomings of the existing and are therefore, resisted if not vehemently opposed because of the

uncertainties attached to the unknown and; c) The decision-making process itself which is not informed by technical studies and predictive analyses but by opinions of individuals or committees.

India is urbanising at an unprecedented pace today. Simultaneously, our cities are undergoing rampant and sustained degeneration, crumbling under the pressures of increasing densities, hampered mobility and inadequate service infrastructure.

While mass urbanisation and high densities provide massive economic opportunities, the abysmal condition of our cities impacts quality of life for all and the ease of doing business for enterprises. This will only compound with time. If cities are to grow into robust, thriving and sustainable centres, we need to understand the emerging behavioural trends and patterns. And, ‘design’ our policies to enable and proactively manage sustainable growth.

The new Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy adopted in July 2015 in the Master Plan for Delhi 2021 (MPD) was a

TOD is essentially any development, macro or micro, that is focused around a transit node, and facilitates complete ease of access to the transit facility, thereby inducing people to prefer to walk and use public transportation over personal modes of transport. TOD policies mostly use enhanced development rights as a tool to catalyze redevelopment brave attempt at doing just that.

The TOD policy for Delhi also allows greater development but at its heart, is inclusive, egalitarian and environmentally sustainable, placing the every-day city dweller at its centre.

These simple yet essential goals, however, required a paradigm shift in planning across scales. The following three departures from the norm are worth noting. ♦♦ Mixed use, Mixed income – Planning policy in Delhi is founded on regulating development by way of segregating land uses across areas and districts where quantum of development permissible is linked to the use type ascribed to a certain plot/parcel. TOD, is its complete misnomer. TOD for Delhi envisioned a variety of high-density, mixed-use, mixed-income buildings, within a short distance of a rapid transit network to encourage use of public transport. This required the creation of a flexible policy framework wherein parcels and buildings

could accommodate multiple use types over time based on market dynamics. Coupled with robust regulations for affordable (not EWS) housing, the TOD policy aims at creating a massive stock of smaller unit sizes across the city to meet the huge demand and make the city more equitable. In order to improve the quality of life, the TOD policy also mandates the creation of public open spaces. ♦♦ Mobility linked spatial planning– Mobility patterns of city-dwellers are guided by the type and quality of infrastructure provided. While infrastructure enhancement in Delhi has always been focused on the private vehicle, the TOD policy aimed at the making Delhi pedestrian and non-motorised transit friendly. This not only entailed creating a policy framework for a finer network of public streets to provide route choices, equitable distribution of road space for all modes and good quality streetscape but also the use of spatial planning tools such as Influence

Zone Plan (IZP) to enable delivery.

The IZP ensures that planned high density developments and all supporting infrastructure within a TOD – street networks, social infrastructure, public utilities and public open space – is coordinated and rigorously assessed before implementation. ♦♦ Zero Setbacks – It was also necessary that our streets became engines for economic growth and safe for all. This led to the other critical departure that was required to make TOD successful. The ‘setback’ is an essential part of Delhi’s urban fabric.

Buildings on every parcel of private land above a certain size (mostly 100 sqM) are required to be set back a certain distance from the public road edge. This was a major barrier to TOD as mixed use developments require an immediate interface with the public street for its business and the increased pedestrians and NMT users require safe streets that could only be achieved through passive surveillance by activities in adjoining developments. The TOD Policy, therefore, requires no setback.

Today, however, this visionary policy is under threat. On 24 April 2016, the Delhi Development Authority, through its public notice proposed amendments to the TOD policy. The changes grossly compromise three direct benefits to the people of Delhi – a) Fine network of new public streets dominated by pedestrians and cyclists, b) Supply of housing for the middle class of Delhi and c) Public Open Spaces. If these proposed amendments are accepted, Delhi’s transit corridors will become exclusive gated enclaves, intensifying the social, economic and environmental fractures the city is experiencing. Brave new initiatives such as the TOD policy for Delhi need champions to push them through. If TOD is too new, too unfamiliar, it may be best to try out a pilot. But one must not make compromises. One must not shave the edges of a square peg to fit a round hole. We need to create all the right tools to make the perfect fit so that the city can try TOD in its purest form, just once. The City may just get the ‘precedent’ it has been waiting for.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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Article | Local Area Planning

A community based Urban Design Studio at SPA, New Delhi

Addressing ground realities Local Area Planning and Design Local Area Plans are envisaged as a finelytuned development tool to address issues of building use and distribution, with the assessment of community needs routed through the elected representatives at ward level. This new vision about development is a planning approximation of an Urban Design based development, involving built form, building and space use, functions, activities and people

Manu Mahajan Assistant Professor Department of Urban Design, SPA - Delhi

30 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

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he concept of local area planning was practiced in the form of Improvement Schemes and Town Planning Schemes in the early part of 20th century in various parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. It lost relevance in the modern urban planning milieu of Indian cities.

Recently, it has been re-introduced in India. MPD-2021, AUDA Development Plan-2031 and Draft Mumbai Development Plan have proposed local area planning as a crucial stage in the planning process. The URDPFI guidelines (2015) also propose this level of planning as an important component. This is a much needed change that reflects the contemporary focus on public participation in every sphere of development including urban development. The electoral ward, a spatio-political unit, is gradually getting recognized in the planning sphere as the lowest planning unit with a purpose to engage directly with elected representatives as well as local people in the development process.

Much of the planning effort over the last 50 years, in the form of Master/ Development Plan, has focused on opening green-field sites for city expansion. To deal with already developed parts of the city in terms of urban renewal/redevelopment, local area planning is seen as an important tool as it has the potential to resolve area and local level issues. Local Area Plans are also envisaged as a finelytuned development tool to address

issues of building use and distribution, with the assessment of community needs routed through the elected representatives at ward level. This new vision about development is a planning approximation of an Urban Design based development, involving built form, building and space use, functions, activities and people. In fact, the use of Urban Design strategies and processes becomes the most relevant application at this scale given its interdisciplinary approach and its focus on local context, constituent places and people. Any intervention, both in builtup and green-field areas would require zooming to the scale of Urban Design, which can successfully connect the envisaged local development with the

The Studio uses minimal design intervention to upgrad

larger planning objectives.

As one of the foremost academic institutions in the country to initiate such an exercise –the Department of Urban Design at School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi has been engaged in developing a methodology for an urban design approach in the preparation of Local Area Plans (LAPs) with a strong focus on public participation. The aim of such an initiative is to move the design discourse out of the technical domain and locate it in the midst of people and contexts, so that designers explore the process of learning through engagement with local community.

Since 2010, every year, some wards of Delhi are selected and the abovementioned ‘LAP’ studio is conducted with the objective of imparting students with requisite skills (in the form of tools and techniques of participation) to understand the aspirations of local people about their locality/ neighbourhood and to comprehend developmental history and structural changes faced by the city through the microcosm of the ward while reflecting these in terms of policy/development framework at city level.

The Studio starts with rapid assessment of morphological and socio-economic characteristics of the ward and identification of key

de significant areas into community level public spaces

Public meetings and exhibitions form essential part of engaging local population in decision making

stakeholders. Issues and development strategies are identified with the help of a large public meeting in the presence of area councilor. Design proposals are then conceptualized and these projects are taken back to the local community for deliberation in the form of meetings and exhibitions.

The area designs and improvement schemes are further refined to reflect the concerns of the people. This studio, over a period of time, has used both, conventional as well as, experimental and unique techniques for engagement and participation of local inhabitants including focus group discussions, structured questionnaires, formal public meetings, drawing competitions, interactive physical models, and feedback through a website of the local area. The Studio also focuses on the production of a three dimensional development model reflecting and incorporating the multiple visions of the ward and the city, covering a wide range of morphological, functional, environmental and social characteristics.

Till date, this Studio at Department of Urban Design has covered 20 wards of Delhi including all the wards of Shahjahanbad (Old Delhi) and a number of schemes have been developed for urban renewal, area improvement and redevelopment of inner city areas

of the city by students under the guidance of highly experienced faculty members. The Studio has revealed the legal, political and institutional nuances of undertaking improvement at local level. It has also thrown open some important questions with regard to processes and policy of planning and redevelopment of existing areas in Indian cities such as, (i) Should the Master Plans and Zonal Development Plans (ZDPs) which are legally binding documents, precede the local area plans? (ii) If the LAPs are combined to make ZDPs which in turn are in dialogue with the master plan, would this protect the local area’s interests better? (iii) Can the ward be a successful unit for local area planning without adequate reference to broader geographical features and terrain which are crucial to spatial planning?

And, (iv) How can it be made possible to include multiple and diverse stakeholders who are residents as well as users of these areas but may not be voters from the ward?

The most recent evidence where the scale of Local Area Plan is recognized as most effective for transforming existing cities is seen in the Smart City Mission Guidelines, which emphasize on citizen-centric area based development which strongly resonates with the ideas being discussed here.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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one on one | KT Ravindran

The Government of India has launched an array of projects to rejuvenate urban settlements and steer urban development in the right trajectory. Urban Update speaks to eminent urban designer and academician KT Ravindran to know how government and local bodies can utilise urban design fundamentals to improve operational efficiency and quality of life in cities

Urban design is fu to build cities peo

Abhishek Pandey Editor, Urban Update ap.urbanupdate@gmail.com

32 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

What are the imperatives of urban design in Smart Cities Mission launched by the Indian government?

A smart city implies that it functions systematically. Unless there is a systemic functioning in a city, it’s not a smart city.

To be smart, the city has to optimise its physical resources, non-physical communication resources and as well as human resources. When you optimise a system, every system has a boundary and when you push it beyond the boundary, it breaks down and does not function. This has direct implication on the growth of the cities. In India, cities are growing beyond their functional size. We have huge cities which have become unmanageable because of their very size. Size of a city is mainly defined by its physical and vertical expansion, density, and population. In context of physical growth of the city, most critical aspect is that it needs to be defined in a compact form for the future which is basically an urban design concept. And that compactness implies to a certain

building bulk not continuous expansion of suburbs. Consolidation of cities is required, but that also has a limit to its growth where the limit can only be defined in three dimensions. So to include the building bulk not just how much land area is covered. Optimise the use of land and maximising the use of vertical space.

Are we talking about densely populated cities for optimal utilisation of resources?

Optimally densified cities. When we say densely populated cities, it gives an image of messy and non- functioning system. The first step of being a smart city is establishment of its thresholds of growth. We should be able to functionally define what is optimal.

Are we implying that linking urban design with civic amenities is paramount?

Everything, civic amenities fundamentally. Whenever a master plan

undamental ople love which says a particular area will have a density of 600 people per hectare, it is supposed to correlate its services with the building bulk that will be generated by that many houses. This is not done.

It is arbitrarily done depending on the kind of proximities it has and therefore what kind of land value it generates.

Is it in the control of local bodies because they are not empowered much?

If they have no control then it means we have uncontrolled growth. The role of local bodies is diverse. One is expecting local bodies to do 25 different things especially after the 74th amendment.

The functions of local bodies have become really diverse and complex without resources and capabilities.

Nobody is seriously thinking about training of officers who are managing local bodies. Instead, the smart city concept deflects that lack of skill and creates a SPV outside the electoral system which will function like a

corporate body to deliver a smart city.

As much you want to deliver a smart city, you also need to empower and develop skills in the local bodies so that they are able to sustain the growth. The SPV will break down or move down when it makes its profit.

Under AMRUT, there is a plan for training municipal employees and city leaders, what methods and procedure would you recommend for maximising the workforce and developing skills in local bodies through these programmes?

There is a lot of thinking happening on the economics of cities at the central level. A little less happening at state level and there is no thinking happening at the local level. We are expecting good investments from the private investors through corporate channels, but are the municipal bodies equipped to deal with corporate entities? Are they smart enough to deal with them? No they are not, they are frightened of them. At

best they will take the favour given to them for a trip abroad. After two years, the person will retire because only senior people are sent and then the skill is not there.

We have knowledge at the top level but zero at the ground level.

Whereas it should be reverse. We should empower at the ground level and it would cumulatively lead to a highly knowledgeable country. We have excellent thinkers. We had an economist becoming a Prime Minister.

But what is the level of understandings of urban economics at the local level; it is nil. They don’t know how to manage money or they don’t know even how to fill a form to apply for a loan. That is the level of skills we have at local level.

A Sri Lankan mayor told me that international agencies like the World Bank or United Nations talk about empowering local bodies but do not deal with them directly and contact central governments instead. He

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one on one | KT Ravindran

emphasised that how can they empower us unless they enable us in executing and implementing projects?

On the other, Mayors of cities like London or New York wield so much power. Do you think, it is an issue?

In my opinion, the problem is not lack of power or money. It’s not that the World Bank and ADB like institutions are the only agencies who can salvage local bodies. This will only increase our indebtedness. Accessing money and power is not the solution but the internal reform is.

And how is that going to happen?

There has to be political will. Mayors should be aware of issues of lack of skills in their own departments. For example: you visit a town planning office in a small or mid-sized city, and meet the regional town planner; you will find that he has a diploma in civil engineering and has no degree in town planning, no exposure to cities. He has not even got five year time to mature into a full-

34 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

fledged engineer in his programme. I am not saying that those who do a three year program are not skilled, they have a particular kind of skill. But the kind of skills required for managing a city or envisioning projects is something that takes time for maturing in a person’s mind. It took me seven years to become a fresh graduate in urban design. Now after 40 years that what I learned in school is not the only thing I learned. I have learned many more things outside.

A planner is trained to think in two dimensions while an urban designer is trained to think in three dimensions.

So particularly for smart city idea it is imperative to employ urban designer at local body level.

While planning a city, what is the role of urban designer in city planning? Are they involved in the processes in India?

They should be involved. For instance, I have sent papers to Bhubaneswar and new city Amaravati. Amaravati is already mobilising the formation of

an Urban Art Commission. They have already employed urban designers in their cadre. And, planners have done many good things. All the good things they have done are not visible to us because we are only noticing what is wrong with cities.

But they have not been able to define what should not be done. That is an urban designer’s job. There is a division between the two professions; one is to develop an overall plan and see how things are interrelated to a planning process and take necessary decisions.

The other is someone who imagines a city and quality of life there. That is what gives a city its urban form, public spaces with pedestrians, and street network.

It also provides a city an orderly public environment.

World Bank has called urbanisation in South Asia as a messy and hidden chaos? Do you agree?

I don’t agree with all those terminologies.

It’s not messy for a person running a

paan shop , for him it is a perfectly functioning system. If you take a bunch of men who live in the integral part of the country, shift them to a developed economy. He won’t be able to function there. He would totally be alienated and won’t be able to network there. So there is a complex order of things which appears like chaos to a lot of people who are educated in the West. This is only a much more complex order. I am not saying that this is the ideal thing, but if you take that complex order and apply it to Swachh Bharat and simply cleanup our streets and public places. We will find proper functioning places. It will be a delightful and vibrant place.

When we are making cities for all and trying to make inclusive cities not only smart cities, what is the role of urban design in making inclusive cities?

See. Without urban design or providing designing environment of the city, merely by planning them, you cannot achieve quality of life. Urban design is fundamental to quality of life. If you want to generate good quality of life in a city, you need to go through urban design. That is fundamental. If you ask me what is the role of the city to urban designer in making pedestrians walk on the roads, I would suggest design the floor of the city. Master plan doesn’t design the floor of the city; it tells us what should be the right way of the road.

They don’t care about what’s happening on that road afterwards. But design is worried about the physical experience of the urban dweller while s/he is using that public space. The primary public space of India is the street.

There are parks and parklets along the streets in many cities in developing countries. Pedestrians can sit and relax. Except in some parts of Delhi, there are no arrangements like this?

No there are no arrangements in those parts of the capital of India. We will find granite pavements in Lutyens’ Delhi like we find in a five star hotel. There are the places where there are no pedestrians.

You go to places like Ashram Chowk, ITO or Nehru Place where millions of people criss-cross, the condition of the

There is a lot of thinking happening on the economics of cities at the central level. A little less happening at state level and there is no thinking happening at the local level. We are expecting good investments from the private investors through corporate channels, but are the municipal bodies equipped to deal with corporate entities? Are they smart enough to deal with them? pavements is the worst. It is like having a wonderful neat and clean drawing room and having rotten bedrooms, kitchen and washrooms. This is why you need to apply urban design as an Inclusive phenomenon, where everything gets at least an equitable attention.

I am not a fool to believe that all places in all cities will have the same attention. City production is a political process. Politics of power is going to play itself out while the production happens. Through urban design, we can consciously intervene in such a way that people can walk comfortably, children can play freely and women can walk without fear on roads. Then you have a city which you love. City will endear itself to you. Without endearment, you cannot have any connect between people and cities. The sense of belonging helps people look after their environment. If we develop that people will love their city and will not ruin it by throwing garbage or defacing.

At present, you have cities which are

hostile to 90 percent of citizens.

People living in older cities like Bhopal or Banaras love their cities even if there are minimal services provided to them. They are so much connected their city, hence cannot talk bad about it. Why is it so?

It is a connect with your lifestyle and physical provisions. The kind of lifestyle in Banaras and in Lutyens’ Delhi are completely opposite in spectrum. If the people from Lutyens’ Delhi are shifted to Banaras, it will be a miserable condition for them. Similarly, if Banares people are shifted to Lutyen’s Delhi, they will be totally lost. There is a direct correlation between physical environment and living culture of a city and the people living there. It is about language, how they use public spaces and how they go about their dayto-day lives.

(Transcribed by Arzoo Arora)

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Article | Inclusive Urban Design

Special design for

special people Cities around the world exhibit high levels of inequity and exclusion. This is however more due to failure of planning and inadequate attention than any inherent discriminative character of cities

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V Vijaykumar Sr Advisor, AIILSG v.vijaykumar@aiilsg.org

36 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

ities have large groups of different stakeholders with various needs, necessities and priorities, often competing and sometimes conflicting. City planning and design need to address these diverse priorities and meet their needs effectively. While it may not always be possible for every city to meet fully the needs of every group, cities cannot be designed for the ‘average’ citizen either.

Cities need to consciously avoid ignoring any specific group and endeavour to meet the needs of as many groups as possible, as completely as possible.

Women, children, the aged and the poor are some groups with special needs which call for attention. The differentlyabled are a special category which requires more care and meticulous planning. Cities have significant responsibilities towards those with disabilities in order to enable them to participate fully in the development process, meaningfully and with dignity and pride. Design of city systems and infrastructure needs to take into account their special needs in their journey towards greater inclusiveness.

The principle articulated by the United Nations states that, “No part of the built environment should be designed in a manner that excludes certain groups of people on the basis of their disability or frailty”. India’s Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of

Rights and full participation) Act, 1995 requires that equal opportunities are offered to persons with disabilities.

For Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), universal accessibility is critical for enabling them to gain access for equal opportunity and live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life in an inclusive society. Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 under sections

44, 45 and 46 categorically provides for non-discrimination in transport, nondiscrimination on the road and nondiscrimination in built environment respectively.

There are various cases in the urban environment where these principles need to be applied. In fact all public spaces and buildings. Banks, ATMs,

Accessibility is a key concept. The term describes the extent to which products, services, systems and the environment are designed and operate in such a way as to enable access by the maximum number of people, including persons with disabilities, the aged, children and pregnant mothers

Special arrengment for women, elderly and differntly abled at BRT tube stations in Curitiba, Brazil

Schools, Railway Station, Bus Stand, Hospitals, Clinics and Restaurants are all examples of public buildings which need to be designed so as to serve all including the differently abled. The recently published Revised Draft Development Plan for Mumbai City contains a separate section in the Development Control Regulations which lays down the design specifications for built spaces in order to meet the needs of the differently abled. The stipulations are detailed and comprehensive. For example, wheelchair traversibility is specified with respect to building entrances, surface finishes and kerb ramps on sidewalks.

Appropriately sized reserved parking spaces for their vehicles in parking lots have been specified. Within buildings, the design of stairways, lifts, toilets and drinking water facilities are so mandated as to meets the needs of persons with different disabilities. Special care has been taken in case of the visually impaired, for example, by mandating the provision of audio announcements in lifts.

Universal design and accessibility

The philosophy of Universal Design is a notable concept with respect to design of urban environments and built spaces.

Ron Mace, the late founder of The Centre for Universal Design, defined the term as “Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”. It propagates design which can meet the needs of the largest numbers of people regardless of age, size and ability.

Examples are automatic self-closing faucets and step-less entrance ways. It is an important concept in developing barrier free design, that is design of alternate structures which enables people with disabilities to access built spaces and facilities. For example, ramps at building entrances and wider corridors to accommodate wheel-chairs and lower counter tops that can be reached easily.

Accessibility describes the extent to which products, services, systems

and the environment are designed and operate in such a way as to enable access by the maximum number of people, including persons with disabilities, the aged, children and pregnant mothers.

Estimates by the World Bank and the WHO, put the global number of persons with a disability at over 1 billon, or around 15 per cent of the world population. A UN note on the subject observes that “Persons with disabilities face widespread lack of accessibility to built environments, from roads and housing, to public buildings and spaces and to basic urban services such as sanitation and water, health, education, transportation, and emergency response and resilience programmes. Barriers to information and communications, including relevant technologies and cultural attitudes including negative stereotyping and stigma also contribute to the exclusion and marginalisation of persons with disabilities in urban environments”.

Urban design has the potential to impede or promote full participation and inclusivity in the development process.

Inadequate access to crucial services is an obstacle for the disadvantaged in realizing his or her full potential for a rich and rewarding life. Such inadequacy can greatly impact and result in elevated levels of poverty, deprivation and exclusion. On the other hand, specially designed transportation and school buildings can enable the student with mobility related disability in partaking fully of all levels of education and thus realise the promise of a fulfilling career and growth prospects.

Urban planners and designers need to constantly look for ways to make our cities more accessible. Technological innovations such as self-driving cars and audio books will continue to enrich the lives of persons with physical impairments. Urban planners need to harness and encourage such innovations in their efforts towards inclusive cities.

They will also progress in their journey to a better environment, something the Late Stella Young had in mind when she said, “My disability exists not because I use a wheelchair, but because the broader environment isn’t accessible”.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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Article | Inclusive Urban Design

Towards age-friendly cities Most of the cities of today, particularly in the developing world, are far from age-friendly.

Cities along with their drive towards greater efficiency, strive to become more inclusive, also pay special heed to the needs and well-being of senior citizens. This will present significant challenges as often, the needs of greater efficiency and productivity will run counter to those of well-being of the aged

T

he population of our planet is growing older steadily. The trend which was characteristic of the richer nations has started to catch up with the rest of the world too. In 1950, older persons (those 60 years of age or more) accounted for 8 percent of the population. By 1990, this figure reached 9.2 percent and is expected to reach 21.5 percent by 2050 as per Help Age International.

This trend of an increasingly older population the world over is a result of lower fertility rates and increasing life expectancy achieved by rapid advances in medicine in the last few decades.

Coupled with the rapid and geographically well spread out trend of urbanisation, we can conclude that going forward, increasing numbers of the aged, just like the rest of the population, will live in cities and as the trend amplifies, in metropolises and megacities. While the rural youth migrates to urban locales in search of better opportunities and economic prospects, the older population will move to urban centres, often as a part of the family, following those whom they are dependent upon. However, the aged will also prefer the security and conveniences that the larger city offers, especially in respect of healthcare, mobility and easier access to other services including a variety of cultural and leisure activities.

Unaffordable housing, difficult public transportation and sparse open spaces are particularly glaring examples.

Streets are not very pedestrian-friendly,

38 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

indeed they are often downright dangerous given the prevailing chaos and lawlessness.

While some housing developments claim to be ‘senior-citizen’ centric, they are few and far between and of uncertain efficacy. The challenges of city life in the Indian context make the aged particularly vulnerable. In a 2015 survey of 96 countries by Help Age International, India was ranked 71 (Switzerland was No 1) in terms of social and economic well-being of the aged. Aged women are even worse off.

Given that women live longer lives than men, they are often left to fend for themselves without the care and support of the husband. Generally dependent on males financially throughout their lives and with little role in decision making in family matters, they are seen as a burden to the family in their old age.

There are numerous examples worldwide of the efforts made by cities in terms of age-friendly streets, safe traffic signal systems, appropriately designed buildings and public spaces and so on. These experiences need to be shared with other cities in the effort to make cities truly inclusive. In addition to these ‘hardware’ aspects, there is also a need to address the ‘software’ aspects i.e., the attitude of other citizens, especially of the young and well-bodied towards the aged.

Concern for the aged citizen, whether by the bus driver/conductor or the retail store attendant or indeed the citizen on the road is vitally important for the aged community to feel wanted and respected.

Soon, with a larger proportion of the population comprising the aged, it will no more be possible for cities to ignore the well-being of its senior citizens

Urban Floods | Article

Sinking cities Climate change and poor urban planning aided by crumbling infrastructure is making Indian cities vulnerable to huge losses during incessant rains.

Recent flooding in Delhi, Gurugram and many other cities are some examples

A

change in a city’s name does not change its fate due to disastrous city planning. In July this year, the monsoon had not yet cheered up the parched nation that had been suffering for the third consecutive year of drought, when Gurugram (new name for one of India’s most happening cities Gurgaon) saw its roads turn into rivers. A traffic jam extending beyond a night caught the attention of the entire mainstream media and we saw long and never ending hours of debateon television. Something similar happened when the heavy rains had lashed Mumbai in 2005 and Chennai last year.

The debates faded as soon as the traffic became normal, the nation continued to build more such cities without factoring in such floods (and most importantly ‘climate change’). Our obsession with urbanisation - and construction associated with it - has outsmarted our science, conscience and common sense.

Our city planners are either hesitant to learn or are deliberately ignoring the fact that our cities are sinking. Getting used to and becoming indifferent towards disasters seems to be the new mantra our urban planners want us to learn.

Cities and climate change: huge losses, no lessons Ranjan K Panda Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network ranjanpanda@gmail.com

Climate change induced extreme events such as floods will impact many of the world’s cities in the coming years. In fact, the evidence is already building with strong warning messages for our planners. The Fifth Assessment Report

of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in 2014 said that half to two-thirds of Asia’s cities with one million or more inhabitants are exposed to one or multiple hazards, with floods and cyclones the most important.

The report further indicated that by the 2070s Kolkata and Mumbai would be two of the most vulnerable cities at risk due to climate change in terms of population and assets exposed to coastal flooding.

Cities are expanding out of bounds and the poor in the cities are always at higher risk of exposure to floods and related woes. Cities will also have huge financial and infrastructural losses due to increased floods. A study by World Bank economist Stephane Hallegatte and team has warned that Mumbai and Kolkata would face annual loss of $6.4 billion and $3.4 billion respectively by 2050 due to flooding even if they put in place upgraded protection systems. Such high loss is expected in cities because of our lopsided growth models that are now promoting urban areas at the cost of the other parts of the nation. More and more people will be flocking to cities looking for better economic opportunities, services and amenities.

This study has assessed the loss due to floods in different risk scenarios. In the worst risk scenario, the study says, the world’s 136 largest coastal cities could face a combined annual loss of $1 trillion (750 billion euros) from floods by 2050 unless they drastically raise their defenses. Urban planning has a lot to blame for this loss as well. Defenses such as the embankments and dykes do always

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

39

invite more risks. Higher dykes may reduce flooding but the magnitude of losses when it does occur will be high.

Experience shows that protection from dykes means more people trying to take shelter behind the dykes and hence inviting bigger catastrophes.

The risks grow higher with climate change induced sea levelrise and subsidence, the study said. In fact, city managers and Indian planners need to worry more about climate change impacts now.

40 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Worrisome trends: the case of two high risk cities

In November 2014 India’s environment minister echoed the IPCC warning and said Mumbai and Kolkata are among the most vulnerable cities to floods in the world. Both of them are coastal cities and prone to multiple risks such as flooding, sea rise and subsidence.

Mumbai’s flood caught global attention in 2005. July that year, in a span of 24 hours alone, the city received 94 cm of rain and an exceptional storm.

It left more than 1000 people dead, mostly in slums. Mumbai chocked and went out of gear for almost a week, the impacts continued for months.

The IPCC estimates that Mumbai at present is the city with the largest population exposed to coastal flooding.

Currently a little below 3 million people are exposed to such risks, which is estimated to grow to more than 11 million by 2070. The people at risk will not only be from Mumbai but all connected to the city’s functions.

Urban Floods | Article

will contribute to increases in extreme sea levels in the future.

Kolkata, India’s 3rd most populous metropolitan area, has one of the highest population densitiesat 24,000 people per square kilometer, and is one of the coastal cities most vulnerable to climate change. Located on the banks of the Hooghly River, Kolkata has been found to be one of the world’s most flood-prone coastal cities.

According to a flood vulnerability study conducted by researchers from the Netherlands and the UK, the city’s growing population and exposure to storms make it an easy target.

Modest flooding during monsoon at high tide in the Hooghly River is a recurring phenomenon in Kolkata.

Climate change is likely to intensify this problem through a combination of more intense rainfall, riverine flooding in the Hooghly, sea-level rise and coastal storm surges.

The real problem goes beyond just traffic jams

Increase in extreme events due to climate change is the single largest factor in this, assert experts.

The report further says that increases in precipitation are projected for the Asian monsoon, along with increased inter-annual seasonally averaged precipitation variability.

Then, extreme sea levels can be expected to change in the futureas a result of mean sea level rise and changes in atmospheric storminess, and it is very likely that sea level rise

As we write, Delhi and Gurugram are facing severe traffic jams again. The roads have turned into rivers. We have seen the same in many of India’s cities this monsoon. However, our people and planners both forget about the floods as soon as the traffic eases and television channels shift to other issues. Climate change induced extreme events will be exacerbated by such forgetful minds.

Climate change impacts have to be integrated into city planning. Improved movement of flood water is a must. For this to happen, we need to restore and revive all our water ways, water bodies and flood plains.

Floods have not only devastated our urban areas with huge destructions but also have exposed the varied problems that the planners face. At a time when governments are increasing their urban development investments by leaps and bounds, our cities cannot really afford to stay ill prepared anymore. Cities have to develop climate resilience through well-planned exercises that bring in experts, people and policy makers together, make our cities resilient and help the people fight

disasters effectively.

Most importantly, the urban poor have to be helped substantially in developing their coping mechanisms or else their vulnerabilities will multiply and our dream of inclusive cities will keep eluding us for decades.

Towards this, two things need to be understood at the primary level. One, such extreme events characterized by cloud bursts and heavy rainfall have now become the norm; and two, urban flooding is already recognized as unique from the river flooding.

While our cities have lost the necessary free areas to help the heavy run off flow out of their territories freely, the massive decay and destruction of surface water bodies makes the situation worse. Add to that the pollution through our storm water drains and industrial outlets. Urban flooding is getting fatal.

What we need is to thoroughly study the recent extreme events caused by climate change, the urban planning scenario and prepare ourselves accordingly to brace for two things at the least: 1. To accommodate the ever increasing influx of population into our urban areas with all humane and basic amenities/facilities; and 2. To prepare and build resilience towards the growing extreme events caused by climate change so that all that the cities have been able to provide to their citizens are not devastated. And for this, restoring the urban ecology holds the major key.

We need to free our water ways, lakes, water bodies, drainage lines, flood plains from all sorts of encroachment; and if necessary, create more water bodies for harvesting rainwater and recharging ground water.

Sufficient urban green spaces including urban forestry also need to be made an integral part of our urban areas. That would not only ease the flood time chaos but also improve the ground water recharging situation and help tackle subsidence.

We need climate smart managers and aware citizens more than ‘concrete structure obsessed’ smart cities. We can’t let our cities sink for sure!

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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Curtain Raiser | 3rd BRICS Urbanisation Forum

Streamlining

urban transition in The 3rd Urbanisation Forum with the theme ‘Urban Transition in BRICS’ brings together prominent voices from the BRICS member countries to address the key issues of urbanization and envision sustainable and liveable urban future with knowledge and experience sharing

T

Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor, Urban Update kd.urbanupdate@gmail.com

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August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

he world is urbanizing at a rapid pace. The rate of urbanization may vary in different regions but the problems associated with it are almost the same.

Member countries of BRICS have vast differences in terms of total share of population living in cities. On the one hand, 90 per cent of the population of Brazil lives in cities while on the other hand only 31 per cent of the Indian population lives in urban areas. Rapid urbanization on the one hand burdens city administrators and presents significant challenges in dealing with issues of service delivery and overall livability.

The 3rd Urbanisation Forum will discuss the thematic issues focusing on building productive and sustainable urban economies and livelihood strategies in urban environments as well as creating inclusive urban spaces.

All the BRICS countries have been experimenting with policies addressing

housing challenges, skilling and empowering the marginalized sections, new town developments, harnessing the power of technology through smart city interventions and increasing public participation in local governance.

The underlying rationale of cooperation on urbanisation between the BRICS countries is to share urban knowledge, develop mechanisms for peer-to-peer exchange, promote evidence-based policy making and learn useful lessons from individual experiences of ‘urban transition’. While the member countries are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies, they differ vastly from one another in their urbanisation trajectories, and each BRICS country’s experience with urbanisation has its distinct characteristics. The growth of the secondary cities and small towns due to being major investment destinations and many other indicators, all reveal the agility of the urban land and labor markets in BRICS cities.

The first BRICS Urbanization Forum was held in New Delhi, India in February 2013 with a special focus on Urban Infrastructure, followed by the 2nd BRICS Urbanization Forum in November 2013 at Durban, South Africa under the theme ‘Towards Sustainable Urbanization’.

The Urbanization Cities in numbers

54%

of world population lives in cities

Urbanisation in BRICS Countries Brazil 90.6 % Russia 73.8 % South Africa 62 % China 56 % India 31 %

Forums were created with a focus on urban infrastructure to specifically discuss various thematic areas within the umbrella of urbanization and infrastructure.

A range of sessions on various relevant subjects will be organised during the three-day event at Visakhapatnam between September 14th and 16th. The themes selected in various sessions during the event will focus on building productive and sustainable urban economies and livelihood survival strategies in urban environments as well as creating inclusive urban spaces. The event will also highlight various policies prevailing and implemented in these countries in addressing housing challenges, skilling and empowering the marginalized sections, new town developments, harnessing the power of technology through smart city interventions and increasing public participation in local governance. The forum is expected to witness 500 delegates both national and international.

BRICS Smart Cities Conference

The BRICS Smart Cities Conference was organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with Ministry of External Affairs on 17-19

75-80%

of global GDP is generated in cities

August 2016 in Jaipur. Broadly, the meeting was focused on developing a concept of smart city which not only embodies a clean, organised, safe and inclusive city but also smart citizens. The meeting brought together stakeholders to exchange knowledge about smart cities, identify solutions for transforming existing cities into smart cities, explore topics of mutual interest and promote institutional collaboration.

The two day conference addressed various themes around the concept of smart city. The discussion topics included: (i) Designing Smart Cities: How they can be Innovative, Inclusive, and Sustainable Urban Centres; (ii) Smart Governance: Public Engagement in Governance; (iii) Smart Cities and BRICS: Sharing Urban Planning Learning Experience; (iv) Smart Cities are Safe Cities: Old and New Safety and Security Concerns; (v) Resource Mobilisation and Capacity Building: Finance and Human Resources; (vi) Technology and Public Services Delivery.

Urbanisation in India

In 2015, the Government of India launched the Smart Cities Mission, a competition for municipal leaders and their partners to promote economic

65-70% energy is consumed in cities

BRICS acts as vital pillar of hope for this world full of political challenges, safety related challenges and economic challenges Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India

opportunity, improve governance, and produce better results for urban dwellers. A total of 33 winning cities have been selected in 2016. These cities will receive the central government’s assistance in upgrading the physical, social, and economic infrastructure and improve quality of urban life. Smart City Proposals of all 100 cities selected were prepared through citizen consultation.

The Mission on Smart Cities (MSC) and the Atal Mission on Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) would cover 500 cities and close to 50 per cent of the urban population of the country. This is an ambitious framework and gives the hope of a major push to planned urbanization of the country and, in turn to a resurgent India. The phrase used last deserves to be underscored, as for close to six decades after Independence, national policies indirectly neglected investment in urbanization, while overtly pushing not only for rural development but also for a reverse migration from cities to the villages.

The result was near chaos in the cities, as migration to the cities is a near natural phenomenon, globally, and the unprepared cities could not cope with the migrants, leading to proliferation of slums and also to the breakdown of the civic infrastructure and services, much to the chagrin of the existing residents of the cities.

However, from 2005-06, thanks to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), cities got attention for their infrastructure needs and public funding started flowing in for improvement of water supply, sanitation, public transport systems, etc. in the cities. The JNNURM also combined urban governance reforms concomitantly with the investments, by making the former a precondition for the flow of Central Grants to the States and Cities for development/renewal of civic infrastructure and services. The results of JNNURM were impressive in many ways and wherever it could not give positive results, it threw up very cogent lessons for the future policies and management of urban development programmes.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

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Good reads | Book Review

Cities are changing ‘everything’ E

Abhilash Khandekar National Political Editor Dainik Bhaskar kabhilash59@gmail.com

ven those with preliminary acquaintance of the vast field of urbanisation and related subjects must have heard the name of Jeb Brugmann, an outstanding global scholar on urbanism and urbanisation. He has not only written prolifically on the subject, but has been instrumental in his own way with the urban development in 49 cities in 21 countries and his work has been recognised by the United Nations.

In this relatively small yet important and highly readable book-not very new nor quite old-he takes the reader on a guided tour of some of world’s best cities and virtually makes him sit face to face with the typical challenges these cities face. He does not stop at that but analyses the problems worldwide while providing us with all dimensions of this global issue, very intelligently and in a lucid, racy style.

Book Welcome to the Urban Revolution: How Cities are Changing the World Author Jeb Brugmann Publisher Harper Collins Publishers, India Pages 320 Price Rs 399

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August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

Good

Reads

While glimpsing through the chapters and pages of the well researched book, you stumble upon many top cities such as Chicago, Curitiba (Brazil), Melbourne, Toronto, Mexico, Los Angeles, Santiago (Chile), Moscow, Mumbai, among many others, as he tackles the local problems and provides entirely new perspectives.

The book is divided into 15 chapters in three parts. While the first part talks about The Urban Revolution, 2nd is called ‘The City Adrift’ and final part deals with ‘Strategy for an Urban Planet’. His central theme appears to be challenging the conventional thinking about globalisation. He argues that the 21st Century’s greatest challenges can and must be met through improved approaches to City building.

It is through these reader-friendly arrangements of chapters and issues, the urbanist in Brugmann proposes a transformation in the way we view our cities.

At the heart is his argument that we must shape urbanism for the new millennium by incorporating all of an area’s citizens, giving a positive perspective on an extremely broad and challenging issue.

In his preface to the book, the author answers the question: How does the increasing concentration of people and human endeavour in cities change the world? The simple answer: Cities are changing everything. They are transforming ecology, economics, politics, and social relations everywhere, for better or for worse, depending on different approaches to city building. Exploring the successes of cities like Barcelona, Chicago, Vancouver, the author shows how the world’s most progressive cities develop their own ‘practices of urbanism’ from the sidewalk

up. These local urbanisms-ways of designing, governing and living in cities that align competing interests behind common purposes-are what India needs today to manage its entry into the world.

For the Indian reader, he has extensively written about Mumbai and touched upon other major cities.

After all, India is among the fastest growing countries where urbanisation has acquired frightening propositions.

Gurugram’s flood situation in July is just a small case in point while we discuss urban issues.

In the chapter titled The Improbable Life of an Urban Patch-Deciphering the Hidden Logic of Global Urban Growth, the author describes in depth the entire theory of urban life and its economics, coupled with others.

“When mutually supportive activities are located in proximity to each other, their concentration has a further synergistic effect. The economics of collaboration generally improve.

Companies organise their different functions into a headquarter office or a campus to secure the other beneficial aspect of density: economics of concentration. Cities can exponentially increase these economies by clustering complementary activities together.

One of the most basic and least practiced arts of the city building today is the creative use of density-proximity and concentration-in the city’s built form”.

He further summarises the chapter stating, density scale, association, and extension drive development in every urban patch whether in Toronto neighbourhood, a Machala squatter camp, a little inner city immigrant district like Pico-Union or a hightech incubator district in Bangalore.

People and organisations of every sort have joined the rough and tumble and clamour to shape the raw economics of urban patches everywhere into spatial arrangements and building forms that offer them unique advantage. This makes the development and spatial designs of each city a constant round-

the-clock competition. The distinct ways in which cities and their urban patches succeed or fail in creating these shared advantages determines their contributions for better or worse, to the world city system.

The Toronto based author took extra pains to understand Mumbai and the mystique called Dharavi’s sprawling slum area. In fact, no urban writer or sociologist in this field can afford to ignore Dharavi; such is its uniquely complex history and geography.

Talking of the cities of crisis, Brugmann studied the Dharavi enigma bit by bit and its not happening story of complete redevelopment which one potential developer told him. But he (author) talks of an entirely different perspective on the dirty, filthy yet famous slums. “Dharavi, the bustling, disowned city-system of Mumbai, was to be dismantled, rearranged and rebuilt into....a suburb. How could anyone who had observed Dharavi for so long miss the most obvious fact about it: that the residential-industrial city system was proving itself everyday in the marketplace to be world class. It stood as probably the most successful, scaled poverty-reduction programme in the history of international development. It was a stunning example of Indian entrepreneurial ability and ambition.

Yet the author talks of Dharavi redevelopment. “Options for Dharavi’s renewal are clearly available. The latest urbanist revivals of Europe, North America, and Latin America favoured incremental redevelopment of deteriorated low-income areas to increase equity of established residents and match their building investment with new public infrastructure and facilities”. He gives the example of Rio de Janeiro and says the city understood the potholes of slum clearances in 6070s. With minimum clearances and relocation, they improved the existing infrastructure. He gives the example of another international expert in the field who was studying Dharavi and suggested that like in Japan, post

Reviewer’s Recommendation

A

A Must possess in personal collection B Must read in library C Casual reading suggested D Borrow from a friend and return

Tokyo’s destruction in World War II, the area could have been locally developed. The “Tokyo model” did not ape the Western style zoning to regulate and separate land uses and building types. He has a hunch that like so many brilliant examples of urbanism razed in the name of modernisation -like the liveable, efficient hutong areas of Beijing or the famous West End District of Boston-Dharavi would be replaced than transformed by India’s modernisers who little understand the difference between a city-system and a master-planned district.

Readers may remember some political announcements of making Mumbai another Shanghai. Taking a dig at it, he observes: “India’s productivity, economic efficiency, and political stability depend upon a renewal of Indian forms of urbanism which cannot be substituted with imported designs and master planning schemes for the ‘next Shanghai”.

Indeed, after the book came into the market, a few changes have been seen in Indian cities but most of the urban Indians do not really know what kind of smart cities they would be forced to live in, thanks to confused thinking and flawed approach to urban India.

www.urbanupdate.in | August 2016

45

URBAN AGENDA | Urban Design

Link urban design with planning for superior cities Urban design, an essential yet overlooked component of city planning, can guide cities into a kind of development that connects the dots between social, economic, operational and aesthetic value of a city system. City managers and policy makers need to seriously consider how urban design can improve the way cities are planned or refurbished

O

ne can complain of chaotic urban planning in any Indian city.

Cities are haphazardly planned. No single thread connects the uniform aesthetic components in modern city infrastructure. Many times, the question arises why a certain infrastructure exist despite having no operational or aesthetic value. The role of urban designers is quite significant in the complete process of urban planning.

It is required that local bodies and state governments, when planning a city or refurbishing one, should actively engage urban designers. Urban design is the art of making suitable places for people. It includes the way places work and matters as well as how they look. Citizens of a city may have varied opinion on how do they perceive their cities aesthetically but there are always certain basic design elements which are recognised by all.

According to a guide to urban design released by the government of the United Kingdom with an alliance of urban designers, urban design objectives are by themselves, abstract. They have an impact on people’s lives only by being translated into development. The form of buildings, structures and spaces is the physical expression of urban

46 August 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

design. It is what influences the pattern of uses, activity and movement in a place, and the experiences of those who visit, live or work there. This guide sets out the most important characteristics of the physical form of development by articulating eight aspects. Together, these define the overall layout of the place (in terms of its routes and building blocks); its scale (in terms of building height and massing); its appearance (as expressed in details and use of materials); and its landscape (including all the public realm, built and green spaces).

Most of the new big townships and corporate buildings coming up in cities are taking the services of eminent architects and designers but urban designers are not playing a major role in city development process because of several loopholes in policy making and planning for cities. That is the reason Indian cities like Gurugram, Bengaluru and Mumbai may have high-rise glass towers and swanky townships but their aesthetic value get lost in the mishmash of present city development and their utility prove derisory when all other connecting infrastructure around them is falling.

The implementation of urban design should be made fundamental to our objective of urban renaissance.

Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor bhau1008@gmail.com

The critical thing about urban design fundamental is that there cannot be a set criterion for good urban design so there is no clear cut principal to implement a set formula and get good results. It completely depends upon how an urban designer understands the place and context. It will also depend on the vision and commitment set by the local governments, city leadership and moreover, community.

The central principal for creating better liveable places revolves around careful assessments of places, well thought of policies, and a collaborative approach. Good design can help make dynamic places with unique character; streets and public spaces that are safe, accessible and pleasant to use. It affects all aspects of the built environment, including the design of buildings and spaces, landscapes and transport systems. Smart Cities Mission is a one of its own kind project that has given significance to public consultation.

People are consulted through various means such as online voting, public consultations and symposiums, before planning a project and starting its implementation. It is an opportunity for local body officials, experts living in the city and community groups to demand for the distinctive image of their city in terms of utility and beauty.

All India Institute of Local Self-Government AIILSG conducts Online Assessment Testing and Training Programmes. * Online centres are equipped with state-of-the-art AC Labs with requisite support infrastructure facilities to conduct Online Programmes. * Centres are CAT certified Testing Centres and presently conducting many prestigious Online Programmes with reputed clients like Prometric, MeritTrac, TCS, SIFY, IIBF, JNU, Satvat Infosol Pvt Ltd, Manipal University, Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and others. * Regional Centres - Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Trivandrum are presently having facility for Online Testing Programme.

A I I L SG ON L I N E CE N T RE S

For specific requirement, please contact AIILSG HO Mumbai | E-mail: onlinemumbai@aiilsg.org | Phone: 022-26571713/14/15 Delhi Centre | E-mail: delhi@aiilsg.org | Phone: 011 - 2852 1783/ 5473

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Raipur

stands among the top five cities in Fast Track Competition for

Smart Cities Mission