Urban Planning & Issues

[Krishnamoorthy K]

“There is a an almost uncanny fit between India’s needs in the urban water arena, and what Israeli companies are able to offer,” so says Abraham Tenne, VP Desalination at Israel’s Water Authority following a visit last week to India. The visit was one implementation of an agreement signed this past February between the two nations aimed at fostering cooperation, with a focus on urban water management.

The delegation of Israeli water experts included, in addition to Tenne, Oded Distel, head of Israel NewTech, Zohar Yinon, CEO of the Jerusalem Water Authority “Hagihon” , and Elisha Arad of the Standards Institute of Israel.

The experts toured the Raipur water system, as guests of Taran Prakash Sinha, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation Raipur. Raipur is the capital city of the state of Chhattisgarh, with a population of over a million, and its urban water system is in need of a major transformation. The Indian participants in the Raipur visit were very interested in learning from Israel’s experience in the management of water systems and urban wastewater.

Following this visit, the delegation continued on to Delhi, for a seminar sponsored by the Indian Ministry of Urban PlanningOded Distel tours Raipur water system. The seminar was attended by 50 representatives of urban water utilities from all over India.

We spoke with Oded Distel just after the event. “India presents huge challenges in urban water planning. First and foremost, a change in ‘concept’ is needed, one in which people begin to perceive water as the precious resource that it is.” Distel continued, “Once this change in perception occurs, then changes can be achieved in urban water supply, management, measurement, pricing and collection. This is a very dramatic change, but the community of Indian urban water professionals appears poised to make it.”

Abraham Tenne of the Israel Water Authority also told us about the Delhi conference. “India today is roughly in the situation in which Israel was 10 or so years ago, with 12 different government ministries responsible for urban water. This created a lot of confusion and inefficiency, which was solved when water treatment was placed under the leadership of the Water Authority. The Indian water community looks to Israel as a sort of guru, they know the Israeli water industry very well and hold it in very high regard.”

The Delhi conference included one on one meetings between the many Indian water professionals and water utility heads who attended, and the Israeli water technology companies who came to India on the delegation: Bermad, Ari, Amiad, Mekorot, Tahal, Powercom, LR, Mira Holdings, Aqwise and Arad.

Israeli Delegation tours India

Yoni Ben Zaken, the Israeli Economic Attache in India, concluded, “Raipur is a starting point, but there are 600 more cities in India with a similar urban water situation and needs, so the market potential is very significant.”

Israel New Tech

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Subhash Pathak`, Hindustan Times
Patna, December 17, 2012

After enacting the Bihar urban planning and development bill 2012, the urban development department has proposed setting up the Bihar urban planning and development board. It would frame policies and suggest guidelines for integrated growth of municipal areas of Patna and other cities. To be headed by the development commissioner, the board will assist the government to identify planning areas and plan growth strategies in line with suggestions made by different planning authorities to be constituted at district levels. Secretaries and principal secretaries of concerned departments like urban development, registration, building and road construction, revenue and land reforms, public health and engineering departments are like to serve as members.

Confirming the plan, urban development minister Prem Kumar said, planning authorities of different districts comprising district magistrates, would be tasked to prepare land use maps and register. It would help the board frame the master plan of development of the cities with a futuristic vision of 20 years and more.

“In turn, the planning and development board would notify the planning areas and peripheries of each city, which would form the basis of the master plans,” he added.

Once the maps and register of usable land in the districts is finalized, the board authorities will notify nomenclature of land as per their usage such as residential, commercial, green, disaster-prone, etc. Accordingly, the development strategies would be finalized in consultation with reputed firms for comprehensive growth of different cities.

In accordance with provisions of the act, the government would ask district-level planning authorities to prepare maps and register within two years. Revenue and land reforms wings would act in tandem to ensure preparation of error free maps along with proper coordinates. “In case of any dispute related to usable land map and register, the aggrieved party would have the right to approach the appellate authority in their respective districts,” he said.

Widening of existing roadsmajor thoroughfares, lanes and by-lanes, improvement of infrastructure, finalization of layout of existing and proposed residential colonies, commercial complexes and satellite townships, provisioning of water supply system, development of sewerage and drainage system, houses for poor, etc, are some of the development strategies the board would seek to implement in the long term.

The board, the minister said, would also try to reorganize layout of land owned by raiyats for better landscaping and use. However, the landowner would be compensated for any portion of land acquired for the purpose.

Besides, the department would also constitute an urban arts and heritage commission, to look after and protect the articles and premises of archaeological and historic significance.

HT

[Krishnamoorthy K]

CHANDIGARH: The UT urban planning department on Wednesday officially submitted the draft master plan, which was being prepared for the last three years. However, due to minor technicalities like missing signatures of members of the master plan committee, 10 more days have been given to the department.

The master plan comprises several vital recommendations like relocating buildings at Sector 17, which are not compatible with its function, to enable the entire sector to be a 'vibrant whole rather than being just a portion of it.' The sector will be invigorated with incidental shopping, earmarked street vending zones, food courts and amphitheatres.

Besides, decades old government houses located in various sectors of the city occupying prime land are all set to be extended to accommodate more population in the land-starved city.

As per the master plan of Chandigarh, redensification of these government houses would be done and the new forms would be designed to be energy efficient, with adequate parking facilities and of an architectural character in accordance with the Chandigarh style of architecture.

Pockets of hosing areas identified for redensification are in the interiors of sectors 10, 11, 15, 19, 20, 23, 24, 27, 28 and 29. These houses are around six decades old and are occupied by the employees of central government, state governments of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

TOI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Vibhor Mohan, TNN Dec 18, 2012, 05.33AM IST

CHANDIGARH: The city's concrete buildings are set to wear a cleaner look, as UT administration has decided to involve traders for carrying out cleaning, scrubbing and preservation of the facade of buildings in the commercial areas. There is a separate plan for preservation of the heritage buildings located in the Capitol Complex and the educational institutions of Chandigarh.

The urban planning department, as part of its plan to revitalize the shopping areas, has not given a go ahead to the traders' long pending demand for permission to paint the concrete buildings. However, the buildings will be made free of oxidation and other marks of decaying.

Amarjeet Singh, a showroom owner in Sector 17, said over the years the facade of the buildings has got oxidized and now wore a shabby look.

In 2010, the administration had even decided to try out three to four shades of paint on one structure and scrub another part of it to decide which option was better. But the plan never worked out.

Meanwhile, experts of Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee, have been roped in by the administration to help preserve the heritage buildings in Capitol Complex, besides working out a plan to make these earthquake resistant.

The Capitol Complex includes the Civil Secretariat, Assembly Hall, Open Hand Monument and Punjab and Haryana high court.

The administration has also asked CBRI to calculate the estimated life of these structures given the strength of the pillars and beams. The issue of maintaining uniformity of colour of the external facade, to ensure that the patch work does not result in an untidy look to the buildings is also being looked into. At places where the concrete has been painted, scrapping and wire brushing will be done.

At several places in the Capitol Complex, unauthorized modifications in the exterior of the buildings have been made by the departments housed there using steel frames and grills and these too, will be removed as part of the restoration.

TOI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

CHANDIGARH: For the convenience of visitors, UT has decided to introduce separate zones for long-term and short-term parking in market areas here, as is done at international airports.

The system, which will be introduced initially at the Sector 34 commercial complex, will also provide proper space for a sizeable number of cars of showroom owners parked for almost the entire day right in front of their premises. "As of now, there is no clear cut distinction between long-term and short-term parking, which is required for the convenience of visitors," says the plan prepared by the urban planning department.

"It is a good idea, provided it works out properly to ensure that people who come with drivers or differently-abled are not put to any inconvenience. Cars that are parked for the entire day do eat up a lot of parking space," said M P S Chawla, former chairman of municipal corporation's committee on parking.

Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) has warned that there is practically no scope for further widening of V3 roads, except some geometric improvements at junctions. Further, if traffic grows at the existing pace, major road networks will get choked in the following decade. Therefore, to overcome the problem, a citywide mass transport system is needed urgently.

The share of slow-moving vehicles varies from 13% to 28% and the average is about 19%. The share of bus traffic has an average of about 1.9%. The fast-moving passenger vehicles predominantly comprise two-wheelers, cars and autorickshaws, while slow vehicles comprise cycles and cycle-rickshaws.

It is seen that the share of two-wheelers and autos in total traffic is maximum at most locations. Share of goods traffic varies from 0.5% to 10% and the average goods traffic in the study area is about 3%, reveals a survey done by the traffic police

To highlight the magnitude of overdependence on private vehicles, RITES took a count of vehicles crossing from different locations in the city and found that nearly 84% were private vehicles. Major development has been proposed in suburban towns of Chandigarh urban complex and this is likely to further increase traffic density. There will be need to provide adequate and quality commuter service to these towns from UT, reads the survey report.

TOI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Thursday, 20 December 2012 19:03
Nishu Mahajan | Chandigarh

The UT administration has got down to brass tacks to alleviate the traffic woes in Chandigarh Urban Complex comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula.

After initiating work for the ambitious tricity Metro project, the UT administration has hit the ground running in the projects like BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) corridor, improvement and development of pedestrian path and other non-motorized transport, new links and bypasses, traffic signage, lane marking among others on the critical traffic intersections here.

For this, the UT administration will once again deliberate on the nitty-gritty details of the report submitted by Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES).

The RITES report consisted of development of formulae (or transport models), enabling forecast of travel demand on busy intersections, and development of alternative strategies for handling this demand. A series of inter-linked and interrelated models of varying levels of complexity, dealing with different facets of travel demand were proposed in the report.

Looking at the complexities in RITES report, the UT administration is now considering hiring consultants or approaching RITES again to check the feasibility and work out the details of various proposals for critical junctions here. An in-house study jointly by UT Engineering Department and UT Urban Planning Department to weigh the pros and cons of these proposals in the report is also under consideration.

As per the UT officials, proposals pertaining to the major junctions only will be taken into consideration for further planning. Many of the junctions here need immediate grade separation and improvement to reduce the traffic congestion. To ease the traffic congestion at major junctions namely Housing Board Chowk, Tribune Chowk, Transport Nagar Chowk, Railway Station Chowk among others is on the priority list of the administration now.

Recently, the UT Administration also held talks with the officials of the RITES on the issue.

According to the RITES report, the locations which exhibit high traffic volumes (more than 100,000 Passenger Car Units) are Housing Board Chowk, Chandigarh Railway Station Intersection, Tribune Chowk and rotary of Dakshin Marg and Sukhna Path

As per the report, locations namely Rotary on Sukhna Path Sector -49&50, Madhya Marg near Timber Market, Chandigarh Railway Station Intersection, Rotary of Madhya Marg and Sukhna Path, Sector -43 Chandigarh ISBT has highest traffic flow during morning and evening peak hours. The report had proposed to provide substantially large network of medium level mass transport system such as BRT in Chandigarh to cover the areas beyond the Metro network and on over loaded corridors.

10 BRT corridors including Housing Board Chowk-Sector 1 Panchkula-Zirakpur of 14 km length, Police Housing Complex-Zirakpur- (Along Dakshin Marg) of 18 km length among others were proposed in the report. The report had also suggested underpasses at various locations and ban on few turning movements and geometric improvement in the city.

The report had observed daily traffic volume (16 hours) at various intersections. At Housing Board Chowk, total vehicles of 148481 including 133499 passenger car units (PCUs); at Rotary of Dakshin Marg and Purv Marg near Sector-31 (Tribune Chowk) total vehicles of 143170 including 135805 PCUs were observed. At Madhya Marg near Timber Market, traffic volume of 145157 vehicles including 143123 PCUs and at Chandigarh Railway Station Intersection, 141366 total vehicles including 133143 PCUs were observed during the study.

While talking to The Pioneer, KK Sharma, Adviser to UT administrator said, “The administration is looking into the recommendations of RITES report. The proposals for major intersections would be studied again.”

He added, “There are a number of proposals including BRT corridor, underpasses, pedestrian lanes and others in the report. All such proposals will be looked into and the work concerning the same would go simultaneously with the Metro Project.”

Daily Pioneer

[Krishnamoorthy K]

It has been set up as per Karnataka State Pollution Control Board’s guidelines


At present, the biomedical waste facility is collecting waste only from hospitals in Bijapur city. It will soon be extended to hospitals located in a 100-km radius around the city.

To ensure effective disposal of biomedical waste, the district chapter of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments’ Association (KPMEA) has set up a common biomedical waste facility on the outskirts of the city.

The association has contributed around Rs. 1 crore for the facility, which has been set up as per the directive of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to government and private hospitals for the proper management of hospital waste.

Board guidelines

“As per the guidelines, such a facility should be established in each district. The association volunteered to set up the facility here with the help of the KSPCB and the district administration,” said Priyadarshini Patil, president of KPMEA.

Speaking to presspersons here on Monday, she said that the city had around 120 hospitals and 111 clinics that generated around 140 kg of biomedical waste every day.

Earlier, in the absence of such a facility, the waste was buried, which was not a proper way to dispose of it.

“Considering this, the association borrowed funds from doctors,” Dr. Patil said.

Elaborating on the facility, she said that as per the guidelines, every hospital should pay Rs. 5.40/per bed/day for collecting and disposing of biomedical waste.

The association had four vehicles that collected the waste every day.

Disposal of waste

Dr. Patil explained that at the facility, the waste was disposed of in different ways.

“While anatomical waste is incinerated, other waste such as plastic is shredded and sent to recycling units,” she said.

She said that at present, the facility was collecting waste only from hospitals in the city.

However, it will soon be extended to hospitals located in a 100-km radius around the city.

Dr. Patil said the biomedical waste facility would be formally inaugurated on December 27.

Office-bearers of the association were present.

* ‘Around 140 kg of biomedical waste is generated in the city every day’
* ‘The facility will be formally inaugurated on Thursday’

TH

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Radheshyam Jadhav, TNN Dec 21, 2012, 04.21AM IST

PUNE: With the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) pointing out deficiencies in implementation of JNNURM projects, the Central government has issued advisory to the states for following the proper procedure while implementing the projects.

In its report on performance audit of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the CAG has pointed out certain deficiencies in implementation of projects across the states, including Maharashtra. According to the information provided by the Union urban development department (UDD), the CAG report has mentioned that projects approved under the JNNURM are delayed due to various reasons, including deficiencies in awarding works.

"Water supply, sewerage, storm water drainage, and roads and flyovers projects are getting delayed because of non-availability of land and lack of clearances, apart from deficiencies in awarding of work and a few cases of unauthorized and irregular expenditure. It has (CAG) also mentioned that due to the delays, there were blockages of funds meant for purchase of machinery/equipment," states a press statement issued by the central government issued on Wednesday.

The CAG report is likely to snowball into a major issue as the activists and politicians in the city are planning to take up the matter with the state government.

The projects under the JNNURM are implemented by the state governments through the local bodies. Advisories have been issued to the state governments for following the proper procedure while implementing the projects.

The JNNURM was launched in December 2005 with the objective of reforms-driven and fast-track development of cities, with focus on bringing about efficiency in urban infrastructure, service delivery mechanisms, community participation and accountability of urban local bodies and parastatal agencies towards citizens.

It has two components, namely, the urban infrastructure and governance and the urban infrastructure development scheme for small and medium towns. As many as 65 cities are covered under the urban infrastructure and governance component, based on the population as per the 2001 Census.

TOI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

By Tavleen Singh on December 16, 2012



This week I write from Thimpu. And, before you begin to think this is going to be just another travelogue about finding Shangri La I would like to clarify that this is not that kind of piece and my reason for writing it is very different. It is to show how much we in India can learn from this tiny Himalayan kingdom that for centuries remained isolated from the world. In case you are already beginning to think it is bizarre to suggest that mighty India should learn anything from little Bhutan, let me give you some context.

In the past two decades there is much in India that has changed for the better. A huge middle class has come into being that is acutely conscious of the failings of our political leaders. This is good. In our cities there is more prosperity than there has ever been before. This is good.* And, even in rural parts there are few places left where poverty is so horrific that one failed crop can lead to starvation deaths on a large scale. This is good. There may not have been as much improvement in standards of education but at least everyone now wants to send their children to school and this is in itself a big change. But, in the process of India’s engagement with modernity and change huge new problems have been born and it is here that we can learn from Bhutan.

I became aware of this the moment I landed at Paro airport and saw that the people who designed the airport had ensured that it preserved a Bhutanese aesthetic in its architecture. It resembles a traditional Bhutanese fortress from the outside and inside the terminal painted murals line the walls and on so ordinary a thing as the immigration desks there are small Bhutanese motifs. In India we should have been able to preserve something distinctive in the airports we have built in old cities like Jaipur and Hyderabad but we have not and this is sad. But, it was not till I got to Thimpu that I became aware of the first big lesson that India can learn from our tiny neighbor.

Thimpu is an exquisitely planned city that despite rapid modernisation in the past ten years has managed to retain a sense of order and cleanliness. I spent two days visiting temples, ancient paper factories, monasteries, a 16th century fortress and a mini zoo. I wandered through little alleys in the main bazaar and drove up to the highest point in the city where a magnificent brass statue of the Buddha has been built and nowhere on these wanderings did I see one heap of uncollected garbage or one unsightly slum.* When I compared this with our own cities and towns I could not help wondering why our town planners are so incapable of proper planning and why our municipal governments so incapable of ensuring basic standards of civic hygiene.

On Bhutan’s urbanisation answers came when I met the Minister of Economic Affairs who currently has additional charge of Foreign Affairs at a dinner on my second night in Thimpu. Mr. Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk told me that one of the governance reforms that had happened even in the time when Bhutan was an absolute monarchy was a devolution of administrative powers to elected representatives at a local level.* After the transition to a constitutional monarchy began in 2008 Thimpu got an elected Mayor and this has made all the difference.* When are policymakers in India going to realise that this is a reform we need to make urgently? Cities the size of Mumbai cannot be governed effectively by Chief Ministers so they deteriorate inevitably into centres of squalor and disease.

Mr. Wangchuk was a fund of information about all things Bhutanese. He told me about the changes that have happened since television and the Internet were allowed into a country that till 1999 was among the most isolated in the world.* He said that there had been a conscious effort to use the Internet for its more beneficial uses like e-governance and that television had been allowed in carefully.* I can report that if you want to see an exercise of India’s soft power all you need do is wander about the shops and restaurants in Thimpu and see how many people (especially women) are addicted to Indian TV serials. It is from them that they have learned a smattering of Hindi.

Tourism is another area in which India can learn a lesson or two from Bhutan. Today Bhutan attracts more than 100,000 foreign tourists a year and they have brought with them foreign exchange and modern ideas but because of the Bhutanese government’s emphasis on preservation of the country’s culture and its environment the degradation that has happened in popular Indian tourist destinations is not evident. The Minister said it was the wisdom of the fourth King, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, they had to thank for this. He had become conscious of the need for sustainable development decades before it became fashionable and worked with it always in mind.* Today 80 per cent of Bhutan retains its forest cover. Compare this with what is happening to forests in India and it makes you want to weep.

To end on a happy note may I say that the Taj Hotel in Thimpu is one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever stayed in anywhere in the world. Its architecture closely resembles ancient Bhutanese fortresses so it has high walls and a vast stone courtyard* with a Buddhist shrine in the middle of it. When guests arrive they are given the option of going down to the courtyard and receiving a blessing and a sacred thread from the resident lama. As I received my blessing on a cold grey evening last week I got the sense of being transported back in time to an older Bhutan of ancient rituals and secretive monasteries. This sense of magic stayed with me through the three days I spent in Bhutan and I could not help remembering that there was a time not so very long ago that there was this same sense of magic in so many parts of India. It now remains in very few but what does remain is something we need to hang on to while embracing newness and modernity. Bhutan shows how this can be done.
(Photo Courtesy: Marina and Enrique)

niticentral

[Krishnamoorthy K]

TNN | Dec 24, 2012, 12.33 AM IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: The entire Visakhapatnam-Rajahmundry-Vijayawada (VRV) region should be developed into a super city which can transform into a mature economy that provides residents a great place to live and also work in terms of GDP and other key social development and equity metrics, experts gathered at the Vizag-Bay Regional Economic Summit mooted.

Explaining the advantages of a VRV Super City, Gravity 2.0 Economics and Planning Society (G2EPS) co-founder Gopi Kumar Bulusu said, "Singapore has an area of 710 sq km with population of 14.3 million. VRV super city has 51,812 sq km area and a population of 22.9 million. With such huge land and human resources available, the GDP of the region could increase drastically." A VRV vision document released by G2EPS on the occasion, said that it had envisioned VRV as an economically integrated region that supports industries with high economic value addition and industries that create jobs in both urban and rural habitats within the super city.

While agreeing to the concept, executive director of Indian School of Business (ISB), Krishna Tanuku said it would be possible only through collective thinking as it needs committed people, who decide collectively to turn the region into a super city. Observing that road and rail transport will face land limitations in future, Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) chairman Ajeya Kallam said it was time to capitalise on the extensive coast and develop infrastructure in coastal towns to accommodate sea transport.

"Connect them (coastal towns) with infrastructure and give it to a wider section of people. Promote environmental friendly transport. Each small town needs to have jetties and space for boats to land," he explained, adding that if coasts are connected to highways and provided with sufficient storage space, the gains would maximise.

"Once the infrastructure is created, the region can be improved," he said, pointing out that several towns with optimal population levels should be created to ensure sustainable growth and improved quality of life.

TOI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

by Vinayak Chatterjee

Metro rails can be a solution in the top 20 cities, but not beyond, says Vinayak Chatterjee

Somewhere the equation is wrong because the moment we start talking about urban transportation, the conversation veers towards metros.

While looking at urban transportation, you must consider cycling tracks, bus services, bus rapid transport system (BRTS), and light rails, much like you find in European cities; and then there are regional rapid transportation systems (RRTS).

A metro is just one solution that is related to the size of the city’s population. There is a popular perception that towns with less than a five lakh population don’t merit a metro. Then there are other factors, such as population density, the ability to pay, and finally the intensity of commuter traffic. All these have to be taken into account for a metro rail to be viable in a city.

Of India’s 5,400 towns and cities, about 100 require a 21st century urban transportation system. To my mind, a city like Chandigarh is ideal for, more than a BRTS, an electric trolley bus. And then, of course, a big city requires an RRTS because the pattern is linked to the model of urbanisation.

There are three patterns of urbanisation. First is a corridor along which a city expands; for instance from Delhi to Manesar to Bawal. These are not even cities but one cluster after the other. Second, you have satellite cities. The third is a pattern of suburbanisation, where a city is concentrated and the circle is expanding. Gurgaon would have been called an instance of suburbanisation but now it is integrated.

All these patterns of urbanisation require interventions. For a concentric pattern, you require a metro. For satellite and sleeper towns, you require RRTS. And for corridor development, you probably require something of a metro or an equivalent that is split into corridors. I think this is the future of India.

If you consider 100 cities, you have to make choices. And the choices are also dependent on the availability of a carriage base. Trying to squeeze a BRTS ends in disaster. If we had a BRTS at Shantipath in Delhi or along the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar stretch, where there is a wide carriage base, it would have been an automatic success.

The Kolkata Metro did not create the kind of upswing (like the one created by the Delhi Metro) even though it is close to 30 years old. It is unfortunate that it has spawned a thought process in the public’s mind that they too need a metro.

A metro is an extremely capital-intensive project and has to meet all four parameters mentioned above. Many of our cities don’t.

The lesson for the future is: Don’t plan urban transport systems that don’t feed into each other. Today urban transport and city planning are seen as distinct divisions. They will have to merge.

Another aspect is financing. There is a big debate over whether metros should only be built by public enterprise. I think wherever a public-private-partnership (PPP) model is possible, it saves government expenditure. With revenues from ticket sales and real estate in and around stations, this can be made viable. Each case has to be examined individually. For instance, in an urban sprawl like Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore, you don’t have a choice but to go for a metro. That’s because you have private vehicles congesting roads.

The question is how to finance it? If you choose a PPP model, you need to have incentives to make it viable.

What are the other models? One is where the government funds 100 percent of it. The Kolkata Metro was an output of Indian Railways. The second model is the Delhi Metro, where there was a 50:50 cost split between the state and Central governments, topped with debt amortisation over a long period. The third model is that of the Hyderabad Metro, carried out through PPP.

You must also remember that all elevated structures are not metros. There are many lighter options. Monorail is one. They are good short distance connectors with lighter traffic handling and lower capital expenditure. They could be the main mode of transport for cities like Dehradun, Chandigarh and Bhopal. Ranchi or Raipur needs a light electric trolley bus system. There needs to be awareness about alternatives. If your city doesn’t support the capital expenditure involved in a metro then you should not consider it. The suburban model, the corridor model and the sleeper model need different types of urban transport solutions.

Today there is no construct; urban transport means a metro, which is not correct. For the top 20 cities, a metro is certainly a solution, but not beyond that.


(As told to Ashish K Mishra)

Vinayak Chatterjee, 53, is chairman and managing director of Feedback Ventures, an infrastructure consulting firm based in New Delhi. He is also chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s National Task Force on Regulatory Framework in Infrastructure.

forbesindia

Planning should also consider future needs. Population of Dehradun may not change much so light electric trolley bus system may be fine in future also. But, not sure how the cities like Chandigarh, Bhopal, Ranchi or Raipur grow. Transportation plan has to tally with the growth of the city. We need to plan for scalable transportation systems which can allow a city or a cluster of cities to transform from suburbanisation pattern to satellite pattern to corridor pattern. What I meant is cities should be allowed to transform from one pattern to another in a planned manner.

[Krishnamoorthy K]

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
Indore, December 17, 2012

Civic bosses are preparing to purchase machines which “can boldly go where no man has gone before. The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) isn’t however planning to embark on a space odyssey. Its machines will be focussed on a task decidedly less stratospheric; cleaning up
alleys.

Health department has rolled out a proposal to buy robots for cleaning the filth and muck-filled back lanes that sanitation workers, despite repeated exhortations, are reluctant to enter.

“We have decided to buy four robots (automated machines) to clean up back lanes. Tender documents for supplying the machines are being prepared and will be published in a day or two,” said Mayor-in- Council (MiC) member in charge of Health department Munnalal Yadav.

He, however, refuted allegations that the IMC was forced to rely on machines due to sanitation workers’ intransigence. “The back lanes are too narrow and cannot be approached by dumpers or JCBs so we decided to use robots,” he said.

Back lanes in scores of localities even in the supposedly posh areas of the city are piled high with refuse, leftovers, polythene bags and other flotsam-jetsam of urban living.

The situation is even worse in areas like Chandan Nagar where residents have raised the plinth level of their houses so that the structures stay above the filth which runs freely onto the streets during the rains.

Apart from the robots the Corporation has also decided to procure two vehicles for rounding up the everincreasing number of strays that roam the city roads, an ambulance to ferry wounded animals to the nearest veterinary hospital and 10 small vehicles for collecting garbage at the ward-level. Also on the purchase anvil is a vehicle that will be used by the meat inspection unit.

HT

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Rajat Arora: Meerut, Dec 20 2012, 00:57 IST

Meerut: The irony was not lost on anyone when Meerut, part of the ancient Harappan settlement renowned for its sophisticated drainage systems, was promised a decent sewerage system under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM) as late as 2005. The city seemed poised for a facelift after centuries of decrepit waste disposal infrastructure but, alas, that was not to be.

Seven years hence, even this modest project seems to have ground to a halt. With heaps of garbage lining its choked and dug-up roads, the project — expected to be commissioned by March 2012 —looks far from complete, adding to the city’s miseries.

The problem is partly with the JNNURM design, which overestimates the ability of local urban bodies to implement and monitor large infrastructure projects. The lack of capacity with local bodies and developers selected through competitive bidding has been conspicuous in Meerut, like in many other cities that have taken up projects under JNNURM.

Meerut mirrors the state of most of India’s 71 cities dreaming of transformation through JNNURM, the central government’s biggest urban development initiative, launched in 2005. Plagued by poor design and administration, many JNNURM projects have gone haywire, highlighting the need to restructure the ambitious scheme. In a recent report, Planning Commission member Arun Maira said the mission must be modified and relaunched as a 10-year Mission II, focussing on promoting financial sustainability and accountability of urban local bodies and incorporating schemes to attract private funds through public-private partnerships. Poor coordination between the two central ministries anchoring the scheme — ministry of urban development and ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation — has also played spoilsport.

JNNURM-I, whose original seven-year tenure ended in March 2012, had federal budgetary funding (allocation as grants-in-aid) of R66,000 crore, out of which Rs 37,000 crore has been released. Delays have led to cost overruns and with several projects incomplete, local bodies implementing the schemes are unable to raise revenues through user fees. The government has extended the scheme by two years to correct implementation flaws and complete projects which have failed to meet original schedules. In parallel, a JNNURM-II in in the works.

According to a recent CAG report, only 18% of JNNURM infrastructure projects in 71 cities were completed on time. The main thrust of the scheme is on infrastructure projects relating to water supply, sanitation, sewerage, solid waste management, road network, urban transport, redevelopment of old city areas and providing basic services to urban poor. There are two sub-missions under JNNURM — one for urban infrastructure and governance and another for providing basic services to urban poor.

Delays and shoddy work have been the culprits in many cases, as it is in Meerut. District magistrate Vikas Gothawal defended the scheme: “There are genuine reasons for the delay. Work slowed down for almost six months during state elections. As far as the quality of work is concerned, third-party inspections are being conducted and I don’t think the agency undertaking the work is incompetent,” he told a visiting team from FE.

However, Meerut’s housing project for the urban poor— which comes under integrated housing and slum development — is barely 30% complete. While digging is on for sewerage, there is little movement on an ambitious waste disposal plant, which was to start by 2009.

A Jal Nigam official told FE that the sewage network under construction lacks capacity and would collapse within a decade as population grows. This means a key mission objective – securing linkages between asset creation and maintenance for long-run project sustainability – is not being met.

The Meerut sewage project envisages laying 243 km of pipelines for waste disposal within municipal limits. The project, which was slated for completion by March 2012, now has a new deadline of September 2013. But given the pace of work and lackadaisical approach of implementing agencies, even the new deadline seems hard to achieve.

A city development plan of around Rs 1,400 crore was prepared for Meerut in 2006 under which around Rs 235 crore was to be allotted for the sewage network, Rs 341 crore for water supply and storm water drains, around Rs 25 crore for solid waste management, Rs 300 crore for roads and transportation, Rs 358 crore for urban renewal and the rest for municipal reforms and capacity building. Only one project – roads and transport under which 150 low-floor buses were to be procured – was completed on time.

Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam was made the implementing agency for sewage, water supply and waste management works and Meerut Nagar Nigam was the monitoring

agency. According to Jal Nigam, only 45% of the network has been laid and the progress of other projects like urban renewal, storm water drain are not satisfactory. Local MP Rajendra Aggarwal is of the view that the work couldn’t be completed as the municipal and implementing bodies lacked the capability to undertake a mission of such a scale.

“The entire city was dug up by private contractors hired by the Jal Nigam. They started working without any plan and as a result, there was traffic chaos. The quality of work is also very shoddy,” said Aggarwal, who raised the issue in Lok Sabha recently demanding a CBI probe into the irregularities in implementation of JNNURM. One can only hope the second phase of the ambitious urban renewal programme will learn from the mistakes of the first.

FE

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Anjaya Anparthi, TNN Dec 17, 2012, 03.48AM IST

NAGPUR: Taking lessons from the errors in implementation of JNNURM phase-I, the Central government has decided to launch Capacity Building for Urban Development (CBUD) project to help civic bodies in the state improve their civic services and overall work mechanism. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has proposed to accept the project and is likely to ink an agreement with the Centre very soon.

NMC's JNNURM cell has already tabled a proposal seeking general body's approval for the project. Mayor Anil Sole has convened general body meeting, first since the new Maharashtra Municipal Corporations (MMC) Act came into effect, on December 20. As per the new MMC Act, it is mandatory for civic bodies to hold general body meeting once a month that too on or before 20th of the month.

According to the sources, the Centre will implement the CBUD project for five years in 34 urban local bodies including NMC. As per the conditions of CBUD project, NMC will have to enter into an agreement with the Centre. The project will be implemented through an agency selected by the Central government which will bear all the expenses of the project.

The main objective of the project is said to assist NMC in strengthening its policy, institutional reform and improve procedures. Besides, the project vows to improve skills in the areas of governance, planning, service delivery and municipal financial management. The project will primarily focus on capacity building of civic bodies for effective urban management and urban poverty monitoring and alleviation.

During the implementation of JNNURM phase-I, Central government realized that despite setting time frame, urban local bodies failed to meet the deadlines. The inordinate delay in implementation led to cost escalation. This prompted the Centre to launch CBUD project to ensure effective implementation of reforms and help in minimizing setback in JNNURM phase-II.

Though the NMC general body is likely to pass the proposal, heated discussion between the ruling and opposition parties cannot be ruled out. During the December 20 meeting, the opposition is likely to raise voice over poor implementation of JNNURM projects in the city, besides discussing other issues of public concern. However, the proposal to accept the Centre-implemented project is likely to be passed during the general body meeting as NMC is already doing very poor on reforms front.

TOI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Anjaya Anparthi, Dec 21, 2012, 01.44AM IST

NAGPUR: The civic body's neglect of open spaces rocked the general body meeting on Thursday. Finally, mayor Anil Sole directed officials to submit a report on open spaces within a week.

The opposition group also staged a walkout, accusing officials of taking the general body for granted. The members expressed concern over the callous attitude of officials, and formed a five-member panel to formulate bylaws to regulate proceedings in the house.

TOI has been highlighting Nagpur Municipal Corporation's (NMC) negligence of properties, which is causing a loss. Corporator Dr Prashant Chopra raised the issue, "Town planning department is not taking open spaces in layouts into possession. Reserved plots have been left open, leading to encroachment. The department does not have any data on open spaces. I have been raising the issue of Town Hall reservation land at Rajnagar. But no one is taking any interest," he said.

Sole directed town planning department to submit a report on open spaces, and also on queries raised by Chopra. Later, corporator Raju Nagullwar and Munna Yadav also raised issues related to open spaces in their wards. Sole then said only the estate department had the authority to allot land or open spaces.

Exposing another scam, leader of opposition Vikas Thakre said NMC incurred loss of Rs25 lakh by charging 5% less penalty on Ketan Motors in octroi evasion case. He did not receive any response from officials on this.

Officials also cited lack of data regarding queries by some other corporators. Thakre then blasted officials for such callous attitude, and blamed the mayor and ruling party for the state of affairs. All Congress corporators staged a walkout after this.

Earlier, Sunil Agrawal and Praful Gudadhe said the civic chief okayed the proposal for JNNURM's capital building for urban development project without the general body's consent. Gudadhe said this was done in other projects like Starbus too.

Sole warned the administration not to repeat such violations and asked for a copy of every letter and report between NMC and government to be placed before the general body or mayor.

Thakre, Prakash Gajbhiye and Arun Dawre alleged other irregularities in JNNURM projects including 24X7 water, Pench-IV, and demanded an enquiry. Dawre also accused private water operator OCWL of not responding to corporator's queries. Sole asked officials to give replies in writing within a week.

Countering allegations of opposition, leader of ruling party Pravin Datke said 80% of mayor's rulings were followed by the administration. "A government enquiry has proved Thakre's allegations wrong. But officials should not take corporators' queries for granted. Tax assessor Shashikant Hastak was not present in the meeting without any reason," he said.

TOI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Published: Tuesday, Dec 18, 2012, 1:07 IST
By Dilnaz Boga | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

To understand land use pattern in the city, NGO Yuva conducted a study titled ‘Ground Truthing’ in the P/North ward Malad (West), with a population of 9.58 lakh, to assess the results of the development plan (DP). Conducted in October, the study provides an understanding of land use reservation and implementation in the city in the past two decades.

With more than 60% of the city’s population living in slums, 10 million of them live under the threat of constant displacement. In Mumbai, more than 55% of the population lives on less than 6% land.

Rehabilitation has resulted in ghettoisation of the urban poor as most of it was done in one ward where the Human Development Index is the lowest. “On one hand, the BMC is mapping informal settlements in the survey and, on the other, the state is demolishing them,” said Aravind Unni, planner and architect, Yuva.

Only 5-7% of the actual DP has been implemented in the city’s 24 wards in over 20 years. In P/North ward, the execution of the public health scheme is only about 58.27%, out of which 90% is concentrated in Malvani.

On the other hand, 350 homes were demolished in Kharodi, Malvani, and an estimated 1,850 people were rendered homeless last week. “The state promised shelters for the homeless as per SC directives and has failed to deliver,” said Unni.

The ward’s total area is 11,680 acres and the total housing reservation is only 492 acres. Informal settlements occupy only 10% of the area and house about 70% of its total population.

In the area of municipal housing, one-third of the development has been carried out by private developers in selected sections with no benefits to low-income groups. Coastal villages have not been addressed in the DP map, leaving them without any resource allocation. “This serves to promote the proliferation of private builders,” the report states.

With the BMC’s health budget decreasing this year by 8.2%, public health services in the city only managed to reach 30% of the urban poor. The ward needs 48 health posts, but has only seven. The ward also requires at least four hospitals, but has only one.

In the education sector, of the 116 school plots, 63 are developed, 27 not developed and 26 encroached; 46% reserved school plots remain abandoned or encroached. At present, the ward has 24 primary schools, while 240 are needed.

The study revealed that 57% of reserved plots for recreation ground (RG) in the ward are allotted to the upper middle class, 75% are in middle-class areas and 37% have not been developed. This nature of planning, the report states, perpetuates a cycle of deprivation, ghettoisation and poverty.

DNA

Rs 45000cr sought from Planning Commission for houses to poor

[Krishnamoorthy K]

MUMBAI: The distinction of being a safe haven for women is slowing slipping away from Mumbai, as several surveys exhibit. Women no longer perceive public spaces, including markets, beaches and stations, as threat-free . Indeed, they view many parts as out of bounds.

FEAR FACTOR

Women's NGO Akshara surveyed 5,000 women in November 2011 to identify the places where women felt most unsafe. It separately undertook a project called Safety Walk in December 2011-January 2012, where students were sent to 19 different locations at different times of the day to ascertain the physical and social factors that make a public space seem unsafe for women.

The survey made some alarming discoveries

• 50% women unaware of police helpline (103) for women, children and elderly
• 65% women find crowded buses and bus stops most unsafe
• Railway platforms too considered spots where they can come to harm
• The safety walk project found the reasons for the fear

STATION ROADS

Physical factors

Narrow and overcrowded streets; profusion of vendors, shops, bars; dim lighting and inadequate signage

Social factors

Drunk men because of bars in the vicinity; men merge into the crowds to rob and sexually harass women; negligible police patrolling

SUBWAYS

Physical factors

Dim lighting and absence of CCTV cameras

Social factors

Men loiter; vendors indulge in eve-teasing

PARKS & GARDENS

Physical factors

Poor maintenance; no streetlights

Social factors

No police presence; boys loiter; negligible female presence; higher incidence of chain-snatching and sexual harassment

OPEN GROUNDS

Physical factors

Inadequate lighting; poor maintenance of grounds

Social factors

No police presence; boys loiter; limited use by women who face eve-teasing

BEACHES

Physical factors

Inadequate lighting; same entrance for men and women's toilets

SAFETY FIRST

Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action & Research (PUKAR), in collaboration with BMW Guggenheim Lab, surveyed 800 respondents above the age of 18 across socio-economic classes to understand the relationship of privacy to personal and public spaces in Mumbai. Among other things, the research discovered that safety is the topmost criterion for citizens while visiting a public place

Social factors

Vendors; photographers; men loiter, flash, eve-tease ; gamblers, drunkards, drug addicts; no police patrolling

MARKETS

Physical factors

Encroachment of pavements by hawkers; illegal parking; no CCTV

Social factors

Crowds and chaos; eve-teasing ; sexual harassment

Times view: Make Mumbai's streets safer

Mumbai can't be called a safe zone if a person, however obsessed he may be with the idea of revenge, thinks he can get away with murder on a crowded street in the Dadar-Matunga belt. This happens only when there is a general perception that the law-and-order machinery is extremely lax. Repeated incidents like this, and the one that happened in Kalyan a few days back, reinforce this perception. The police commissioner's diktat - that cops should commute between home and work in uniform - was a sound idea that would have automatically increased police visibility on the street without any extra effort. But reports from the ground indicate that it's not being followed by too many in the force. The police force has to instil the fear of law in people planning crime. That's the only way to make Mumbai's streets safer.

TOI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

cities without cars

Should India have cities without cars?


Pedestrian zones around the world
Bicycling In Your City
All Green City... Possible?

[Krishnamoorthy K]

By Indrani BasuIndrani Basu, TNN | Dec 31, 2012, 01.15 AM IST

NEW DELHI: A team of urban designers from planning body Unified Traffic & Transportation (Planning & Engineering) Centre have submitted a draft for action points on women's safety and sent it to the lieutenant governor and state government chief secretary.

These action points include urban development, educational and enforcement measures for the city and a detailed technical report with guidelines and conceptualization plans for physical interventions is expected to be put up in the LG's next governing body meeting scheduled in January.

The 10-page document sent to the LG and chief secretary provides some pointers and action points for various government agencies to take up on priority basis, to make Delhi safer for women. These are divided into broad categories of immediate, mid-term and long-term measures.

One of the immediate measures includes the proper street lighting of major streets with clearly designated energy requirement of each street light. The UTTIPEC team has recommended different kinds of lighting according to requirement.

The team has also recommended the introduction of hawking areas and street markets in areas like Dhaula Kuan, Dwarka, NH-8 and all major arterials as they are 'unwatched streets'. "We have suggested the creation of Multi-Utility Zone (MUZ) for street vendors by simple markings and bollards (similar to what has been done in New York with temporary coloured markings on roads), especially where roads are wider than 45 metres. This increases 'eyes on streets' and makes these areas more active," explained a senior UTTIPEC official.

The team has also suggested increasing making bus transport safer and more reliable by lighting the bus stop brightly, removing the barrier advertisement panel which may conceal criminals and locate hawkers next to bus stops in planned way to ensure bus stops don't become deserted.

Urging civic agencies to stop proposing flyovers and grade separator projects, the team of urban planning experts has called them "nothing but rape dens which don't relieve traffic congestion in the long term". In fact, the team has asked for slowing down of vehicles on signal-free roads at night to reduce chances of criminals whizzing away after committing a crime.

Mid-term measures suggested by the team include retrofitting of all major roads in the city by getting rid of walls and setbacks of buildings for increasing road safety at night.

For the long term, the agency has recommended more mixed-use districts to allow round-the-clock activities. Instead of gated colonies, the team has suggested creation of vibrant neighbourhoods with shops open round the clock for increased public activity.

The suggestions also include a revision in resettlement policy, saying that poor should be provided housing in the city and not outside. Planners are also recommending that women's safety issues should be incorporated in Local Area Plans, transportation infrastructure projects and influence area plans, as suggested by studies by women's rights groups.

TOI

Why urban planning will make cities safer for women

[engineer.akash]

Let us hope our cities make great strides in Urban infra in 2013