Urban Update September 2017

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate Volume IV, Issue V

SEPTEMBER 2017

Rs 100

Special Feature Urban

Dialogues

INNOVATION INNOVATION

IDEA

BETTER BANARAS Don’t ignore city’s culture, heritage, traditions while planning, echo locals

Ideate Innovate Implement

The project is funded by the European Union.

New ideas, innovations are essentially cerebral products which can change drastically the world we live in. With more people moving to urban areas, urban centres are in need of new ideas to solve evolving problems relating to livability and service delivery mechanism

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

Magazines & Journals

Energy Efficiency

AMRUT Knowledge Management

Seminars

Project Management Customised Training

Sustainable Development Goals

Policy Research

Advisory Services

Swachh Bharat Mission

ECBC

Smart City Mission Capacity Building

Skill Development

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, 61805600, Fax: +91-22-26572115, Email: contact@aiilsg.org

Quality is just one of our strengths

AIILSG has begun skill development programmes in Rajasthan and Jharkhand. The institute with its 90 years of experience in the field of capacity building would impart training to youth living in rural areas of these two states to make them employable in various emerging sectorsApparel, Beauty & Wellness, Electronics, Healthcare, IT-ITEs, and Renewable Energy.

As per Mou singed, AIILSG will train 16,000 youngsters.

AIILSG is committed to build empowered India with skilled human workforce For Details, email at delhi@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 Ashish Deosthali Editor-In-Chief Director General-AIILSG Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor Abhishek Pandey Editor Ravi Ranjan Guru Executive Editor

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Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor Arzoo Arora & Akash Mandyal Editorial Assistants Meenakshi Rajput Graphic Designer Seemab Tasneem Marketing Associate Volume IV - Issue V 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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September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

EDITORIAL

Innovating for sustainability

I

nnovation can be described as the creation, nurturing and applying knowledge and ideas for developing products and processes that will result in the advancement of society as a whole and improve quality of lives. Organisations all over - business and non business- are striving to address the challenges of everyday life using new ideas. They also seek to tap the potential opportunities that present themselves every day. So also for cities. Urbanisation, the defining trend of the twenty first century presents a host of challenges for our cities and city managers. The challenges are diverse as they are complex. The situation calls for continuous innovation to address these challenges in a sustainable and equitable manner.

Rapid growth in urban population due to migration and organic growth are driven by economic opportunities in our cities. New initiatives and programmes at the national level are urging cities and urban local bodies to shed despair and helplessness and instead view the phenomenon as an opportunity to promote economic growth, bolster innovation and strengthen cooperation among cities. Urban mobility is among the biggest challenges for our cities. The challenges in this area include congestion in cities, pollution reaching alarming levels and rising road accidents. The urban poor, the elderly and children are most vulnerable to the ill effects of environment degradation and road safety. There is therefore great scope for innovation in this sphere. While many technology options such as electric vehicles, pods, blended fuels and use of renewables will come increasingly within reach, there is need for promoting efficient public transport. For example how about free (or near free) bus travel? How can it be funded? Then there are possibilities with respect to parking to make more efficient use of public spaces. Staggered office timings and tolls for inner city roads can disperse vehicles and reduce congestion.

And the biggest opportunities for innovation exist in promoting walking, cycling and non-motorized transport. Many cities are

working in this area. While some ideas can be transplanted, one may need tailor made measures for each city or location within a city.

Urban waste management is a common and pressing problem in cities. Changing lifestyles driven by convenience and comfort are causing great pressure by generating much higher quantities of municipal waste.

Environmental degradation and resulting health hazards are the grave outcomes.

Many cities are making noteworthy efforts by involving the community and leveraging technology. Much remains to be done though. There is scope for use of technology to dispose of waste. For example it is reported that in Japan, incinerators burn tons of waste right inside the city, without foul smell or environment damage. We believe that in addition to these efforts, there needs to be greater thrust of reducing waste generation. Appropriate lifestyle choices which encourage people to reduce and reuse can contribute greatly. How we use (and reuse) the resources on this planet can reduce waste generation and pressure on the environment. Other stakeholders, for example manufacturers can contribute by reforming their packaging methodologies.

Environmentally benign material needs to replace paper, cardboard and plastic. All this calls for constant innovation.

We are also featuring a special feature on Urban Dialogues-Better Banaras that has suggestions from experts for improving city management. Urban Update will hold similar round-table conference in coming months to bring all the stakeholder together to address different urban issues.

In this issue, we bring you viewpoints from a number of urban practitioners on various facets of urban life with focus on innovation. Do write in to us. This will enable us make Urban Update a more engaging platform for debate and deliberation in our journey towards more sustainable cities.

Ashish Deosthali Editor-In-Chief dg@aiilsg.org

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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Quotes

PIN POINT BUZZ

Only one Smart City or hundred smart cities in the country will not make a big difference unless all the cities of the country are made smart

Worst monsoon floods in years claim 1200 lives & affect 41 million people in SouthAsia.

Need to build resilience to withstand shocks

Venkaiah Naidu Vice President, India

Kristalina Georgieva Chief Executive Officer WorldBank

Robyn Hitchcock @RobynHitchcock British singer-songwriter

Mumbai drowns, California broils and the South floods: the only climate that doesn’t change is the conservative attitude to climate change

Anil Baijal @LtGovDelhi LG Delhi

NHAI to start lifting of garbage from Ghazipur landfill site from November 2017 for use in road construction

SadhguruJaggiVasudev @SadhguruJV Spiritual Guru

Most of our rivers don’t touch the ocean for many months of the year. #RallyForRivers to infuse life in them

Sustainable and efficient management of our water and wastewater has a profound effect on all aspects of human life; it is crucial for health and for a sustainable environment

The SDGs have jumped from the General Assembly Hall to communities across the world and are taking hold among policy-makers in global public awareness

Karolina Skog Sweden’s Minister for Environment

Amina Mohammed United Nations Deputy Secretary-General

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Marc Palahí @Marcpalahi Director, European Forest Institute

Urban forests & wood construction are call to become the backbone of climate smart cities

Inside

Volume 4, Issue 5

Inside September 2017

Article

32

Ideate, Innovate, Implement

36

Innovation in public awareness is driving Swachta Abhiyan

New ideas, innovations are essentially cerebral products which can change drastically the world we live in. With more people moving to urban areas, urban centres are in need of new ideas to solve evolving problems relating to livability and service delivery mechanism

In ‘swachta sarvekshan’ it was no surprise that Varanasi made a huge jump in the list. It came as no surprise being PM Modi’s constituency. Many factors have contributed in that. One of them is innovative communication. Such as putting Amitabh Bachhan’s film posters with message of cleanliness

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24 LEADerspeak

22

Are our cities prepared for extreme precipitation dates?

From Mumbai to Houston, cities have caught up with heavy precipitation events in much fiercer ways than ever before. Urban infrastructures have been found grossly lacking to adapt to climate induced disasters such as heavy rainfall and the consequent floods

Special Feature | Urban Dialogues Varanasi

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Book Review

44

coal has been an important source of energy for the rich as well as the poor, it was seldom thought to be a topic for a full-fledged book

Pin Point Equi-City Newscan

Don’t ignore city’s culture, heritage, traditions while planning, echo locals

AIILSG, in partnership with VMC and Urban Update magazine, convened the round-table conference Urban Dialogues-Better Banaras to promote, review and deliberate on the implementation agenda of infrastructure development projects, Swachh Bharat Mission and Namami Gange programs. Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Narendra Singh Tomar was the Chief Guest

Coal and its shady politics

Velo-city

RegularS

6 8 10

Stirring minds, propelling new-age development Urban Dialogues strive to bring together experts from around the world and local innovators with the vision to think beyond conventional solutions of urban problems, and create a better and more sustainable urban ecosystem in India. The recent symposium in Varanasi witnessed urbanists,social activists and officials from the city coming together and charting a new roadmap for ‘Better Banaras’

15 46

City Images Urban Agenda

42

City of Nawabs: Historic City of Lucknow Lucknow has always been known as a city of ‘Nawabs’. But over the times it has come to be known as city of new elites, holding nostalgia for Islamic past and seeking better future

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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feature | Equi-City

Using the Development Plan & Town Planning Scheme to mechanize the Urban Planning Process in Nagpur City

C

ontinuing with ongoing Project objectives, the Equi-City Team, AIILSG, along with the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, organized a workshop on Town Planning for NMC Officials. The workshop is first of its kind for sensitizing the Municipal Officials about practices in Town Planning methods/techniques, mainly focusing on the Town Planning Schemes, and Development Plan.

This workshop is first of its kind for sensitizing the Municipal Officials about practices in Town Planning methods/techniques, mainly focusing on the Town Planning Schemes, Development Plan and DCR. The workshop included two sessions - one on Town Planning, Rules and Regulations and the second session on Tools and Techniques of Town Planning Schemes and DCR for Nagpur city.

The sessions were distributed into various sectors i.e. Town Planning Schemes section focused majorly on how to implement them in the context of developing a large municipal corporation like Nagpur. Introduction to the Bombay Town Planning Act 1915 and MRTP Act 1966 were highlighted and the objectives of MRTP Act were also explained. Discussions were also held on latest amendments in Land Pooling Act, and MRTP Act based upon the Gujarat model.

The next session focused on the Best Practices for TP schemes and revenue generations by alterations of DCR. The process of Land Acquisition and Compensation through an interactive discussion with help of an example on map and calculations was followed.

The Session on Development Plans and TDR discussed mainly on Development Plans, the availability of Finance and objectives of Development plans.

Zoning of Plans and methods of Zoning were also discussed during the workshop. Further the lecture was related

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September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

to mapping of existing land use in the city, preparation of landuse maps, Population Projections of the city, etc. The advice was to plan according to local needs, and not to plan to harm the settlement. The most important outcome of the lecture was to create a paradigm shift in Urban Planning while considering the DCR and Development plan together.

Disparity in development

Cities in India are facing three distinct challenges in the development of urban infrastructure. The first challenge is to adhere to a development plan in the face of a strong tendency towards unplanned growth. Second, when land is acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, a major equity issue arises relating the disparity between those who lose land for a given project and those who do not, but are located close to the project area.

This disparity is due to the fact that those who lose land are not only displaced, but also get compensation that does not take into account the potential increment in value of their property due to the project, while those in close vicinity of the project are better off on both these counts.

Finally, city authorities do not have adequate resources to finance infrastructure and are not in a position to capture the incremental value of land in the absence of a legal and policy framework.

Bombay Town Planning Act 1915 and MRTP Act 1966 provides for an effective mechanism that addresses those challenges through a two-stage process called ‘Development Plan–Town Planning Scheme’ mechanism (or the DP–TPS mechanism in short. The preparation and implementation of this mechanism to deliver serviced land for urban expansion in the periphery of cities, which currently constitutes its most extensive use.

Delivering Serviced Land for Urban Expansion

Increasing affluence and state of urbanism in India indicate that in the coming decades, vast amount of built space from rural areas will have to be added to India’s towns and cities for better and effective mechanism.

While some of this addition will be accommodated by the densification of existing urban areas, most will have to be accommodated by the expansion of towns and cities into the surrounding countryside. In India, the surrounding countryside is hardly utilized and usually under cultivation.

The agricultural landscape usually consists of irregularly shaped plots in a mosaic and is rarely available in large tracts under single ownership public or private. Therefore, in most cases, the first challenge in expanding out into the surrounding countryside involves converting a fragmented agricultural landscape into a serviced landscape, fit for urban uses. ♦♦ An area has to be delimited where all landowners can be legally forced to accept the reorganization of their holdings to make the area suitable for urban use; ♦♦ Landowners have to be identified, their holdings established, and processes put in place for communicating with them; ♦♦ Irregularly shaped plots have to be reshaped in a more suitable manner for building modern buildings on them; land has to be appropriated for providing a number of common infrastructure facilities, for example, streets, water supply, drainage, electrical facilities, public transport, parks, schools as well as for meeting social and cultural objectives, for example, housing for the poor and museums; ♦♦ The infrastructure and amenities have to be planned and built; ♦♦ All the above including

infrastructure and amenities have to be paid for; ideally the administrative, capital and operations, and maintenance costs for all of the above should be financed by capturing the increment in land value arising as a result of the transformation.

This requires the increment in land value to be estimated in a fair and consistent manner; ♦♦ Ideally the above should be achieved through a consensual process with minimal use of coercion. It is, therefore, necessary to co-opt the landowners into the transformation and note their opinions, suggestions, and objections. It is also necessary to establish a due process for redressing their grievances; and ♦♦ Lastly, once a serviced urban landscape has been created, it is necessary to regulate private development on plots to ensure that development is harmonious and consistent with the planning objectives for the area and the infrastructure provided.

It is clear that managing all of the above actions in a time-bound and coordinated manner poses a truly formidable technical, administrative and legal challenge.

Urban development, led by landowners or developers, is allowed to creep

out into the surrounding countryside— a plot or a layout at a time. Usually, a blind eye is turned to such creeping urbanization. Sometimes, a minimal attempt is made to plan or regulate the development and to levy charges. Once an area is built up and if the residents are able to bring sufficient political pressure to bear on the administration, rudimentary infrastructure facilities such as streets, water supply and drainage are provided to the extent that it is physically possible. Letting things be is easy, it requires little foresight and effort on the part of public authorities.

How does the Two Stage DP–TP Mechanism Work?

Anyone trying to first understand the two stage DP–TP mechanism invariably finds it to be complicated, tedious, unwieldy, long, and ultimately unusable. Indeed, it is a tedious process.

Many reforms are urgently necessary.

However, even with all its flaws, it has been and remains a very effective planning, infrastructure development, financing, and implementation tool and the best argument in its favour is simply that it works. This can be clearly seen in that the DP–TP Mechanism has been used for managing Ahmedabad’s growth over the last century, on account of which the city not only has an effective road network but manages to build infrastructure before urban

expansion takes place in the periphery.

Considered in abstraction, it can easily be seen that the Development Planning process is a powerful strategic planning tool and that the Town Planning Scheme process is a general purpose techno-legal mechanism for delimiting an area and, within it: ♦♦ Reconstituting properties; ♦♦ Appropriating land; ♦♦ Levying charges for infrastructure provision and for other costs; ♦♦ Levying betterment charges; ♦♦ Formally informing landowners of proposed plans; ♦♦ Compensating dispossessed landowners; ♦♦ Seeking a majority consent and recording their suggestions and objections; and ♦♦ For empowering quasi-judicial officers for redressing grievances.

Conclusions

To sum up, the chapter strategically highlights that the Town Planning Scheme provides for an effective twostage techno-legal process for urban planning and implementation through the ‘DP–TP Scheme’ mechanism.

The first stage involves preparation and ratification of a strategic, citywide Development Plan. The second stage involves preparation and implementation of one or more TPSs to realize proposals of the Development Plan. This stage is quite elaborate and involves a wide range of activities such as delimiting an area, and within it, reconstituting properties, appropriating land, levying betterment charges to finance infrastructure provision, compensating dispossessed landowners, formally informing landowners of proposed plans, seeking a majority consent and recording their suggestions and objections, and empowering quasi-judicial officers for redressal of grievances. The TPS process is thus a powerful and well-coordinated statutory tool, which involves not only a detailed land appropriation, land readjustment, and infrastructure development plan but also a mechanism for financing and implementing the plan, thus involving the landowners in the process.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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NEWScan

Karnataka to go digital in its Urban Planning Karnataka: Soon Karnataka will go digital in its urban planning which includes 26 cities. All the master plans will be based on Geographic Information System (GIS) which will help authorities to regular check on land use changes in real time and keep a check on violations. Under the Centre’s Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Urban Development Department (UDD) has taken this reform.

So, to create base of thematic maps, cities are expected to use spatial tools and then they need to put together a sector-wise database. These all will be put together to formulate the master plan - identifying issues, projecting requirements and developing strategy based on the georeferenced maps using sector-wise data analysis.

“The biggest advantage is the real-time monitoring and updating of land use changes,” UDD Secretary (Municipalities and Urban Development Authorities) AnjumParwez said. “For example, if an urban development authority approves the building of a road, it can be updated instantly on the digital maps to reflect the land use change. This will also allow us to pinpoint violations without having to manually look up maps.

The reform is imminent, according to Parwez. “We’re moving toward online approval of building plans and layouts.

If the master plan isn’t digital, the other reforms won’t work,” he said.

“Although Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) doesn’t come under AMRUT, we have used GIS tools in the Revised Master Plan 2031 whose first

draft is ready. It will be circulated to the BBMP and BMRDA for vetting,” BDA Commissioner Rakesh Singh said.

To collectively re-imagine possible futures, identify priorities and implementable projects, cities like New York and London are implementing strategic spatial planning. But in Bengaluru these master plans have been restricted to static land use and colour-coded maps, which are prone to violation. “Several urban agencies, especially in smaller cities, do not have the capacity yet to manage GIS databases. Many government departments in larger cities, too, outsource their GIS needs, which needs to change. GIS needs to become part of everyday use and not a once-in-10-years effort,” said Rejeet Mathews, head, Urban Development at WRI India.

Google map will help you find parking in 50 cities USA: Google map is introducing a new tool to help you park your car around the world. In January 2017, to solve the parking problem Google added a new icon in ‘Google Maps for Android’ to make parking easier with icon named “parking difficulty”. As the name suggests this option will help you find nearby parking lots and garages as soon as you click on the option, ‘find parking’. Once you will click on the option, Map will direct you to the chosen lot. It will not only help you till you park your vehicle but after parking successfully, Google Maps will switch to walking directions so you can easily find your destination.

To check the difficulty, you’ll have parking in these locations simply get directions to your destination, then look for the parking difficulty icon at the bottom of the screen. The parking difficulty of each location is based on historical data, plus some of Google’s magic machine learning. This feature is available on Google Maps for iOS and Android. Earlier it was available in 25 US cities including New York and San

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Francisco but now Google is expanding it to 25 more locations all around the world which include: Alicante, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Cologne, Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, London, Madrid, Malaga, Manchester, Milan, Montreal, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Toronto, Valencia and Vancouver. Google also announced that they are expanding parking difficulty

icons to both iOS and Android apps.

As of now, this feature is only available on Google Maps for Android, and in only US cities: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas/Fort Worth, DC, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Tampa.

Waste Management Conundrum in Delhi Ghazipur landfill site should have been closed down in 2002, but due to nonavailability of alternate landfill site municipal corporations continued to dump garbage at Ghazipur.

But at least one-fourth of the garbage collected in Delhi is still dumped every day at this site New Delhi: After a portion of a Ghazipur Landfill site collapsed which consumed two lives and injured many people, Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) of Delhi, Anil Baijal has imposed ban on dumping of garbage at the site. He said, “It would be cleared within two years and the waste which was earlier disposed of at Ghazipur landfill will be dumped at Ranikhera site on temporary basis nearby Delhi-Haryana Border”.

This decision was taken after the discussion of L-G with officials of municipal corporations, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and National Highways Authority of India.

But despite the L-G order, municipal

corporations continued to dump garbage at Ghazipur landfill site due to non-availability of alternate landfill site. MCD officials said, “We have been demanding land for dumping garbage and to set up waste-to-energy plants from DDA but the sites allocated by the DDA are either too small to set up a landfill site or they are not properly demarcated.”

The landfill site was supposed to shut down in 2002 but due to shortage of landfill sites, the municipal authorities continued to dump garbage at the site.

“The dumping will be done under technical supervision so as to avoid any risk/accident in future,” said EDMC commissioner Ranbir Singh.

After the incident at Ghazipur landfill site, SDMC has also decided to close the Okhla landfill. Most of the waste of South Delhi which accounts for 3000 MT is dumped here daily, due to which height of landfill is increasing continuously which can be cause of hazard here too. The rejected waste from Okhla waste-to-energy plant is also dumped here and its height has increased thrice from limit allowed.

“We are closely monitoring the day to day activity at the landfill, but a decision has been taken to close this site now. We will dump the garbage at the newly allocated site at Tehkhanda, near Okhla, in future. The site was

allocated by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to SDMC last year and civic agency also plans to develop a waste to energy plant here,” said SDMC commissioner Puneet Goel.

“We will reduce the size of the landfill by half after it’s closed. It will be capped scientifically by using a certain quantity of waste as covering material after its trammelling. After its height is reduced, it will be beautified,” said Goel.

“Delhi’s landfill sites have exceeded their actual capacity of garbage accumulation in 2008 and are the major source of polluted groundwater and air for its surroundings,” according to the Master Plan for Delhi, 2021.

The city generates 9500 tonnes of waste per day out of which 8000 TPD of waste is disposed to these three landfill sites- Okhla, Ghazipur and Bhalswa.

The informal sector manages the waste in bulk. The waste collected by around 150000 rag pickers in Delhi is managed by 70000 sanitation workers of the three corporations. According to the corporation officials, the burden for treatment and disposal of waste can be decreased by 1200 to 1500 tonnes per day even if a rag picker collects 50kg of waste per day. Minimum 200 acres of land is needed by each of these three corporations to sustain waste processing for the next 50 years.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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BRIEFS

South Delhi Municipal Corporation to develop 10 stack parkings

South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has decided to develop stack parking at 10 key locations to solve parking and congestion problems. “As of now three locations have been finalised, including Defence Colony, Rajouri Garden and Greater Kailash II. The other areas include Aurobindo Marg, HauzKhas Village, Greater Kailash I, Lajpat Nagar and Janakpuri. “The concept of tower parking is being used in Mumbai and after studying the feasibility, tender for the same will be floated in a couple of months. The tower parking system can accommodate upto 40-50 vehicles,” the official said.

Under PMAY UP gets 41,173 more houses Affordable housing in urban areas is gaining momentum in Uttar Pradesh with the State getting 41,173 more houses sanctioned under the Pradhan MantriAwasYojana (Urban).

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has sanctioned 2,17,900 more houses for six states including Uttar Pradesh taking the total houses sanctioned so far to 26,13,568 with a total investment of 1,39,621 cr. Central assistance of 40,597 cr has been approved for construction of these houses.

In the latest sanctions, Andhra Pradesh has got 1,20,894 more affordable houses followed by Uttar Pradesh.

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NEWSCAN

India needs modern infra; can’t afford any delays: PM Modi

UDAIPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a public meeting in Udaipur that India cannot afford a delay in modernization of its infrastructure in order to sustain widespread growth and development. He said that in order to grow further, the infrastructure has to be developed or else it would act as a barrier to prosperity.

Infrastructure played a huge role in the nation`s development but earlier governments and policy-makers often avoided such time-consuming projects involving large investments “as people often lose patience”, Modi said at a public meeting here. “But, we know that if we have to take the nation to new heights, there is a pressing need to modernize our infrastructure,” Modi said.

“Be it rail, road, water or power supply, optical fibre network, waterways, or coastal connectivity, India will not benefit from any further delay in setting up this modern infrastructure,” he added.

The Prime Minister said that once everything was in place, it would bring

many positive changes in people`s lives.

“For example, road projects entailing expenditure of Rs 9,000-crore being launched in Rajasthan will benefit farmers in taking their produce to markets of their choice. It will also enable a sick mother to get good healthcare, which may not be available in her village,” Modi said.

Giving example of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee`s Golden Quadrilateral project, Modi said it enabled farmers of Gujarat to take their produce to markets in Delhi within a day, which substantially increased their incomes.

He said road infrastructure was especially beneficial for Rajasthan, a big state with huge potential for tourism.

Modi said while the government was laying foundation stones for projects entailing expenditure of around Rs 9,500 crore, these would be completed in a time-bound manner just like the projects with expenditure of around Rs 5,600 crore were inaugurated.

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BRIEFS

Delhi gets 1,206 more community toilets in Swachh battle In order to make Delhi opendefecation free, government inaugurated 1026 community toilets in 36 slum areas. “By March, I believe no one in Delhi will have to resort to open defecation and people will live with dignity,” said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. According to an estimate, the capital has around 17,000 community toilets across 700-odd slums where almost 15 lakh people stay in 3.14 lakh jhuggis. The government has constructed 11,790 toilets between February 14, 2015 and July 31, 2017, and set a target of building at least 7,000 toilets by December.

Mumbai to get 12,000 more trees Mission Green Mumbai, an initiative to increase the green cover of the city aims to plant 12000 coconut trees along Mumbai’s west coast.

These will run along the coast in Juhu, Versova, Aksa, Gorai, Danapani and Manori.

Started by environmental activist Subhajit Mukherjee, the initiative is a part of the Let’s green foundation. The initiative aims to increase the green cover specifically in the coastal area. NGO Green Yatra is also part of this mission. “The government and other agencies have undertaken several plantation drives this year, but not much has been done to increase the green cover along the coastline. Hence, we decided to plant coconut trees along the west coast,” said Subhajit. With 60 saplings already planted by citizens and the NGO in Charkop village, it costs between 60 to 200, which depends on its size.

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NEWSCAN

Rally for Rivers: Initiative to rejuvenate rivers in the country

Thiruvananthapuram: The spiritual guru Jaggi Vasudev has launched a ‘Rally for Rivers’ initiative to rejuvenate rivers in the country. The initiative was flagged off in Coimbatore in presence of Union environment, forest and climate change minister Harsh Vardhan Singh, cricketers Virender Sehwag, Mithali Raj and car racer Narain Karthikeyan.

“A comprehensive policy to revitalise and sustain rivers in the country is needed and a draft policy resolution over it will be submitted to the Centre at Delhi on October 2 at the conclusion of ‘Rally of Rivers”, said Isha foundation head, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

“We do not have a comprehensive policy to revitalise and sustain the rivers, which are in peril. It is time we take steps to ensure that rivers continue to flow, which means life will continue to

happen”, he said.

“The draft policy would address all stakeholders- Rivers, farmers, Larger Community and state and central governments. We are demonstrating economic models where farmers income can be raised from three to eight times by moving from crop based agriculture to tree based agriculture. The cycle of drought and floods across the country was due to the fact that water bodies are not able to retain water and suggested that fruit and medicinal trees be grown in around one km of land in catchment areas on either side of rivers. Fortunately, 25 per cent of land was with the government and they should be converted into forests”, he said.

The next challenge was to get industries to invest in putting up infrastructure for necessary value addition of the farmers produce, he said.

Ernakulam to get rid of plastic waste Ernakulam: A survey conducted by local bodies in the Ernakulam district and initiated by Haritha Keralam from August 6 to 13 has revealed the alarming levels of use of plastic carry bags in municipalities and grama panchayats across the district.

Volunteers including members of the Kudumbasree Mission visited 4.92 lakh and 90,227 houses in 75 grama panchayats and 13 municipalities respectively in Ernakulam to assess the solid waste disposal methods. Only 32% of the houses in grama panchayats had a proper waste disposal system while the corresponding figure for the 13 municipalities was 53%.

Of the 90,227 households surveyed in 13 municipalities, 27,769 families used biodegradable waste for agricultural purposes, while 14,532 provided it as feed to animals and birds. As many as 7,044 households used it for making compost manure, while 1,260 families used it for running biogas plants. As many as 95,301 households handed it over to the local bodies concerned while 1,959 households gave it to private agencies. Interestingly, 4,141 families in 13 municipalities admitted that they dumped biodegradable waste while 2,735 families threw such waste carelessly in public places.

CITY IMAGES

Strengthening community ties with architecture

The Interlace complex in Singapore stands against the standard typology of isolated buildings like the contemporary vertical towers and explores a dramatically different approach to tropical living, which is an expansive interconnected network of living and nature loved shared communal spaces. It also incorporates sustainability feature through careful examination of environmental

aspects like sun, wind, and microclimate conditions on site and the integration of low-impact passive energy strategies. The designers, OMA and Buro Ole Scheeren, wanted togetherness, not isolation in a way when Singapore was a village of little buildings tightly knit together. So how did they make it? They did so by arranging 31 horizontal blocks, each six story tall, stacked in a

hexagonal arrangements on four main ‘superlevels’. The partly resting and partly floating blocks on the top of each other are ‘interlaced’ and connect all the apartments with an inclusive community life, without disturbing the privacy of each apartment. The complex comprises of 1040 apartments with eight courtyards and an Olympic sized swimming pool in the spaces between them.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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BRIEFS

Guwahati declares ‘silent zone’ around all religious places According to a notification issued by DM M Angamuthu,the district magistrate of Kamrup district, which includes Guwahati has declared a radius of 100 metres from “all prominent religious places” under his jurisdiction — including temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches — as a “silent zone”. The State Pollution Control Board has been asked to submit a monthly report on noise pollution in these zones.

The notification states that it was issued in compliance of the direction received from the Government of Assam.

However, it does not directly refer to the use of microphones and loudspeakers in places of worship.

Andhra Pradesh to get India’s first Hyperloop from Amaravati to Vijayawada The government of Andhra Pradesh has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with California-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) to develop India’s first Hyperloop route in the State.

In a blog post, HTT announced its first agreement in India for the new transportation system. The futuristic transport company said the project is expected to create over 2,500 jobs. The proposed route for the Hyperloop between the city centers of Vijayawada and Amaravati could potentially turn a trip of more than one hour into a 6-minute ride. The project will use a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with funding primarily from private investors, HTT said in the post.

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September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEWSCAN

PWD Chennai starts restoration efforts at Perungalathur lake CHENNAI: The condition of the two lakes on the peripheries of the Chennai at Peerkankaranai and Perungalathur are deteriorating. The lake which was earlier spread across 370 acres has now reduced to 54 acres and the other one has immensely suffered due to the widening of National Highway-45, say researchers.

About 20 years ago, lake was source for hundreds of neighborhood families with land area of 100 acres. But now three wards have developed around the lake and its periphery has become the dumping ground for them.

Now, the Public Work Department (PWD) has started the restoration of the Perungalathur lake through city-based biodiversity organization CareEarth.

CareEarth co-founder Jayashree Vencatesan said, “Encroachments, open defecation, discharge of untreated domestic sewage, disposal of solid waste along its periphery and the unchecked growth of invasive species Prosopisjuliflor a (seemaikaruvelam) and water hyacinth are the major threats.

CareEarth has started strengthening the periphery of the bund by consolidating the mud dredged in patches from the wetland and reconstruction of surplus weir and desilting and dredging the available wetland. CareEarth technical consultant S Rangarajan said, the restoration began on July 12 and 150 tractor loads of garbage had been removed. “It will take at least another 15 days to remove all the garbage,” he said. A resident of the area had raised a wall blocking the bund and raised banana and coconut trees on half an acre of the lake. PWD officials have ordered the encroachment cleared and the compound wall was broken, said Rangarajan.

‘Ragpickers to help study plastic waste management’ Jalandhar: For the detailed study of waste management, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has decided on engaging with rag pickers. The instructions to assistant environmental engineers (AEEs) and junior environmental engineers (JEEs) have already been issued by PPCB Chairman Kahn Singh Pannu. As per instructions concerned person will speak to ragpickers and will see the present waste management scenario.

During a meeting of Pannu with PPCB officials from Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Batala, he asked groundlevel officials to speak to ragpickers so that plastic waste was collected and recycled in an environmentally-sound manner.

Pannu said, “The idea is to study how the plastic waste is being managed

and how its management can be more attractive and remunerative so that rag pickers also benefit,” “I have spoken to those involved in recycling but they say that they get only 10%-20% of the plastic waste and the rest piles up. Our officers would study the ground level and then draw the roadmap.

We shall also study if gap-funding is required and how that can be arranged,” Pannu said.

PPCB chairman also asked the officials to strictly enforce environmental laws and maintain a strict vigil on industries to ensure that they use their pollution control devices diligently.

The meeting was also attended by chief environmental engineer GS Majithia and senior environmental engineer Sandeep Behl and presented their views on waste management.

NEWSCAN

UN must reinvigorate the cities

Nairobi: India has expressed support for the creation of UN-Urban, an outfit to coordinate the world body’s activities for urban development. Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry official Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, said: “We need to ensure that all UN agencies and also all levels within UN-Habitat work in tandem to strengthen implementation of urban agenda and sustainable development goals (SDGs).”

Mishra, who is an Additional Secretary in the Ministry, told a HighLevel Meeting of the General Assembly on the New Urban Agenda and UNHabitat, “The recommendation to strengthen UN-Habitat by establishing UN-Urban, based in New York with the purpose of identifying opportunities for collaboration across agencies and countries is welcome.”

The meeting will discuss how the New Urban Agenda” has been implemented since its adoption in October 2016 at the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, known as Habitat III, while examining the recommendations

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September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

put forth by an independent panel reviewing the effectiveness of UNHabitat. It will also address the measures contained in the Report of the Secretary General’s Independent Panel to Assess, Enhance Effectiveness of UN-Habitat after Adoption of New Urban Agenda, which was published at the beginning of August 2017.

The United Nations deputy chief said that the Organization is failing to deliver sufficiently in cities, and its work in and on urban areas must be reinvigorated, as the General Assembly kicked off a high-level meeting on a new UN approach to the rapidly urbanizing world.

“Today, we acknowledge that the UN is not delivering sufficiently in cities. And, through our common effort, we will rectify this,” said Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed in her opening remarks to the two-day event.

“The proud history of urban work at the UN must be harnessed at this vital time, and the UN must be seen again as the lead convener and catalyser for

partners, funders, private sector and civil society organisations to scale up their work in urban areas,” she added, stressing the need for reform of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat).

In his remarks, General Assembly President Peter Thomson stressed the importance of capitalizing on the enormous social and economic opportunities provided by mass urbanisation to lift people out of poverty, drive inclusive economic growth, promote equality, strengthen community resilience, and of course, effectively combat climate change.

Secondly, strategic partnerships have to be strengthened between governments at all levels, community leaders, civil society, and the business community, to foster coherent approaches to urban development.

Then there is the task of harnessing the exponential potential of science, technology and innovation to drive smart new approaches towards sustainable urbanisation and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mr. Thomson said.

In its report released in August, the panel convened by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said that UN-Urban would help coordinate urban development activities across the sprawling UN establishment and promote the New Urban Agenda (NUA) adopted in 2016 by the Habitat III conference to promote the relevant UN SDGs. Earlier, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed admitted that the UN was not doing enough for the urban areas. “Today, we acknowledge that the UN is not delivering sufficiently in cities. And, through our common effort, we will rectify this,” she said.

In the Panel’s assessment, the first priority is to save, stabilize and then rapidly strengthen UN-Habitat to equip it for a renewed role based on the 2030 Agenda, adopted in 2015, as well as the New Urban Agenda.

NEWSCAN

CPCB to issue Directions to ensure proper Segregation in Bhiwadi

Bhiwadi: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to issue directions under Section 18 (1) (b) of the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, 1974 to Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board, following the drowning of two children in a pond with industrial effluents and domestic sewage at Village Saeedpur, Dharuhera, in April 2017. Under the Act, CPCB has directed

Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (RSPCB) to ensure:Proper collection, treatment and disposal of effluents and sewage at Bhiwadi Industrial area, including the surrounding villages; The Bhiwadi Municipal Council (BMC), Rajasthan State Industrial Development & Investment Corporation (RIICO) and Rajasthan Housing Board (RHB) submit time-bound action plans individually/jointly for setting up of sewerage system for proper collection, treatment and disposal of sewage and industrial effluents generated at Bhiwadi and the villages in its vicinity to RSPCB. That RSPCB will examine the action plans submitted at its level and get them modified. That RSPCB will forward the action plans to CPCB by September 29, 2017;That the effluents from existing cesspools created due to indiscriminate disposal of untreated/partially treated effluents and sewage will be pumped to the newly-created Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and existing CETP for treatment and such pits shall be kept dry.

BRIEFS

Pollution board frames guidelines for database to tackle odour The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has taken the first step towards documenting what it considers “undoubtedly the most complex” of all air pollution problems — odour. Urban landfill sites with biodegradable waste in sprawling cities are a major source of odour pollution.

In early September, the CPCB released ‘Odour Monitoring and Management in Urban Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill Sites’, nine years after it first came up with guidelines calling for “accurate, precise and acceptable” measurement of odour, and a need to come up with a database of information to capture the magnitude of odour pollution.

Thane corporation launches bike sharing service

17 States/UTS have Imposed Complete Ban on Use of Polythene Bags: Environment Minister New Delhi: “As per the provisions of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, the generators of waste have been mandated to take steps to minimize generation of plastic waste, not to litter the plastic waste, ensure segregated storage of waste at source and handover segregated waste to local bodies or agencies authorised by the local bodies.

The Rules also mandate the responsibilities of local bodies, gram panchayats, waste generators, retailers and street vendors to manage the plastic waste. The Rules mandate the producers, importers and brand owners to work out modalities for waste collection system based on Extended Producer Responsibility.”

In the country, 17 States/Union Territories have imposed complete ban on manufacture, stock, sale and use of plastic carrybags, through directions/notifications and executive orders. Further, use of plastic carry bags has been partially banned in some pilgrimage centres, tourist and historical places located in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The Government has notified that the use of carry bags made from conventional plastic with thickness less than 50 micron is prohibited.

The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), in a publicprivate partnership, flagged off the Thane Public Bicycle Sharing facility. Under the scheme, which is now operational, TMC will offer 500 cycles on rent for Rs 10/hour at 50 designated stands. The bikes, each costing Rs 5,500, will be tracked via GPS installed by the contractor, said a civic official, adding that any damage to the bike or the user would be recovered through group insurance.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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BRIEFS

TT vaccine for 2500 construction workers

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) in association with JCI Nagpur Gondwana Zone-IX administered tetanus vaccine, also known as tetanus toxoid (TT), to 2,500 labourers engaged in construction activities. The NMC and JCI launched the special campaign on September 7 and concluded on September 9. Labourers were administered vaccine at Pratap Nagar square on September 9 to mark conclusion of the campaign.

300 crore plan for better solid waste management Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs has announced a Rs 300 crore action plan for a visible improvement in Solid Waste Management in Delhi. At the ‘Public Affairs Forum of India’ the Ministry officials informed that this initiative would be supported by the Ministry’s ‘Urban Development Fund’ operated by Delhi Development Authority. They informed that under the Plan, automated machinery, equipment and other systems will be procured for better collection, transport and storage of garbage, decentralized treatment and better maintenance of sewers and drains. North, South and East Municipal Corporation of Delhi will spend Rs 100 crore each on procuring a total of 549 units of modern equipment. An assistance of Rs 80 cr will be provided to each MCD from the Urban Development Fund.

20 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEWSCAN

Namami Gange’s speedy implementation New Delhi: Nitin Gadkari, Transport minister of India assumed the additional charge of water resources after a major cabinet re-shuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With the beginning of his additional charge, Gadkari has announced major reform in the sector of water resources.

On September 4, Gadkari announced the formation of an inter-ministerial task force to expedite the implementation of one of centre’s flagship programmes, NamamiGange.

The task force will majorly include ministers and officials from water resources, urban development, drinking water, sanitation and rural development. “We will form

a task force and will come out with a schedule of targets to be achieved under the mission. We will try to realise the dreams of the Prime Minister in a time bound and transparent manner. We will attain all the deadlines fixed by Umaji”, he said as he made the announcement.

Accompanied by his predecessor Uma Bharti, he also said the ministry would come out with a detailed schedule on achieving various targets under the mission in a time-bound and transparent manner in a week. Uma Bharti, who preceded Gadkari as the former water resource minister expressed confidence that the ministry would be able to achieve its goals under Gadkari’s leadership.

Traces of ‘microplastics’ found in Delhi’s tap water NEW DELHI: In a recent study conducted by a non-profit digital newsroom Orb Media based in Washington, of the 15 samples collected from Delhi’s households, “microplastics” were detected in 14 samples. The study was conducted across five continents

by Orb media and researchers at the State University of New York and the University of Minnesota. 159 water samples from across five continents were tested. The US had the highest contamination rate, at 94%, with plastic fibres found in tap water sampled at sites including Congress buildings, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters, and Trump Tower in New York. Lebanon and India had the next highest rates.

The study revealed that 83% of the samples had small plastic fibres.The Orb analyses caught particles of more than 2.5 microns in size, 2,500 times bigger than a nanometre.

According to Dr Anne Marie Mahon, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, there were two principal concerns: very small plastic particles and the chemicals or pathogens that microplastics can harbour. “If the fibres are there, it is possible that the nanoparticles are there

too that we can’t measure,” she said.

“Once they are in the nanometre range they can really penetrate a cell and that means they can penetrate organs, and that would be worrying.”

The study tested water samples taken from 17 localities in Delhi-NCR which were supplied by the Delhi Jal Board.

In two instances, from PreetVihar and Malviya Nagar, the samples were identified as groundwater. A senior official in the Delhi Jal Board said the city is entirely serviced by metal pipes. “We cannot say plastic pipes are shedding the fibres. We need to know a lot more about microplastics before taking further action.” The fibres found in the samples ranged from 0.1mm to 5mm in length, said Orb Media.The fibres were found in a range of colours including blue, black, red, brown or clear, it added.

NEWSCAN

Lucknow Metro launched The Capital of Uttar Pradesh witnessed one of its most important development projects - Lucknow Metro, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief minister Yogi Adityanath hailed it as the fastest completed metro in India Lucknow: The 8th metro project of India, the Lucknow metro rail corporation (LMRC) was inaugurated

by Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath on 5th September. “The smartness of Lucknow has increased after the launch of metro services here and it has become a Smart City”, said Yogi on the inauguration ceremony of LMRC. The Lucknow metro plans to operate a 22.8-km-long North-South Corridor, from airport till Munshi Pulia. The North-South Corridor with 21 stations, including eight elevated ones, has been termed as the “Priority Corridor”.

Apart from this, the LMRC has an East-West corridor coming up, from Charbagh Railway station till Vasant Kunj, covering 11 km, including 6.3 km underground.

For now, the phase of LMRC that is open to public is the 8.5-km-long stretch from Transport Nagar to Charbagh. Part of the Phase 1 of the Lucknow Metro project, the stretch took around three years to complete.

The estimated cost of Phase-1A is 6,928 crores, a joint venture of the State and Central governments. According to the Detailed Project Report by LMRC, the daily expected ridership on the NorthSouth corridor will be 6.44 lakh (year

2020), while for the East-West line it will be 2.43 lakh. The capacity of each six-coach train will be 1,574 passengers.

“In place of separate metro corporations, we will constitute an UPMetro Corporation to run the metro services in the state”, said Yogi. He also added that work on other phases of metro has already begun and will be completed soon. ‘Metro-man’ E. Sreedharan is the principal advisor of the Lucknow Metro.

With its own ‘Nawabi Andaaz’, the Lucknow metro will display Chikankari craftsmanship on its exteriors. The blending of black in front is inspired from the modern feel of Hazratganj, Lucknow’s main commercial hub in the heart of city. Name of stations will be displayed in Hindi, Urdu and English.

The metro services will be open to the people from 6 am to 10 pm every day.

The highest fare between two terminal stations being Rs.30.

In addition to it, Lucknow metro is the first metro in the country to have its own FM radio station along in collaboration with private radio station to provide information regarding metro safety as well as on and off board entertainment. This service aims for infotainment and monetary purpose.

The metro will also be providing Wi-Fi to its passengers at each metro station.

Wi-Fi service will be free for all the ‘Go Smart’ Card holders, which holds various other benefits as well.

State-owned SAIL reported that it has supplied around 20,000 tonnes of steel for the 8.5 km long priority stretch of the North-South Corridor of Lucknow Metro Rail. SAIL has supplied reinforcement bars, structural steel and plates for this stretch and is ready to supply for the remaining stretch.

“Taking Lucknow on the fast track of development, Lucknow Metro is going to run like a dream through one end of the city to another. It is a major milestone achieved in the history of the heritage city. It will not be an exaggeration to say that from now onwards, the history of the city will be referred to as ‘Before’ Metro & ‘After’ Metro,” said Mr. Kumar Keshav, Managing Director, LMRC. The LMRC was also awarded 2nd Place for ‘Best Metro for Excellence in Innovative Designs’ at 5th Annual Metro Rail Summit in New Delhi behind the Delhi Metro. It competed against the other metro projects of the country like Mumbai Metro and Jaipur Metro.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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Leaderspeak | Urban Dialogues

Ranjit S Chavan President, AIILSG

Stirring minds, propelling new-age development Urban Dialogues strive to bring together experts from around the world and local innovators with the vision to think beyond conventional solutions of urban problems, and create a better and more sustainable urban ecosystem in India. The recent symposium in Varanasi witnessed urbanists, social activists and officials from the city coming together and charting a new roadmap for ‘Better Banaras’

A

ll India Institute of Local SelfGovernment has designed U r b a n Dialogues—the round-table series of conferences—to provide a platform to the elected representatives and municipal officials, academicians, urban planners, policy makers, scientists and solution providers and private players to exchange and share their experience in the domain and present feasible solutions to address various urban issues.

Through Urban Dialogues series of events, AIILSG aims to come out with feasible and scalable solutions relating to specific urban issues plaguing Indian cities.

Our institute has been at the forefront in addressing the issue of urban local bodies. We have been making efforts to empower the local governance system that in turn can help in improving

22 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

basic civic services and infrastructural improvement in our cities. Such dialogues have been fruitful in supporting local city leaders in planning a new and sustainable future for their cities. The role of elected representatives has always been paramount in shaping our cities. We are quite confident their proactive engagement in planning and execution process of new policies and programmes will provide an impetus. Urban Dialogues also aims to bridge the gap between the different tiers of governments and different agencies involved in implementing various programmes for smooth running of city systems. Such conferences and workshops also bring in the learning and technological application experiences and solutions for the mobility, energy and water issues of our cities.

AIILSG with Urban Update magazine recently

organised a one-day Urban Dialogue in the holy city of Varanasi. It was encouraging to witness that most of the participants were clear that they do want improvement in infrastructure of the city but not at the cost of losing the city’s soul. The event upheld the objectives of organizing Urban Dialogues and enabled consideration of the view points of citizens and of different stakeholders living and working in the city.

The earlier events under Urban Dialogues addressed some of the key challenges faced by our cities.

The first round-table conference under Urban Dialogues series was on ‘Housing for All’ Mission of Government of India.

The round-table conference assessed and looked at the grim situation of housing and shelter in Indian cities.

Many solutions including the provision of rental housing in metro cities was proposed

to handle issues related to rural-urban migration and slum issues.

Urban Dialogue on Smart Energy for Smart City Development recommended solutions to conserve and generate more energy through unconventional sources. The outcome report underlined that a city is smartly equipped if it has resources to meet its energy demands. The conference also addressed the challenges faced by distribution companies and other stakeholders in the sector. Our Urban Dialogues on Liveable Mumbai focused on the problems of Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Intelligentsia from different sectors suggested their views on repositioning of the growth strategy for the metropolitan region. The Regional Plan of MMRDA should lay out the vision and strategy for what will get constructed on the ground, and the Development Plan of Mumbai should incorporate this. Urbanists and bureaucrats underlined that the government needs to ensure that the economic growth of MMR is supported

by its environmental health and equitable development of all. Another one in the Urban Dialogues series ‘Urban Design for Urban Development’ recommended that urban design should be at the heart of city development processes to make cities liveable. The experts also pointed out the need of integrating urban design into planning.

Our experience in all our Urban Dialogues has been encouraging. This is quite clear that every city has different needs and diverse strengths. Mumbai citizens would not think like their counterparts in Varanasi and, vice versa.

Public discourse

Public views are an integral part of a democratic system.

When governments make policies under various programmes for a city or a locality, the success depends entirely on how well the locals accept the program.

At times when the opinions of people are not taken into consideration, the implementing agencies face considerable difficulties in

Our cities are amalgamation of people from different religions, castes and ethnic groups. Almost every metro city in India has the population that speaks different languages. Urban Dialogues series here comes into play in encouraging public discourse on civic issues to understand the needs and aspirations of people from various backgrounds in our cities

ensuring the success of the project. The basic concept of public discourse is to bring every section of society on the same page. If urban local bodies fail to understand the requirements of every section then their plans of building an inclusive city would fail. All the earlier Dialogues had adequate representations from different sections of people from the city. And, when we had chosen a specific theme under which the Dialogues were organised, the Institute had engaged all stakeholders who work in tandem for implementing projects relating to the theme. The discourse on these issues propels the process of ensuring people arrive at consensus on issues over which people are divided.

Our round-table series conferences have also been instrumental in providing global perspective to municipal staff and elected representatives. This can surely help them in making their policies and programs in sync with global goals.

This includes Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), objectives under New Urban Agenda and commitment made in Conference of Parties for Climate Change.

I am quite sure that Urban Dialogues series would be able to contribute in making our cities livable, sustainable and inclusive.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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Special Feature | Urban Dialogues Varanasi

Special Feature | Urban Dialogues-Better Banaras

Union Minister of Housing Affairs Narendra Singh Tomar delivering the key note address during Urban Dialogues-Better Banaras

“Don’t ignore city’s culture, heritage, traditions while planning” All India Institute of Local Self-Government, in partnership with Varanasi Municipal Corporation and Urban Update magazine, convened the round-table conference Urban Dialogues-Better Banaras to promote, review and deliberate on the implementation agenda of infrastructure development projects, Swachh Bharat Mission and Namami Gange programs among policymakers, development partners, municipal officials, academicians, researchers, advocacy groups, elected representatives, private sector, and other key stakeholders from within and outside Varanasi. The conference was held at Pooja Residency Hotel in Varanasi on August 30, 2017. Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Narendra Singh Tomar was the Chief Guest at the event Inaugural Session

Abhishek Pandey Editor, Urban Update

24 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

♦♦ Ram Gopal Mohley, Mayor of Varanasi ♦♦ Dr Girish Chandra Tripathi, Vice-Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University ♦♦ Neel Kanth Tiwari, Minister of State, Law and Justice, Information, Sports and Youth Welfare, Government of Uttar Pradesh ♦♦ Dr M Ramchandran, Former UD Secretary ♦♦ Ravi Ranjan Guru, Sr Executive Director, AIILSG

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aranasi Mayor Ram Gopal Mohley, in his welcome address, said: “When I was elected as the Mayor of Varanasi in 2012, Narendra Modi, then Gujarat CM, called several mayors and chairmen of Municipal Councils to Gandhinagar to take a pledge for making our cities clean and realize the dream of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi had given two slogans: Quit India and Clean India. We got independence from British in 1947 but his dream of cleaning India is yet to be realized. Our Prime Minister and Member of Parliament from Varanasi, Narendra Bhai Modi has a vision of making India clean before the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

All of us have to work together to make this a reality.”

Mohley said that AIILSG has been working in all parts of the country to empower urban local bodies and it was important for all elected representatives in ULBs to work for the people and ensure they get better and efficient services. Urban Dialogues for Better Banaras would lay a concrete roadmap for building a better future for

Varanasi has always been a smart city.

It has adjusted itself with changing times while keeping its traditions and value system intact... Science is universal but technology used for city should be in tune with its requirements to make city efficient Girish Chandra Tripathi Vice-Chancellor, BHU

our city.

Neel Kanth Tiwari, Minister of State, Law and Justice, Information, Sports and Youth Welfare, Government of Uttar Pradesh, was the Guest of Honour at the event. In his speech, he highlighted the religious and cultural significance of Varanasi and said that it was necessary to put the culture and heritage of the city at the centre while making any plan for Varanasi.

Tiwari said the State Government is planning Paawan Path scheme in sync with HRIDAY scheme of Government of India. All the streets leading to religious places will be repaired and adequate mobility will be ensured. All these streets and even water bodies in old Varanasi have their own historical and religious significance.

Dr M Ramchandran, former UD Secretary, Government of India, said the resources are not a constraint for Varanasi. We need to utilize this opportunity to speed-up implementation of various schemes and programs initiated by Government of India. Ramchandran said that citizen participation in planning was essential in smart city development to understand the ground level requirements of people. He said that Urban Dialogues series was trying to bring all cities together through which cities can learn from each other. Ravi Ranjan Guru, Sr. Executive Director, AIILSG provided details of the various programs in which AIILSG is involved in many states across India. He said that AIILSG was always ready to play its part to improve urban governance and strengthen local bodies in the country.

Girish Chandra Tripathi, ViceChancellor of Banaras Hindu University, was the Special Guest. He reiterated the historical significance of Varanasi and also spoke in detail why it is important to engage local citizens in development planning for making projects sustainable. He said that Varanasi has always been a smart city. It has adjusted itself with changing times while keeping its traditions and value system intact. Talking about smart city mission and introduction of technology in city management system,

Kashi is an ancient city. I am proud to be the public representative of old Kashi. It Is necessary to put the culture and heritage at the center while making any plan for Varanasi Neel Kanth Tiwari Minister of State, Law and Justice, Information, Sports and Youth Welfare Government of Uttar Pradesh

he added that science is universal but technology based on it should be made compatible on the basis of requirement of the city and its people. Then only we will be able to make smart cities in India. He added: “I am sure that deliberation with experts today will bring forward simple, efficient and compatible planning strategy for the city of Varanasi.”

Suggestions

♦♦ Put the culture and heritage of the city at the centre. The development of Kashi cannot be done heartlessly; the planning should give due consideration to the traditions and belief systems of its citizens ♦♦ More administrative and financial autonomy to urban local bodies is required to make them self sufficient. Empowering ULBs in UP is essential. It is the only state where ULBs have no authority to pass building plans though responsibility of providing basic services is on the corporation ♦♦ Urban development should have more say of city leaders like in European countries. ♦♦ Enagement of locals in planning and implementation is must for the success of any development project.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

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Special Feature | Urban Dialogues-Better Banaras

Tough decisions must to transform nation: Tomar Excerpts from the speech of Union Minister of Urban Affairs Narendra Singh Tomar Let me first extend my greetings to you all for holding this event and participating in it. This country is taking a new shape. Whether the subject is taking the country forward, or its about transparency, honesty, reforms and making things simpler for common man, there is a growing consensus building in the country and it is evident. Had this existed earlier we might have had different results. If one person today can be credited with this rapid growth and change it’s our Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If country has to be changed we need to take some tough decisions which will invite criticism but still we need to do that. After this government came into power it has been our priority that using the parliamentary forum we must strive for a world class infrastructure while keeping the poor in mind. At times we tend to ignore small weaknesses in the system but we need to change that attitude and we must remove them. We are working in that direction. Let’s talk about cleanliness.

You have discussed it in your session.

I am sure you all remember PM’s speech from the ramparts of Lal Quila.

He spoke about a lot of things but he mentioned two things, small but important. It invited criticism even from some quarters that why PM has to mention it in his speech. They were important. He talked about bringing poor people into banking system and about making toilets so that specially girl students do not suffer either at home or school. He said that we must end this tradition of open defecation.

We cannot rest at just open defecation free zones we must go beyond that which is ODF plus.

Let me talk about criticism a bit.

People argued that PM should have talked about bigger things rather than toilets. My point is that why even after seventy years of independence a PM has to talk about it. Had it been such

26 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

Once Venkaiah ji was elevated to the post of Vice President I became in charge of both rural and urban development. Today as I speak here, cleanliness is my priority, be it rural or urban. What is important today is that people from voluntary organization, religious organization and even IIT and IIM have come together in this movement a small thing, others could have done it. At times people think that toilet and cleanliness is a personal thing.

I take pride today in saying that because of PM’s effort, cleanliness has become a movement in the country and we need to give further impetus to it.

What has happened in last few months is that we have given equal importance

to both rural and urban cleanliness.

It so happened that as a rural development minister I was in charge of seventy percent of India’s cleanliness.

Once Venkaiah ji was elevated to the post of Vice President I became in charge of both rural and urban development. Today as I speak here, cleanliness is my priority, be it rural or urban. What is important today is that people from voluntary organization, religious organization and even IIT and IIM have come together in this movement.

Results are now there to see. About two lakh fifty thousand villages by today have declared themselves open defecation free. More than one hundred seventy five districts have become open defecation free. We are helping villages who declare themselves ODF. We are also helping then in solid waste management. Coming to Banaras, you must have felt and seen that more than six thousand tons of garbage is processed everyday. Government of India is trying to see that garbage management should become a revenue model. Then only we can manage the garbage and utilize it. Central and State

government can help in cleanliness drive but this has to become a part and parcel of our daily life. Our resolve must be that I will not pollute the place and at the same time will not allow other to do it.

Banaras is a place that has a rich tradition of education and of intellectuals. This city is blessed and is celebrated across the country.

If people of Banaras take a pledge, it cannot fail because it will have blessings of Lord Shiva. When you talk about ‘Better Banaras’ it is imperative that while it’s about culture and heritage, it must be better in educating people as well.

It is also important that Banaras must emerge as a better material place. It has always been a wish that Banaras becomes a better place; congestion must go and become a livable city. L Those who visited the city five years back will not see the same things when they visit the city next time in 2018. Banaras is already part of smart city project. Work is in progress. Apart from smart city project there are other schemes like AMRUT, HRIDAY which are being implemented here to maintain the city and keep its heritage intact.

You all are working hard to make it a better place to live. There are many public sector units who are supporting this endeavor.

On my way to the venue from airport I asked Mr. Mohley why we are not able to make it ODF and he told me that with the support of citizens of Banaras we will do it soon. I am sure you will all be able to do it. Situation is ripe to bring change. Contact people, connect with them, bring them together. Be faithful to it, changes will be evident.

There will be times when tough decisions will be taken, may hurt a few, may benefit many. Reforms are there to stay. If nation gets benefitted by them, political costs would not be an impediment.

Thank you

Urban Infrastructure Development in Varanasi ♦♦ Chairperson: Dr M Ramchandran, former UD Secretary, GoI ♦♦ Panelists: Nitin Gokarn, Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi, Tikendra Singh Panwar, Former Deputy Mayor (Shimla), Pier Roberto Remitti, Team Leader EU - International Urban Cooperation Programme, PashimTewari, Technical Director (AIILSG), Ashish Garg, Managing Director, G Group

The resources are not a constraint for Varanasi. We need to utilize this opportunity to speed-up implementation of various schemes and programs initiated by Government of India Dr M Ramchandran

Dr M Ramchandran chaired the first technical session ‘Urban Infrastructure Development in Varanasi’. The key points of the discussion during the session were: smart city development and requirements of Varanasi, integration of heritage and culture in planning, basic service delivery and service level benchmarking, and urban mobility.

Addressing the audience, Nitin Gokarn provided the details of ongoing projects and planned works for improving city services and infrastructure. Gokarn said that urban mobility is the sector that needs attention as people of Varanasi have voted to improve the sector during Smart City Mission competition.

Varanasi is an ancient city. The city has had organic growth in the past without proper planning. People from different states kept coming and contributed their bit in the development of the city.

The city has narrow lanes and has

all kinds of modes of transport here.

It is surprising to know that almost 40-50 per cent daily trips in the city are on foot. Flyovers and underpasses on the lines of European cities will not solve our problems. We need hybrid mobility model system and the work in this direction is on. Under city urban mobility plan, we are working on Junction Improvement plan at 62 places.

“We have selected around 1300 acres of area for Area Based Development plan and it is around the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Thousands of people visit the city daily and handling the intensive crowd and providing them facilities requires resources and innovative solutions,” said Gokarn.

He said that drinking water supply system in Varanasi is facing problems at many ends. 56 per cent of water supply falls into category of non-revenue water and that is not a good figure. Efforts are on to reduce NRW through various interventions. Ground water level has gone down in the city drastically. On an average, ground water level is going down at the rate of 60cms every year.

Rainwater harvesting in government buildings and colleges for groundwater recharge is on the cards. For making city energy-efficient, off-grid solutions through solar power, installation of LED street lights and other initiatives are being taken. We are making efforts to make Varanasi a model energyefficient city.

Tikender Singh Panwar, former deputy mayor of Shimla, said that planners and policy makers must take into account the lifeline of cities. In the case of Varanasi, it is the River Ganga.

Panwar gave the example of Leipzig city of Germany where the expensive Porsche cars are manufactured. He

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Special Feature | Urban Dialogues-Better Banaras

added that the German city has turned its 8-lane highway into six-lane and reserved two lanes for non-motorized transport. He said that we need to set our priorities right for achieving right kind of development for the city.

He also spoke on urban governance issues and on Special Purpose Vehicles.

He said that Pune and Kochi have taken welcome steps by engaging mayors and other people’s representatives in their SPVs for smart city. He said that Area based development would cost around 85 per cent of total smart city budget and it is challenging to see how you can use the 15 per cent budget for improving services across the city. He also cautioned the officials of Varanasi Municipal Corporation and said that the drains should not be concretized as it will affect ground water recharge system. He also suggested how solid waste management system can be made sustainable and efficient by introducing adequate user charges from different users. He said that Shimla charges between Rs 50-25000 from people. He added that municipal staff engaged in waste collection is also paid well. They are paid not less than Rs 10, 000 for three-hour work. Similarly, for water supply, Shimla has Greater Shimla Water Circle that deals with every issue relating to water whether it is treatment or supply. We have made sure that tap water in Shimla is potable.

Ashish Garg, Managing Director, G Group emphasized on the multistakeholder approach to develop the city. He said that many international and national companies are interested to invest in the holy city of Varanasi.

Pier Roberto Remitti, Team Leader of International Urban Cooperation of EU, said that the continuous growing concentration of population in cities creates pressure on urban services and environmental resources. He invited the municipal officials and city representatives of Varanasi to be part of International Urban Cooperation for sharing sustainable knowledge and know-how with their counterparts in European cities. He also extended his support for developing local action plan and climate action plan for the city.

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Pashim Tiwari, Technical Director of AIILSG, pointed out the learnings from JnNURM projects and stressed on making operation and maintenance of the projects integral part of any government project. He said that cities must learn from each other. Like, Ambikapur is a model city to learn solid waste management.

Suggetions

♦♦ City has almost 50-60 % Nonrevenue Water. Financial and environment sustainability of water supply system is the need of the hour. Integration of technology in the system can be useful. Ground water is also going down in the city that requires attention. ♦♦ Drains should not be concretized.

Rain harvesting projects need a boost. ♦♦ The huge potential of religious tourism can be utilized for revenue generation for the corporation.

Heritage sites need more attention to restore and sustain for future generation ♦♦ The city system needs to have a special service delivery system for floating population visiting Banaras. ♦♦ An integrated hybrid mobility plan can address mobility issues in the city. ♦♦ SPV should have adequate representation of elected representatives

Swachh Bharat Mission ♦♦ Chairperson: Tikender Singh Panwar, Former Deputy Mayor Shimla ♦♦ Panelists: Ram Gopal Mohley, Hon’ble Mayor, Varanasi, Ashok Chaudhuri, General Manager of Ankur Scientific Energy Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Sachidanand Singh, Additional Municipal Commissioner of Varanasi, Ravi Ranjan Guru, Sr Executive Director, AIILSG

Ashok Chaudhary, General Manager of Ankur Scientific, speaking about

municipal solid waste management, said, “Almost 95 per cent of waste generated goes to landfill unprocessed.

Per capita waste generation in India is 400 grams but in future it will reach upto 2.5 kg. We are generating electricity out of biomass and agricultural waste. Our organization has set up more than 1000 units in over 45 countries which is completely a sustainable solution”.

While sharing information about sanitation and cleanliness drive, Ravi Ranjan Guru, Sr Executive Director of AIILSG, talked about innovative solutions being implemented in other cities. Emphasising on E-toilets he said, “When we go to NDMC area and cantonment area in Delhi, you can see these e-toilets. The best thing about e-toilets is water is continuously recycled and there is onsite solid waste compost.”

Reminding people about Swachh Bharat Mission and its impact, Surender Singh, an MLA from Varanasi, said, “People in Banaras are fond of ‘Paan’. Earlier they used to eat it and spit it anywhere but now they search for some bin to spit. It’s a commendable behavioural change.”

Additional Municipal Commissioner of Varanasi, Sachidanand Singh, spoke about solid waste management, and challenges in solving problems related to it. He said, Gandhiji came to Varanasi in 1906. He was critical of the state of cleanliness here. Now it’s been more than 100 years, still we have not improved as per his aspirations.

Ram Gopal Mohley, Varanasi Mayor, added, “Now we are trying to inculcate smart technology in our initiative, we are putting GPS system in our garbage collectors such as trucks so that we can track it from our office for better results. We are also trying to put censors in bins to maintain proper records that they are empty or full.

These are among the initiatives we are now taking up.” He said, “Every ward councillor has contributed to make Varanasi clean by creating awareness among people. This year when we will celebrate DeendayalUpdhyay Birthday on 25th September, we are going to declare 90 wards ODF”.

Suggestions

♦♦ Varanasi Corporation needs to find ways and means to dispose tonnes of waste being generated every day. Waste to Energy plant can be a solution ♦♦ All manuals for managing different kinds of waste should be implemented strictly ♦♦ Solid waste management plans need to engage all stakeholders. User charges should be revised as per usage to make waste management financial sustainable. At present, only 10 % of total cost is revovered ♦♦ Elected representatives need to play a pro-active role in bringing about change in public behaviour for maintaining cleanliness

Namami Gange ♦♦ Chairperson: Pashim Tiwari, Technical Director, AIILSG ♦♦ Panelists: Prof UK Choudhary, Banaras Hindu University, Vishambhar Nath Mishra, President, Sankat Mochan Foundation, Ranjan Panda, Convener, Climate Change Network

Namami Gange session of Urban Dialogues had representation from academic, religious, civil society and technical domains to underline the requirements for cleaning Ganga River within stipulated time.

The session generated an unprecedented public consensus on a shared vision for cleaning Ganga River. Prof (Retd) UK Chaudhary of IIT-BHU, shed light on the technical aspects of cleaning River Ganga. “The main problem in keeping Ganga clean is the run-off of millions of tonnes of municipal sewage from cities, towns and villages into the river. There is a network of 475 kilometers sewage drainage lines in Varanasi, two thirds of which is choked,” he said.

He stated that the entire city is affected by pollutants logging which is the major concern. Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) have been installed to

manage the organic waste around the banks of River Ganga which leads to the disposal of the entire waste in the river which is a wrong methodology considering the poor condition of the river. Ganga is a body which constitutes various parts like the basin, bank and river belt which forms a structure defining its functions and the solution to all the problems caused to its functioning is the sand bed of north, south and west Ganga.

The management of pollutant loads of the crores of pilgrims in the Kumbh Mela since several years has been sand bed which has stretched to 7 km length, 1 km width and having depth of 10-15 metres. “Then why sand beds are not constructed to utilize it for STP, pollution management and solid waste management,” says Prof Chaudhary.

The solid waste and liquid waste management can easily be done by the use of sand bed with minimum cost on sustainable basis.

Stating the example of concretizing the area around the rivers like the Sabarmati Riverfront, Ranjan Panda, Convener of Climate Change Network, said that such projects affect the natural flow of rivers and negatively impact the river regeneration process.

Vishambhar Nath Mishra, Mahant, Sankat Mochan Foundation and Professor at BHU, said that Ganga travels for 2550 km and Banaras belt is one of the most important because it has a connection with Lord Shiva. He quoted Marc Twain and said that the famous writer once wrote, “Banaras is older than history, older than the tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”

When the Ganga Action Plan was launched in Banaras in 1986, the total sewage disposal was approximately 50 MLD. Ganga Action Plan was divided into phases, this was almost an experiment and it was pre-decided that if it is successful for Ganga then it will be implemented for the other rivers as well but the results were not amazing. The first phase development generated infrastructure for 102 MLD. The objective of the Plan was

Varanasi is an ancient city. It has had organic growth in the past without proper planning. People from different states kept coming and contributed their bit in the development of the city Nitin Gokarn Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi

to create infrastructure to dispose 150 MLD sewage back then; today the requirement is for 350 MLD disposal, but the available infrastructure is for 150 MLD. The objective of Ganga Action Plan was well defined; all the sewage which is flowing into the river should be properly intercepted in an appropriate way. The technology used is activated sludge plant, which does not have the capability of removing faecal bacteria which is absolute necessity for cleaning rivers in Banaras.

Suggestions

♦♦ Not a drop of sewage or chemicals should fall into the river ♦♦ No more dams on the river should be built to maintain the free flow.

If necessary, the height of the dams should not be more than 8 metres ♦♦ Ensure a minimum water flow in the River. We must focus on the flow of river by thinking about the tributaries of Ganga. ♦♦ All the objectives of Namami Gange should be attained under strict deadlines ♦♦ Nagar Nigam should be given the responsibility and resources for the Clean Ganga mission and they should not source it to higher authorities and they should have their necessary budget for the management.

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Photo Feature

Urban

Dialogues Urban Dialogues-Better Banaras witnessed the confluence of urban experts, academicians, ministers and local intelligentsia. They put forward feasible solutions to solve civic problems of the city and chalked out a road map for sustainable future

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Neelkanth Tiwari, Minister of State (Independent charge) Law and Justice, Information, Sports and Youth Welfare, Uttar Pradesh, and Girish Chandra Tripathi, Vice-Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University lighting the lamp to inaugurate Urban DialoguesBetter Banaras

Nitin Gokarn, Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi, speaking duirng the Urban Infrastructure Development session

Varanasi Mayor Ramgopal Mohley felicitating Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Urban Development during the valedictory session

Neelkanth Tiwari, Minister of State (Independent charge) Law and Justice, Information, Sports and Youth Welfare, Uttar Pradesh delivering the key note address. Tiwari highlighted the infrastructure needs of Varanasi and underlined the significance of heritage and culture of the city

30 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

Prof. Vishambhar Nath Mishra, Banaras Hindu University, pinpoints the importance of Ganga River in development of Varanasi during the Namami Gange session

Dr M Ramchandran, former UD Secretary (third from right) chaired ‘Urban Infrastructure Development in Varanasi’ session and pointed out the development of Varanasi must be based on public consultation.

Other experts participated in the session (L to R) included Ashish Garg, G Group, Tikendra Singh Panwar, former Deputy Mayor of Shimla, Ramgopal Mohley, Mayor of Varanasi, Dr M Ramchandran, Pier Roberto Remetti, Pashim Tiwari, Technical Director, AIILSG

Sachidanand Singh, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Varanasi Municipal Corporation, Tikender Singh Panwar, former Deputy Mayor of Shimla, Ravi Ranjan Guru, Sr Executive Director, AIILSG, and Ashok Chaudhury, Ankur Scientific posing for a group photograph after a session on Swachh Bharat Mission

Prof UK Choudhary, BHU, and an expert of river engineering spoke in details about the initiatives required for cleaning Gnaga river

A corporator interacting with experts during Swachh Bharat Mission session

AIILSG and Urban Update team with Union Minister of Urban Development Narendra Singh Tomar. Tomar spoke at length with the editorial team about the present urban development schemes and his vision for Indian cities

A representative from civil society organization questioning the implementation strategy of the present schemes relating to infrastructure development and suggested a few corrections in policies

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Article | Urban Innovation

INNOVATION INNOVATION

IDEA

Ideate Innovate Implement 32 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

T

he human race is known to possess the best brains coupled with the abilities to make their use from time to time to make life comfortable, useful and progressive.

But innovation has its own time limit.

Once implemented it is open to being copied and the novelty element goes away, yet most of us are programmed to think afresh day in and day out.

Institutes like IISc, IITs, IIMs and the likes are the breeding grounds of ideas, if only government supports them more through infrastructure and finances.

With umpteen technological inventions competing with each other, no sector is actually left untouched, be it medical science, sports strategies, defence tactics, automobile technologies, music, arts, environment conservation or urban development. In most fields now we are witnessing new plans, mobile apps, IT solutions and out of box thinking that is changing the way we function mainly in the urban areas.

In fact, Internet of Things (IOT) is being commonly used as a parlance for connecting up the urban issues.

The ever increasing number of urban dwellers is likely to reach a record high of six billion that would be settling down in fast expanding cities in the world by 2045. What would be the set of problems that the crowded cities and its people would face? Frankly, no one can say it today what tomorrow holds for us.

But innovative ideas have already begun to shape our lives.

If we take a small sector of urban life, affordable housing is one area where all kinds of innovative ideas are taking

shape from Brazil to Egypt and US to Turkey. Considering their societies and income brackets of its poor people, these countries have framed their policies to provide shelter. In a wealthy country like America, a few years ago, innovators in the finance sector put forth an idea of a house for $300, excluding the cost of land but with a freedom to improve the design as per family needs.

Of late, newer and newer innovations are made possible by the Internet, are engaging urban developers, planners and architects. The architect or city planner of yore is slipping into oblivion what with smart governance taking precedence over the traditional one.

India may be lagging behind in urban governance practices but a larger number of countries-small and big both-are already trying and testing new things to make a common man’s life easier and better (of course both these adjectives are quite relative). For instance, in Barcelona, parking data, space availability and other details are available on real time basis for users whereas in San Francisco, the smart city managers are using Bitlock for cycle sharing. There is an app developed for it which also does geotagging.

Bicycles remind me that Copenhagen’s extra ordinary turnaround as a bicycling city of the world has changed their total urban infrastructure. Since half of the city officially bicycles, the 240 mile network has seen drastic improvements in road making. Just an idea of taking to cycling has brought about new social, economic, health and environment benefits to the city and its citizens. It all originated with the idea of replacing

Innovation should be an ongoing exercise, and if in some sectors of human activity, it is not happening, then surely they will suffer in the long run. New ideas, innovations are essentially cerebral products which can change drastically the world we live in. With more people moving to urban areas, the problems in our cities are increasing. Urban centres need more attention to solve the issues relating to livability and service delivery mechanism Abhilash Khandekar | Sr Journalist

automobiles with cycles wherever it is possible. Now, an Indian city (Pune), once a paradise for cyclists, is trying to adopt the Copenhagen model and is in advance stage of signing an agreement with the city. Already a large number of cycle tracks in gardens and on footpaths have been earmarked to encourage cycling. I of course don’t believe that Pune would become a Copenhagen tomorrow but small beginnings are being made.

Indore, the city that topped the chart of Swachh BharatCompetition in 2017, implemented many innovative ideas to push its agenda to make the city the best. Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) used films, graffiti on walls, music apps and fitted ringing bells (melodious jingles) on bin carriers to draw people out of their homes to dump waste into the municipal vans which were tracked by GPS and RFID. “About a decade ago we could not have thought about such small ideas “admits Manish Singh, Commissioner IMC, rather frankly. An IAS officer of 2009 batch, Singh is considered the real hero behind Indore’s grand success. In 2014 all India Survekshan, Indore was placed at 149 but jumped to number 1 only due to small innovations and public participation. Mysore, Surat, Visakhapatnam and more such cities are now competing with each other for improving the urban face not only in cleanliness but entire sphere of urban governance.

In terms of innovations, world’s five smart cities are often being mentioned for different and new ideas--some implemented while others are being tested. Helsinki, Singapore, Songdo (South Korea), Copenhagen and London are thinking on top urban innovations which eventually India may like to ape, if successfully tried there. New London Architects, a think tank, are trying to decongest the century-old Tube Railway. In India where more and more cities are demanding Metro Railways and a new policy hasbeen okayed by the Union Government in August, such innovations could be looked at.

If we see some of the Delhi Metro routes, they are full chock-a-block, what

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Article | Urban Innovation

with the growing population of the megapolis! Here more innovations are required. In fact, when the first Metro was started by the legendary technocrat E Sreedharan, the transport mode itself was an innovation in India.

Manchester is another city which is using innovative CityVerve app by which smart bus stops would help let the drivers know where the commuters are waiting. Manchester City Council is using 20 powerful sensors that connect city’s health, transport, and environment services.

In Portugal, all public vehicles in some cities are being turned into WiFi hotspots, while a Finnish start-up is dealing with waste management in a way that the waste pickers would know electronically when the waste bin is full. In times of PM Narendra Modi’s Digital India, technology would surely help us get rid of urban chaos.

Although Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari rightfully turned down the idea of driverless cars (being tried in many parts of the world) in India, considering its huge potential to trigger more unemployment, more and more ideas are being floated in our country to change the face of cities and the facilities citizens are required to use.

While in the developed countries, Uber and Ola type 24x7 car hire have been used for a few years now, their introduction in the tier 2 Indian cities now, is taken as a very useful innovation.

In fact, many individuals are dispensing their cars altogether. In other words, this would solve parking problems; lessen pollution and congestion on roads.

Having said that, I don’t yet see a great innovative idea in dealing with the garbage dumps and landfills in metropolitan India. New Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill tragedy was waiting to happen. Urban experts, technocrats and city managers therefore must come up with some really practical innovations to solve this challenge so that land contamination, pollution of water resources and such disasters are prevented in future.

There is no option but to innovate and make urban life easier!

34 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

Innovation in Flood Management

From floating homes to fish ponds BANGKOK: From building floating houses and flood-resilient roads to protecting coasts by restoring fish ponds, 12 projects aimed at tackling water-related problems in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities will share a $10 million pot to make their ideas a reality.

The winners of the Water Window Challenge, whittled down from nearly 400 entries, will work over the next 18 months to help communities in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and South and Southeast Asia deal with floods and drought. The goal is to reduce the human toll and economic damage.

The challenge was organised jointly by the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) and Z Zurich Foundation, the charitable arm of Zurich Insurance, one of Europe’s largest insurers, which provided the funding.

“Floods account for around half of all disaster-related losses,” said David Nash, manager of the Z Zurich Foundation, noting that those losses could be lowered if communities are able to invest in flood protection before they are hit.

“Around 87 percent of all disasterrelated funding is targeted at response and relief, which to us seems to be the wrong way around,” he said by telephone from Switzerland “Our intention is to shift the priorities so that people invest before the event, so they don’t have to invest as much after,” he added.

Luca Alinovi, Nairobi-based executive director of GRP, who is

in Bangkok to meet the winners, noted floods are the biggest driver of weather-related humanitarian crises around the world.

“We wanted to find solutions that not only help to manage it better but to transform it into an opportunity for a more prosperous life,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Flooding accounts for nearly half of all weather-related disasters, affecting more than 2.3 billion people in the past 20 years, 95 percent of whom live in Asia, according to the GRP. The 12 water challenge winners were chosen for ideas that are innovative, easy to scale up, adjustable and likely to deliver concrete outcomes, Alinovi added.

They include the University of Waterloo, which is adapting lowcost amphibious homes used in flood-prone areas of the U.S. state of Louisiana for the Mekong Delta.

The Danish Refugee Council’s proposal, meanwhile, will help refugees in northwest Kenya cope with recurring droughts and floods using techniques including a mobile phone-based warning system and fast-maturing, hazard-resistant crops.

The projects will be rolled out in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

The GRP was set up by The Rockefeller Foundation, the U.S. government’s development arm USAID and the Swedish poverty reduction agency SIDA.

Rethink cities with AIILSG SMART CITY

As the old adage goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither any other city. And, of course not alone. AIILSG provides expertise to urban local bodies and state governments for buildings cities from the scratch or retrofitting existing ones with technology enabled interventions. AIILSG team has developed city development plans of many cities including that of Mumbai. The institute has also prepared smart city plans for Raipur, Bilaspur, Faridabad, Karnal and also of state funded smart cities of Chhattisgarh—Rajnandgaon, Korba.

AIILSG is also advising a Swedish consortium for Smart City investment and implementation.

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, 61805600, Fax: +91-22-26572115, Email: contact@aiilsg.org

Article | Urban Innovation

India Lagging far Behind the World

If we compare India with the world, we are lagging far behind in urban innovations. Its time that India makes a giant leap in this field. Urbanization is an irreversible process that has also thrown many challenges. These new challenges demand innovative solutions Kumar Dhananjay |Consulting Editor

M

ore than fifty percent of India’s population today lives in urban areas. As per the last census of 2011, 377.1 million people live in urban areas, the second highest urban population in the world. In the post liberalization era the problems in cities have compounded and every city’s infrastructure is crumbling and even the basic services are not guaranteed. Urbanization in India is now an irreversible process and what is required is that we must improve urban infrastructure and governance so that productivity can be increased. With a three-tier governance, it is imperative that innovation is

36 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

encouraged at all levels. Because the times demand innovative solutions to problems. The government has also realized that if cities are engines of growth then innovation has to play a key role. National competitiveness is being incentivized by linking it to grants for infrastructure investments.

Innovation today is redefining everything and has gone beyond the traditional confines of formal research and development. Innovation can mean creation of new technologies but it can also mean unique application of old technologies to develop designs of new products and services. Innovation means development of new processes and structures in various fields to deliver

services. It means forging partnership between public sector enterprises and private entities. Innovation must be used as an important tool to find sustainable and cost effective solutions for both urban and rural areas. In a developing economy like India it must be used as a tool for inclusive growth.

Incentivising Innovation

In 2010, the then President of India had declared it to be the ‘Decade of Innovation’. The idea was to create an indigenous model of development suited to Indian needs and challenges.

In its introduction the National Innovation Council says ‘India has a long tradition of innovation and a

Urban Innovation | Article

significant pool of qualified people, both within the country as well as the diaspora, presently engaged in innovative activities. This talent pool has to be leveraged to drive the innovation agenda. Further, there is also a need to capture the multiple innovations happening in various domains such as government, R&D labs, universities, and across sectors, to give an impetus to the innovation process in the country’.

Since then there has been an attempt to bring domain experts, stakeholders and key participants to create an innovation movement in India. In August 2013, NInC, the Urban Development Ministry and World Bank jointly organized a conference on Urban Innovations in New Delhi. The Conference brought together people and experts from different sectors. An Action Agenda for the Government was prepared at the end of the Conference (www. moud.gov.in).

National and State level consultations are necessary for broad agreement on approach and implementation Empowerment of cities financially, administratively and politically; Free cities from the complex situation of multiplicity of agencies Strengthening the pool of domain experts, consultants and area specialists Capacity Building needs to be recognized as one of the key areas which needs to be addressed urgently across sectors City level spatial planning need to accommodate not only the population growth but also cross cutting issues between various sectors The flows of urban assistance to States/Cities need to be linked after a convincing spatial plan of the city is prepared Documentation and dissemination of best practices and innovations in Urban Governance Ideally PPP Models need to be developed more appropriately for selected sectors, ICT to be used for effective service delivery; and Urban Climate Change Resilience should be mainstreamed across policies.

A Few Good Innovations at Local Level…PPP to Provide 24x7 Water

While there have been lot of talks, seminars and conferences, India is lagging far behind in urban innovation if we look at the world. However, there have been some innovative practices, even though at small and local level. One such initiative was taken in three districts of HubliDharwad,Belgaum and Gulbarga with total population of two million people to supply 24x7 water. Five zones were identified immediately. All five zones met continuity of supply and water connections increased by fifty percent.

A report of Water and Sanitation Project of the World Bank said that the reason for success was ‘the creation of social intermediation and communication strategy. Another component was of creation of water user committees, which helped coordinate local citizens meetings to raise awareness because of initial resistance to the meetings’.

Energy Conservation Building Code

Another such idea was Energy Conservation Building Code(ECBC).

It was launched in 2007 by ministry of power for promoting energy efficiency in the building sector. Bureau of Energy Efficiency had set up an expert committee to develop it with the help of USAID and other stakeholders like architects and domain experts. This year in June, the then Power Minister Piyush Goyal launched the new ECBC code. In its press release the ministry had said ‘The updated version of ECBC provides current as well as futuristic advancements in building technology to further reduce building energy consumption and promote low-carbon growth. ECBC 2017 sets parameters for builders, designers and architects to integrate renewable energy sources in building design with the inclusion of passive design strategies. The code aims to optimise energy savings with the comfort levels for occupants, and prefers life-cycle cost effectiveness to achieve energy neutrality in commercial buildings’. Again the problem is that

when this writer tried to fish through the data to see how much was achieved in the last ten years, there is hardly any data available, though the new code seeks to achieve fifty percent reduction in consumption of energy by 2030.

Local Needs, Local Solutions

Another innovative project is being implemented in Pabal, fifty kms from Pune in Maharashtra. Some enthusiasts from MIT, USA and Vigyan Ashram in Pabal came together. They have built a wonderful innovation lab that is providing basic solutions to problems faced both by rural and urban India.

Students there are now manufacturing sanitary pad disposal units which can convert used pads to ash within six to eight minutes and save people from unhygienic conditions. Weather data logger to help farmers make right crop selection and low cost hearing aid for those are who are hearing impaired are some other efforts. Even these small innovations are a big help to the community at large.

Enhancing Coordination between States and Cities

The problem with respect to innovation is two-fold in India. One, there is lack of innovation and second there is hardly any coordination between either states or cities to share experiences and their further implementation. In Europe and other parts of the world either there is cooperation between states or where that is not possible for whatever reasons, cities have started cooperation in the field of sustainable development and innovations. They share technology, transfer knowledge and experiences. It is not surprising that no Indian innovation figured in the top innovations list prepared by the World Economic Forum in 2016.

What we need to understand is that people are not just consumers of innovation. It does not matter whether they are literate or illiterate, whether they live in urban areas or rural. We need to harness their innovative power to design locally & resolve problems in the existing socio-economic context.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

37

Article | Urban Innovation

Innovation in public awareness is driving Swachhata Abhiyan in Varanasi In ‘Swachh Survekshan’ it was no surprise that Varanasi made a huge jump in the list. It came as no surprise being PM Modi’s constituency. Many factors have contributed in that. One of them is innovative communication.

Such as putting Amitabh Bachahan’s film posters with message of cleanliness

Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor

38 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

O

n January 4th this year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched ‘Swachh Survekshan’.

Four hundred thirty four cities across the country were ranked by Quality Council of India on cleanliness and other aspects of urban sanitation.

Varanasi, a historical city known for its narrow spaces, ranked 32nd in the PM’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. A huge jump from 418th in 2014 when Modi embraced the place and contested elections successfully. Incidentally, Varanasi is the only city from the country’s biggest state that made it to the list. Gonda from the same state was ranked as dirtiest city in the country.

Around thirty seven lakh people submitted their response in the survey.

are being made over the issue and say that tons of garbage is being disposed of everyday, public convenience is available for the residents to use, new garbage have been identified and they are recycled.

But challenges remain ahead.

Varanasi is still considered the oldest city in the world. Because of religious reasons the city attracts a huge foot fall everyday. There is a floating population of about two lakh people every day.

Mohley says that “there are areas like Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Sankat Mochan Mandir, Assi Ghat and others that attract huge crowds every day. So we are making all out effort to keep the city clean. And I believe in the next survey Varanasi will be in top ten cities”.

Mayor Claims to make it in First Ten

But still if you go around the city, you find heaps of garbage and municipal waste lying around, sewer lines are overflowing in many localities. One can name them in abundance. So where are things going wrong. Professor Vishwambhar Nath Mishra of Banaras Hindu University and President of Sankat Mochan Foundation says that media can write anything but situation has gone from bad to worse in the last three years. He says “people are talking that Varanasi has made a huge stride on the cleanliness index. But if I remember thirty years back Varanasi was such a clean city. So much so that even the nallis were cleaned twice by the municipal workers. People used to stop each other from even spitting in the nallis. Sad but true that we are being taught lessons in cleanliness.

Let us move away from the city and talk about waters. Varanasi and Ganga are inseparable. Thousands of

Varanasi Municipal Corporation is the nodal agency to supervise cleanliness drive in the city. It carried out numerous drives and initiatives with the help of NGOs and volunteers at different places including its iconic ghats, lanes and communities. Schools and colleges were specially targeted and involved in the process.

The Mayor of Varanasi Ram Gopal Mohley is confident that the city will be one of the cleanest very soon. He says that credit goes to the Prime Minister Modi who has consistently run the campaign after taking over. He says “He has consistently run the campaign and emphasized upon the issue of cleanliness. This has resulted in greater awareness among citizens to keep the city clean. Citizens have become disciplined and they are spreading the message too”. Undoubtedly tall claims

Reality Versus Statistics

devotees throng the city for pilgrimage and take a holy dip in the Ganga every day. Their faiths are entwined with the river that runs across the country.

But today the holy river is sick and crying for treatment. Worst is the case of Varanasi whose ghats and water are worst affected. Water level in the river has receded drastically. Ganga is drying, shrinking, going far away from the ghats. Its water is turning black.

Sewage water is still flowing into the river unabated. There is no velocity in the water and it is dynamically ill. The depth of the river is not even two meters now. The river bed has expanded from seven kilometers to nine kilometers. A proof of

shrinking of the sacred river. Former professor of BHU, UK Chaudhary says “today Ganga is diseased, polluted and quality wise most poor. I came here in 1976. Its forty one years. Ganga was never so polluted.”

People are saying the situation is getting worse by the day. The challenge is how to clean Ganga. Faith and science are at loggerheads. What we also see is that there is a conflict between scientists and sadhus on how to go about it. The other problem is that through barrages water is being taken out and its stream is getting empty. Water is being taken out and pollutants are continuously flowing into it. Scientific

management of the river is the need of the hour. The danger is even the new efforts could fail. The entry-level project activities included ghat and crematoria construction/repair, river front beautification, installation and repair of sewage treatment plants (STPs). How much of work has been done and has the target been met?

There is no answer coming forth.

Innovation helps

Good part is that citizens and voluntary organizations are coming forward in a big way. Experts may argue and differ with each other but there are people who are voluntarily innovating. They like to use icons to spread the message of cleanliness. One such individual in Varanasi is Rajeev Verma. To spread the message of cleanliness he started using film posters of Amitabh Bachchan.

He used posters from iconic films like Sholay, Mahaan and Silsila to even his unknown films like Jurmana. His dialogues ranged from “people who spread garbage take note. ‘Agar mere andar ke Sholay jag gaye to tumhe koi nahi bacha payega’ (if the fire inside me ignites, nobody will be able to save you)”. I had an interesting conversation with him and I asked him about his initiative. He said “it started with a conversation that I was having with a relative. We knew it will not be possible to reach him directly. So we took out his film posters, wrote creatively his dialogues and put it up across Varanasi.

People recognised it immediately and it was covered by the media as well.

Manisha Koirala came to Varanasi and tweeted it and was retweeted by Amitabh Bachchan. Even PM Modi appreciated it.”

The posters were put up across the city. Message has gone down well.

But as stated earlier there can be no excuse. Number is not important, fact on the ground is. Statistics and response is one thing but day to day cleanliness is another. While going around the city if situation is so bad in PM’s constituency, one can only dread what it must be in other cities. Central, state and local governments must take note of it.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

39

Are our cities prepared for

extreme precipitation dates?

From Mumbai to Houston, cities have caught up with heavy precipitation events in much fiercer ways than ever before.

Urban infrastructures have been found grossly lacking to adapt to climate induced disasters such as heavy rainfall and the consequent floods

C

Ranjan K Panda Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India

40 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

limate change, no doubt, is at the centre of this but the way we are planning our cities too is to blame largely for the devastation. Is there a solution at sight?

I don’t think anyone has an answer to this right at the moment.

Technological advancement is certainly making us more aware about the kind of disasters we are facing and their probable impacts. Be it depression or hurricanes, our forecasting has increased even though accuracy of the predictions is still facing lot of questions. Similarly our preparation efforts have improved. That’s the reason evacuation drives have become better and deaths have reduced. But there are some disturbing results that have come to be known and yet we are not prepared to face them the way we would want to.

On Monday, September 4th, Chris Milliner of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory tweeted with a satellite image that shows in a simple map that the whole Houston area had been pushed down roughly two centimetres by the weight of the water that fell during Hurricane Harvey. The Atlantic reported it, adding, “Why this would happen is simpler than you might think. A gallon of water weighs about 8.34 pounds. And by one estimate, Harvey dropped 33 trillion gallons of water across the area it hit. So that’s roughly 275 trillion pounds”. That can have a lot of devastating effects for which our city planners – howsoever economically and technologically advanced they may be – would not be prepared as yet.

After Katrina, that devastated the New Orleans in 2005, Harvey - in August 2017 - was the first hurricane

Urban Floods | Article

of Category 3 or above. Harvey that hit Houston and nearby cities between 24th and 31st August - was more dangerous in the sense it stayed put for almost a week and lashed a lot of rain and was unlike otherhurricanes.

Weather scientists opine that tropical storms normally don’t dump this much rain into one area. Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization, in a United Nations briefing in Geneva said that Tropical Storm Harvey was probably linked to climate change associated with global warming that increases the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. “Climate change means that when we do have an event like Harvey, the rainfall amounts are likely to be higher than they would have been otherwise,” Clare further said. Rainfall across Houston and nearby cities went up to 50 inches or 1.2 meters. The previous all-time record for US was set in Texas back in 1899 and was estimated at 21.39 inches said NielsenGammon as reported in news sites. He is a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University and Texas State Climatologist.

Mumbai paralysed

India’s financial capital and the most happening city of India is not new to heavy rainfall. Being a low lying and saucer area on the Arabian Sea coasts, it’s almost regularly flooded. But the floods of the city got global attention in July 2005 when it received 944 cm (more than 37 inches) just in a span of 24 hours. More than 500 people died (some estimates put it at more than thousand); the city got chocked and went out of gear for almost a week.

The city was supposed to have learnt a lesson from the same. However, this August, when it received only about one third of what it had received in 2005, it chocked and life got paralysed.

On 29th August, between 8:30 am and 8:30 pm, the Santacruz observatory recorded 315.8 mm of rainfall between 8:30 am and 8:30 pm. Other parts of the city received somewhere less than that but still very heavy for a city which had already received more than

average rainfall since June while the country’s average monsoon rainfall was little short of normal. Commuters got stranded as all public transport including metro trains got halted, power was out in most parts of the city, a building collapsed killing about 21 people, a famous doctor of the city died by getting drained into a sewer manhole, and about 7 more people were dead. That’s the extent of damage one can get from collating various newspaper reports. The real figures of devastation could be much worse.

Cities in South Asia affected

Just a week before the Mumbai deluge, Chandigarh had received 112 mm of rainfall, that’s almost 23 times of what it should have received on an average monsoon day. A week before that, Bengaluru had received 37 times more than an average day’s rainfall on a single day. Agartala too had received heavy rainfall consecutively for three days in August second week, bringing the city to a complete halt.

In July last week, Ahmedabad city had similar fate and faced huge floods due to 200 mm of rainfall in just 24hours. It was reported that this year monsoon-induced floods have killed more than 1200 people across India, Bangladesh and Nepal. More than 40 million people have been affected in the region.

Monsoon shrinks, extremerainfall increases

Studies find that the volume of monsoon rainfall – that provides 85 per cent of total rainfall in India – has declined in recent decades. However, the incidences of sudden torrential rainfalls have increased. A study by Stanford scientists, published in the Nature Climate Change journal, reveals that the intensity of extremely wet spells and the number of extremely dry spells during the South Asian monsoon season have both been increasing in recent decades. According to the researchers, short periods of very heavy rainfall can create humanitarian disasters, such as in 2005, when massive flooding killed thousands of

people in Mumbai.

When the team analysed data gathered by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and other sources over a 60-year period and used rigorous statistical methods to compare peak monsoon rainfall patterns during two time periods: from 1951 to 1980, and from 1981 to 2011. They looked specifically at rainfall during the months of July and August, which is the peak of the South Asian summer monsoon focussing on Central India and discovered that although the average total rainfall during the monsoon season has declined, the variability of rainfall during the peak monsoon months has increased. The researchers observed increases in the intensity of wet spells and in the frequency of dry spells, the Stanford School of Earth Sciences reported.

Things are going to be worse

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. It further warned that by the 2070s Mumbai and Kolkata would be two of the most vulnerable cities at risk due to climate change in terms of population and assets exposed to coastal flooding. Both these cities will face annual loss of $6.4 billion and Kolkata $3.4 billion respectively by 2050 due to flooding even if they put in upgraded protection systems at place, says a World Bank study.

Houston in the USA is known for unabated construction. Mumbai too has been obsessed with concretisation.

We have been destroying our wetlands, rivers, forests and flood plains that would give us ample cushioning to absorb extreme rainfall events.

Ironically, even the most modern and latest concept of urban development i.e. Smart City, does not incorporate ecological planning. If we continue with business as usual, our cities will soon be forcefully recrafted by climate induced disasters.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

41

VELO-CITY | Lucknow

R

aphael Susewind and Christopher B. Taylor describe it brilliantly in their essay on Lucknow.

They say “Lucknow’s Islamicate old city in contemporary times as a place where North India’s beleaguered Muslim minority negotiates between their remembered

cosmopolitan past and a present burdened by structural violence and communal riots—blending (rather than choosing between) modernity and tradition, cosmopolitanism and provinciality, melancholia and aspirations, history and future.”

The fantastic thing about Lucknow is that you go anywhere, history is visible.

Sadly at times it goes unnoticed.

The residents of the city, in spite of urbanization which is happening with elan do not allow that to affect their day to day life. You cannot take the past away from this city. Past still continues to influence current events. This is clearly visible in the manner locals lead their daily lives.

City of Nawabs and now the New Nawabs: Historic City of Lucknow Lucknow has always been known as a city of ‘Nawabs’. But over the times it has come to be known as city of new elites, holding nostalgia for Islamic past and seeking better future. The city has undergone changes. The city also has grown numerically, expanded exponentially but still has remained absent from discourse of urban India. One of the reasons is that the city is trying to blend tradition and modernity Kumar Dhananjay | Consulting Editor

42 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

Lucknow: History in Past and Making

While we talk about nawabs and Islamic past of the city, the legends attribute origin of Lucknow to Lakshman, brother of god Ram. LakhmanTila and Lakhna area of the old city still retains this historical stamp. At the same time it is also known as court of nawabs. It was in year 1775 when Asaf al-Dawlah decided to move the seat of Awadh government from Faizabad to Lucknow. Academicians, tourists and visitors with interest in the city have always praised, liked and marveled at its palaces and other destinations.

It is not surprising that its habitants remember Lucknow as a global and world class city. This is a city that surpassed Delhi during 18th and 19th centuries. As far back in history as 1856, its population was more than a million. It remained the largest city of India other than the three major presidencies of India that was Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai (then named as Calcutta, Madras and Bombay). At one point of time Lucknow was larger than any city of America.

Cultural reminiscences

Lucknow maintained its territorial and cultural integrity even after the decline of Mughal rule in India. Raphael Susewind and Christopher B. Taylor describe Lucknow as ”cosmopolitan blend of world civilisations under the urbane rule of the Nawabs, still visible in its art and architecture today; Edwardian verandas grace local houses that also have square Hindu-temple door frames, a Japanese pagoda covers a manor’s outbuilding, and Persian motifs are etched in numerous mosques of the era”. The city literati have immensely contributed to Hindustani and Urdu that shaped the development of literature in North India.

The City of Monuments

The famous two hundred feet ghantaghar (clock tower) looks over the Roomi Darwaza , the historical entrance to the city. It was built in eighteen hundred eighty one. During the

colonial rule Lucknow was reimagined by the rulers and it was connected with other parts of British India politically and through infrastructure particularly rail network.

Railway network needed exact time keeping hence the clock tower was built.

Bada Imambara and Chhota Imambara are the two places that is must for any visitor. BadaI mambara is also known as Asfi Imambara named after the Nawab of Lucknow who got it built.

This is also famous for ‘bhulbhullaiya ‘located at the upper floor of the monument. Chhota Imambara or the Imambara of Hussainabad is located in the old city. It’s one of the most elegant monuments. Built in 19th century, Chhota Imambara is also known as the palace of lights because of its decoration and chandeliers during festivals. If you happen to be in the city during the festive season, you come back with everlasting impression of this monument.

Not to be Missed Markets

The central shopping centre of Lucknow, Hazratganj has a long history behind it.

Though it has undergone makeover, it still bridges the past and present and remains city’s central shopping arcade.

Locals continue to take pride in the place and boast about it. Though many malls have come up,the place has not lost its charm. The place is named after Queen Hazrat Mahal of Awadh. From clothes to souvenirs to famous hand made products you can get everything here. Celebrated film producer, actor and director Tigmanshu Dhuliya, who spent a few years of his student life in the city says interestingly that “It’s all about feeling connected with one’s city.

We don’t go there to shop. We go there to relax and meet friends and spend good time. What adds to the experience is the restaurants and eateries. You can roam around the place for hours eating and drinking from one place to another.”

Lucknow’s New Face and Its New Nawabs

The old world charm of Lucknow is under threat and faces a peculiar

challenge. The new Lakhnavi has access to all modern ingredients of life. Swanky malls, exclusive outlets, restaurants, fitness centres, lifestyle stores, luxury cars, they have it all. It has new young professionals.

There is phenomenal rise in clubbing.

Clubs in the city are basking in the glory and it has captivated the spirits of the young. So much so that golf club has a waiting list of two years. Club life has become a status symbol like any other city where people are willing to pay in lakhs for membership. If you are willing to pay, every luxury is available in Lucknow today, and professionals from across the country are enjoying it. People say that it’s a reflection of the city’s character to adopt new people, trends and culture. So the new Nawabs like to de-stress and unwind themselves with tequila shots, smoke and later on the dance floor. The moto is clear, work hard and party harder.

The new Lucknow is vibrant but that somehow does not go well with the elderly. This new culture has still not gone down well with them. Nawab Jafar Mir Abdullah, a descendent of royal family of Awadh, looks at it from the glass of ‘tehzeeb’ and ‘tameez’.

He rues that ‘children today may be educated but are not well groomed.

And when grooming is compromised, there can be no etiquette.’

Saeed Naqvi, veteran journalist, says that ”city has given gangajamuni tahzeeb to the country. King of Lucknow Wajid Ali Shah not only protected the Krishna Lila but also participated in it and danced as Radha.

The great grandfather of BirjuMaharaj used to play Krishna”.

The City may have changed over the years. But it still carries the same charm of meeting each other. After the partition, the country witnessed a lot of riots but not a single one in Lucknow.

The reason is that the city always celebrated diversity and this has always been part of its psyche. Finally, as the saying goes ‘you can take a Lakhnavi out of Lucknow but taking Lucknow out of a Lakhnavi is impossible’. That spirit and its cosmopolitan culture to embrace diversity must be preserved.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

43

BOOK REVIEW | Innovation in cities

Coal and its shady politics Abhilash Khandekar | Sr Journalist

C

oal may not be an urban topic strictly speaking yet without the black mineral, no Indian city can light itself, for at least a few more decades, notwithstanding

44 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

impending energy policy. When we finally turn to green energy in the wake of Paris climate agreement, it would be many years from now. Well, the much less attractive substance for a book became a hot topic thanks to criminal, political and legal angles attached to coal in the past few years in India, it surely became highly readable stuff. In the absence of a transparent, fair and commercially viable policy for a major mineral like coal, the UPA government headed by the celebrated economist Dr Manmohan Singh, had to undergo unprecedented criticism. Eventually

the ‘Coalgate scam’ contributed its bit to the ouster of the government at the Center, besides many other political fall outs and personal indignation that was caused to Dr Singh.

Although coal has been an important source of energy for the rich as well as the poor, it was seldom thought to be a topic for a full-fledged book. Thanks to the Indian coal scam that unfolded in the last few years of UPA-II, a number of books were authored on coal related issues. The one being reviewed here does not talk only about the scandal but gives us rich history of the black mineral often termed as ‘black gold’ considering its high value significance in the 21st century energy-guzzling economy.

It also deals with the politics of coal and covers the energy scenario as a consequence, beautifully. In my opinion every educated urban individual should know the murky sector of coal which is now being ‘cleaned up’ by Narendra Modi and Piyush Goyal. Former CAG Vinod Rai has authored a book from an auditor’s point of view and PC Parakh, the former coal secretary (2004-2005) had also authored a book after he had retired. He was considered the first whistle blower in a public policy issue concerning coal deals but was also named by the CBI as accused in the scam, along with Dr Singh.

Bhattacharjee’s book is captivating due to the fact that it gives the reader a historical perspective from the days when coal was first found near Damodar river’s right bank in Bengal by the British geologists, to Mozambique’s Zambezi river which is one of Africa’s largest rivers and known for coal reserves nearby. The ‘policy paralysis’ which had afflicted Dr Singh’s government had also impacted the public sector coal industry which in turn had hit hard the private entrepreneurs. The nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists had give birth to the multicrore rupees scam. For want of a clear

policy to exploit huge amount of coal ‘Mother India’ had in her bowels, Indian industrialists had to go all the way to Mozambique, Australia and Indonesia to import costly coal. The critical raw material for energy production and other activities crucial for economic growth was simply not ‘available’ at home. But when discretionary quota was opened up, leading business houses stood to benefit from it first. And, pay through their nose later. That is the story captured in the 266 pages by the author, a former government employee turned journalist.

Reading this book not only makes you wiser about coal sector as a whole but also about technology, economics, energy needs, politics and history around this mineral, preciousness of which was seldom realised in its fullest sense before the scam-at least, by the common people of India. This book uncovers many little known incidents and knits them well for a lay reader to give us the extent of the entire story.

The journalist-author got to know very many details as the coal story started exploding in the newsrooms from 2010 onwards. It is pretty interesting to note that India’s first Industry and Supply Minister Shyama Prasad Mookerjee had understood well its key role soon after independence and wrote in his first industrial policy that State’s intervention was required in mining coal and oil-the two yet to be untapped energy resources. Though Mukherjee could not fulfill the task nor did PM Nehru, it was Mohan Kumarmangalam as Industry Minister under Indira Gandhi who nationalised coal, just a day before his death in an air crash in May 1973.

The author takes us from all such old time juicy stories to the scam’s height via a brief visit to Varanasi (the city lost its coal business to Nagpur in the last 15 years or so) which happened to be the hub centre of India’s coal market, though no coal is found beneath its soil. “India’s biggest coal-trading centre until the 1990s was Varanasi or Benares. The city is located at a fantastic geographical spot. Just south of the city rises the Mirzapur hills which descend

Book India’s Coal Story-from Damodar to Zambezi Author Subhomoy Bhattacharjee Publisher Sage Publications Pages 266 Price Rs 450/-

Good

Reads

Rating Buy for personal library

into India’s coal country further ahead around Singrauli in MP. It is also just an overnight journey from Dhanbad, the capital of coking coal mines in the east”, writes the author as he begins to tell us about the ‘coal on sale’ saga. In between, we get glimpses of how the French technology had aided Japan to start its first bullet train (TokyoOsaka) run on electricity in 1964 and coal-fired engines were no longer required thereafter. India was then producing locomotives at Chittaranjan and also thought of scrapping of the same if they got the modern electric technology from Japan to run its trains.

The story goes that both the Japanese and the French (under a European consortium), competed against each other to convince Indian Railway Board Chairman Karnail Singh of their better side and competence. But the European consortium won the bid to electrify the trains. Chittaranjan’s last coal-fired rail engine was thus produced in 1970.

The authortalks in great and absorbing narrative skills about how CBI started probing the UPA’s scamin 2015-almost 10 years later-former PM Dr Singh got summons to appear in a Special CBI Court in Delhi for granting

a coal mine to Kumarmangalam Birla’s Hindalco being the in-charge coal minister, and the strong Nagpur connection of the coal scam, etc.. He also points out that during Narasimha Rao and Deve Gowda’s regimes, coal blocks were allotted to private firms but no accusations were made, the way they were made when the discretionary quota route was adopted in allotting 218 coal blocks allegedly against huge financial considerations.

The author gives glimpses of the coal economy and the bank stocks getting dented after Supreme Court order of 25th September 2014. SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB, Union Bank and ICICI shares nosedived. Both private sector and public sectors were jolted by the coal scam.

Most of the large Indian business conglomerates such as Tata, Aditya Birla group, JSW, JSPL, Essar, Vedanta, ArcelorMittal and Nagpur’s Jayaswal are named in the book as among those who either got a coal block or were in the race while we, the readers, get the rare insight into the full blown politicolegal drama that played out in Delhi for a few years-in the courts of Delhi and in the newsrooms across India.

www.urbanupdate.in | September 2017

45

URBAN AGENDA | S

Encourage local innovations

C

ities are in desperate want of innovations to solve the emerging problems ranging from waste management, congestion on roads, housing, sanitation, high levels of pollution to negative impacts of climate change. Our magazine has been writing about several technological innovations that are aimed at improving the efficiency of urban eco systems. Whether it is Smog Sucking Towers to reduce air pollution or elevated buses to decongest roads, the world has seen plenty of innovations to address urban issues. But innovations are not just limited to technological inventions; many cities have come out with simple,practical but innovative solutions to address local issues. Such issues can be common in many other cities and learning from those local interventions can benefit not just the city but also others that are facing similar problems.

Almost every city is focusing on its own problems and trying to come out with solutions to ensure smooth running of their day-to-day activities.

Take the example of Seoul, Korea.

The city transformed its elevated highway into pedestrian walkway.

They reclaimed the street from cars for pedestrians. It was a wonderful initiative and was replicated in many places across the city. One can go from one end of Seoul to the other without crossing a pathway for cars.

Government of India has also focused on encouraging innovations and better knowledge sharing among different stakeholders through many initiatives at national and local level.

Urban Local Bodies are also engaging community players in improving urban management system. Taking a cue from

46 September 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

various global cities in utilizing public data for improving civic services, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has invited citizens to come up with solutions for the problems the city was facing. Many youngsters have participated and submitted their inventions through which they intended to solve many civic issues.

Government of India also organised a conference on Urban Innovations in 2013. According to the outcomes of the conference, the experts proposed the flow of urban assistance to States/ Cities need to be linked after a convincing spatial plan of the city is prepared.

The conference has also underlined that Urban Climate Change Resilience should be mainstreamed across policies and Capacity Building needs to be recognized as one of the key areas to be addressed urgently across sectors.

We are still unsure how many of these suggestions were actually implemented on ground because the state of affairs in cities has not changed. We are still trying to find solutions to basic problems such as waste disposal. As we write this story about urban innovation, India’s capital city is trying to find out a solution to dispose of its waste ‘scientifically’ after Ghazipur Landfill Site collapsed and cost two human lives. The question is why do Municipal Corporations in Delhi not taking any concrete steps to solve this problem while the court had asked them to find an alternative solution 15 years ago? A city like Delhi cannot complain of not having access to innovative ideas and technologies.

Innovative ideas and inventions to solve urban crisis are welcome but we do need to find some innovation in how we can implement such ideas on ground for bringing about the change we are striving for.

Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor bhau1008@gmail.com

AIILSG has a footprint across the value chain in urban transformation.

Our areas of functioning involve creating and appraising DPRs, monitoring & evaluation and capacity building under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) The institute is active in

1560

200 cities of 11 states

In 2016-17 training workshops Municipal officials/employees trained

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All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) whole heartedly supports Swachh Bharat Mission and is committed to play a proactive role to realise its objectives.

The institute is organising regular orientation workshops on SBM to augment the capacity of ULBs and also generating public awareness on cleanliness

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