Hi, i'm new here... I'm from Mumbai, India. I have posted some pics of Navi(New) Mumbai, a sister city developing near Mumbai. It's well planned and organised, with wide open, smooth roads and plenty of open spaces, gardens etc. It's still relatively new so not many people live here yet, it's quite empty and there's no real skyline. There's a lot of construction going on and maybe in a few years it will get its own airport. Most of these shots are of Kharghar and Belapur, still developing areas -
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More general shots -
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The roads and streets -
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Local railway stations -
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Ive got no architectural background as you know - but when I look at some of these new buildings, they simply dont look appealing to me - they remind me of the dreaded counsil estates of Britian - bland and beige.
i dont know, but i find most of urban indian architecture post-independence absolutely uninspiring. look at new urban spaces all over india, away from the old towns (pre-british) and the british-planned areas, and they are almost all just boring concrete jungles with no regard to aesthetics or integrated design. great cities are also beautiful cities, with great public buildings, etc and there are not many in india. if you think the situation in metros is bad you should check out towns and cities in the 100,000-5 million pop range. the situation cannot be described as anything but an urban nightmare. even the old chawls of bombay look much more elegant and beautiful than anything new bombay has
I agree about the chawls - some of these old dilapidated buildings, depsite being slums, are actually better looking than modern blocks, which all seem to be painted in a bland desert colour (India needs to emphises its green-ness). I rather see red brick TBH.
If I posted a shot of some similar buildings in Tokyo or HK, they would look far better.
1) Pollution / Dust clouds from nearby mining areas (particularly towards northern side of N.Mumbai). IN winter, with dense air, the cloud of mining/blasting run-off is particularly bad). The dust settles on exteriors of buildings which in turn give nesting ground to moss in humid weather.
2) Lack of architectural harmony due to many standalone buildings. A group of say 20 buildings in a form of 'estate' could give that harmony but thats not the case.
3) Outright plagiarism of design. How many apartments in N.Mumbai have curved windows ? Nearly all. Do we see any departure from this copied design? No.
4) Shoddy quality of work. I.e Window sills in majority of N.M buildings have rust run-off within 3 years of a building going up.
5) Environmental harmony lacking. Landscaping - except on Palm Beach Road - is unheard of. Even those developments that have landscaping, are utterly ignored. (For proof, go towards Belapur and you will see sidewalks having broken tiles, dug up holes and lack of maintenance).
6) All highrises in N.Mumbai have painted exteriors which again are breeding grounds for moss / rot due to weather factors. If they were tiled (1"x1" format tiles usually a norm in East Asia), they would have a much fresher look.
7) Clumpy, box like buildings. None of the new developments have any aesthetics of designs. Builders/developers seem to be hungry to BUILD FAST, EARN FAST.
8) Civic sense in buildings is unheard of. If Mumbai went Singapore's NANNY WAY, most balconys would not have 'langotisc chaddis saris pyjamas' hanging out on the balcony.
These are just a few examples... more to come in pictures when I visit Mumbai for Diwali. But my last line would be this - Navi Mumbai can never be the posh South Mumbai.
Regds
p2p4
VaastuShastra said:
I agree about the chawls - some of these old dilapidated buildings, depsite being slums, are actually better looking than modern blocks, which all seem to be painted in a bland desert colour (India needs to emphises its green-ness). I rather see red brick TBH.
If I posted a shot of some similar buildings in Tokyo or HK, they would look far better.
The basic reason why Indian builders wont touch ceramic tiles is because of the restrictive costs. When I speak of ceramic tiles, I don't mean the ones you find in the toilets but 'textured' exterior tiles which are composites (granite+ceramic) or shale types.
The tile industry is not as developed in India and as of date, much of the material that is available in India, comes from Italy/Spain/China/Argentina etc.
On the other hand, it is not only the tiling that is the problem. The basic design of exteriors is basically 'horrid' in most middle class neighborhoods.
If you see COCHIN (skyscrapercity thread), the buildings built there are so damn refreshing to look at. Wish Mumbai builders followed their example.
VaastuShastra said:
This seems to be the biggest thing - why the hell does a country like India not use tiles?
India certainly looks good on pictures and films (all because of color saturation)
The lakes and ponds of Navi Mumbai are 1) either vanishing fast .. thanks to dumping of rubble and waste or 2) there is absolutely no planning for a systematic revamp of existing lakes.
The pic you posted (Suncity), was a lake (now a pond) right in between Seawoods and Delhi Public School. Give it another 2 years time and it will be a rubbish dump.
The illegal encroachment by vendors of footpaths with blue tarps looks ugly. Residents will complain but they often patronize such vendors encouraging more and more encroachers finally resulting in a mega mess. The authorities of course do nothing as bribes flow their way and they put the blame on residents.
I am just back from Mumbai and my week-long stay in Nerul has given me a complete idea of how neatly planned roads / infrastructure can go turn into a classic mess if the big M word ... you guessed it right.. MAINTENANCE is not on the agenda.
Palm Beach Road was one of the best and smoothest roads in that area. Was !! Now, much of the road surface is patched up in many different stretches and lanes have weathered. The CIDCO suckers don't give 2 hoots about maintenance and on top of that, traffic related law & order can best be described to Bihar!! Drivers just do not give a damn about red signals and if the countdown on signals is nearing the last 15th second, you will see cars revving up their engine. If you are the first car at the crossing, all the other cars behind you start honking at you! One thing if you are astute.. anotehr thing if you can't take the 'peer-pressure'.
My greatest - and repeated fear - for any new roadworks handled by our authorities is just the same. They will spend millions of rupees in building 'international' style expressways but you as well as I know what a dilapidated state most expressways will be if there is no maintenance.
The only exception to the rule is the complete proficient management of the MUM-PUNE Xpway. Anything beyond that .. especially in Mumbai.. is a hell-hole in the making.
Lots of development going on, so thats great, but on the same token I dont think these buildings look nice (both the old and new ones). There's maybe one or two buildings out of all these pictures that is on par with the style of development in China or the Gulf States. I understand that India isnt as rich as either of those countries, but have Gulf companies in particular begun to invest in Indian highrises like theyve done in other places like Sudan?
Navi Mumbai's problem is that most projects have been developed by relatively small companies with little or no experience. It is Navi Mumbai's bad luck that it did not get investment from big Indian companies like DLF or Unitech. All that may change if the Reliance SEZ materializes.
India liberalized its policy on FDI in real estate and construction just last year. So foreign companies are still in the exploratory mode.
India is looking towards Singapore and Malaysia for expertise in this area.
As far as Gulf is concerned Emaar already has set up offices in India and has announced several projects. And so has ETA Star.
Maintenance is not CIDCO's job, it is the job of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation. So yes, maintenance is an issue. But don't blame CIDCO for the problem.
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation ((NMMC) has prepared a Rs 2600-crore city development plan, which focuses on improving the connectivity with Mumbai and satellite towns of the metropolis like Kalyan and Vasai.
The corporation has expressed the hope of getting grants from the central and state governments under the National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM) to execute the plan.
Under the connectivity improvement scheme, the ring railway route has been proposed by upgrading the existing rail network as well as laying the new line.
The plan envisages connecting Navi Mumbai with Kalyan via Diva, and laying of Thane-Vashi-Kurla-Thane ring route on the suburban railway.
The plan also envisages extension of the present suburban trains up to Uran instead of stopping it at Panvel as it would provide faster and cheaper access to those who work at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT).
Besides, the plan talks of four-laning the route between Mankhurd and Belapur to ensure higher frequency on the harbour-suburban route.
Ferry service has also been envisaged between Vasai and Belapur to facilitate direct connectivity of Navi Mumbai with the western suburbs of the city.
The proposed ferry service would have stops at Vashi, Nerul, Airoli, Thane and Ghodbandar.
The plan stresses the need for a third bridge on Thane creek to connect Kannmwarnagar in Mumbai with Koparkhairane in Navi Mumbai, which would provide easy access to the residents of Navi Mumabi with the western suburbs of the city via roadway.
However, the bigger challenge before us is to convince the Centre for grants under NURM as municipal corporations in Thane district like NMMC, Mira-Bhyander and Kalyan-Dombivali have not been included in the list of cities eligible for grants under the scheme”.
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