Urban Update May 2017

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate Volume IV, Issue I

May 2017

Rs 100

HOSPITAL

Chuck Urban

jargons The world is becoming predominately urban. It is always expanding and so is the vocabulary relating to city development. A lot of new buzz words are thrown around to put forward the idea about specific kinds of urban development. We must stay away from pointless gobbledygook to focus on real issues plaguing our cities

HOTEL

Cities need sustainable business model There is no such thing as a free lunch. The saying fits in the case of cities too.

If our cities have to perform better on various indexes relating to livability, sustainability, and efficiency, they have to build a sustainable business model for service and infrastructure projects to ensure long-term viability, and for moving the projects beyond trials to full city roll-outs

The project is funded by the European Union.

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

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

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Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor Arzoo Arora, Pinaki Das & Akash Mandyal Editorial Assistants Meenakshi Rajput Graphic Designer Seemab Tasneem Marketing Associate Volume IV - Issue I 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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EDITORIAL

Livability & inclusiveness matter most

A

re Smart Cities also Green Cities? One is not very sure. During the last few years, the world has come up with a number of adjectives to decide a city’s character and thus we have smart cities, livable cities, intelligent cities, green cities, knowledge cities, inclusive cities and more. City managers have adopted different attributes on which to base the future development of their cities, for example, technology, environment, education or ease of doing business.

This individual attribute is then leveraged to make the city stand out with respect to that attribute. So much so that various agencies now regularly evaluate world cities and rank themon various parameters giving rise to ‘the smartest cities’ or ‘the greenest cities’ or the ‘most livable cities’. Cities are engaging in a race to become the top city in one of the attributes; are they sacrificing other qualities in the bargain? We hope not.

We are of the opinion that every attribute matters and cities must strive to achieve on all fronts. For example the smartest city may have achieved very high levels of technology integration in all its services like public transport, citizen interface, waste management, and so on. But all this could be of little use if the city is not ‘green’ as well, i.e., it has not done enough to protect, nurture and support environment friendliness. High achievement on one or two parameters should not be at the expense of some others. Cities need to achieve an optimum mix of various attributes so that finally they achieve high levels of livability

and inclusiveness, the most valued qualities.

In this issue of Urban Update, we look at some of these aspects and how they are affecting cities.

‘Leaderspeak’ in this issue talks about building a sustainable business model for Indian cities so that all the projects of public welfare can be implemented without any concern about initial funding and operational expenses.

We met up with Vinay Sahasrabuddhe of the BJP who coordinated the party’s campaign for the Delhi municipal elections.

He speaks of the issues facing the metropolis and his party’s plans for them. We have added a new feature called City Profile where we take you through the history and current character of a city touching upon its culture, tradition and economy. To begin, we cover the vibrant city of Ahmedabad in this issue. We shall look at further measures to make Urban Update a more engaging platform for our readers with respect to the urban landscape both in India and elsewhere.

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

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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Quotes

PIN POINT BUZZ

If you want to see our sustainable future, look at the young entrepreneur installing solar panels in Kenya, the student creating an app for the SDGs in Brazil, the traders using data to anticipate economic shocks in India. These youth are doing more than innovating – they are networking

The ultimate goal is to create a city where millions of people can travel quickly, efficiently and without any harm to the environment or citizens–a zero emissions transport solution

PMO India @PMOIndia Office of the Prime Minister of India

The aim of Satyagraha was independence and the aim of Swachhagraha is to create a clean India.

A clean India helps the poor the most

Graeme Davison Vice President (BD&M) Qualcomm Capt Amarinder Singh @capt_amarinder Chief Minister of Punjab

Amina J Mohammed Deputy Secretary-General, UN

Need to make urban local bodies accountable & transparent, decided to put all services online in 2 phases to simplify things for people

Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjp Minister of State(IC) Petroleum & Natural Gas

India is a very price sensitive commodity market. Important to keep prices of LNG etc in check to drive people towards using clean energy.

We know that moving to clean energy will create good jobs, clean up our air and water, and lower our residents’ utility bills Kwanza Hall City Council Member, Atlanta

I don’t believe in artificial distinction (of income tax) of rural and urban, so whatever is the threshold on personal income side on urban side, should be the exactly same on rural side Bibek Debroy Member, NITI Aayog

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Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar Chief Digital Evangelist, Salesforce

If 100 people lived on earth, 1 has 50% of money, 56 no Internet, 14 can’t read, 13 no clean water

Inside

Volume 4, Issue 1

Inside May 2017

ARTICLE

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Amaravati: The Building of Andhra’s New Capital The model of Amaravati will be an epitome of world-class smart city where city planners have incorporated many ideas including transit oriented development, modern waste collection and disposal mechanisms and maintaining the ecological balance with green spaces which will provide high quality living for its occupants

DMIC aims to develop world class infrastructural and sustainable cities DMIC aims to develop new manufacturing cities, logistical hubs and residential townships along the 1500 km stretch that will incorporate the philosophy of sustainability and development. Once completed, these cities will be the hallmark of a resurgent India

Cover story

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Drive Urban Mobility Right It is imperative for Indian cities to strengthen and promote public transport to tackle congestion and air pollution issues. Focus on building pedestrian friendly infrastructure and use of green vehicles can improve livability significantly. We have to steer the new age city development towards a right path

Pin Point Newscan Events Book Review

8 15 28 46

Equi-City City Images Numerographs Urban Agenda

The world is becoming predominately urban. It is always expanding and so is the vocabulary relating to city development. A lot of new buzz words are thrown around to put forward the idea about specific kinds of urban development. We must stay away from pointless gobbledygook to focus on real issues plaguing our cities

LEADerspeak

30

RegularS

6 10 17 44

Chuck Urban Jargons

Cities need sustainable business model There is no such thing as a free lunch. The saying fits in the case of cities too. If our cities have to perform better on various indexes relating to livability, sustainability, and efficiency, they have to build a sustainable business model for service and infrastructure projects to ensure long-term viability, and for moving the projects beyond trials to full city roll-outs

Velocity

42

From Shah of all Shahs to Sardar & the Father of the Nation A

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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feature | Equi-City

CAPACITY BUILDING

A driving force for Local Governance Capacity building is one of the key components for ensuring efficient civic services. This requires team work and a foolproof strategic framework in Urban Local Bodies. Equi-City project along with government’s urban missions is accelerating the efforts in the direction

C

apacity Building involves improving people’s knowledge, skills and attitudes as well as institutional mechanisms, tools and procedures.

Capacity Building results are based on the improvement of individual skills (knowledge application) and enhanced efficiency of structures and organisations, which translate into sustainable practice changes. Capacity Building within local governance takes place in a national environment that provides a policy and legal framework that pertains to decentralization and gender mainstreaming.

In local governance like Nagpur city, the changes to perform are linked to: the delivery of community services meeting individual needs; mainstreaming gender into planning and participatory evaluation; efficient and transparent management; consultation among stakeholders of both genders; civic engagement and participation, inclusive of various social categories and equitable between women and men.

Equi-City puts a step forward

This project recognizes the critical role that local government in Nagpur has to play in deepening democracy and enhancing people participation in national affairs. Local authorities play an important role in local development and service delivery. The Project aims to build capacities in the

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local government and related sectors for more efficient service delivery to the citizens. The primary focus is to strengthen the policy and legislative framework to align with the new constitution, enhance the institutional setups and national fiscal transfer system in the sector. It also seeks to support a comprehensive human skills development, as well as enhance civic participation mechanisms in the local government sector.

A team approach to capacity building

Strong leadership is one of the factors that ensure success in capacity building.

Capacity building is a team sport that requires team effort and participation in activities. This activity involves the local government and officials by sharing multiple perspectives on some of the problems and issues needed to be addressed so it is less likely that problems will be misdiagnosed or that key issues will be overlooked.

Another advantage of the team approach is that more people will gain a deeper understanding of critical organizational challenges that can be addressed through capacity building efforts.Based on the identified key areas for the training of NMC employees, the team of Equi-City project started designing the modules specially focusing on 1. Water and Sanitation 2. Public health 3. Citizens participation in delivery of municipal services.

Capacity gaps and needs: Justification for capacity building of local government

With higher expectations for bridging the gulf between the state and civil society and government structures and bodies, building the capacity of local government should be the key agenda of governments. The need of capacity development for sustainable local governance is therefore unquestionable and can best be summed up in a statement “Good local government is not just a matter of creating the right legal, political and institutional framework. It is all about actively building local authority capacity, particularly the understanding and skills, and the ability and desire to learn. Effective local government requires good leadership and strategic management, good service provision, and good community participation which can only be achieved through “innovative” capacity development initiatives.

Strategies for capacity development in local government

The most unfortunate fact behind the inefficiency of many capacity building initiatives especially in small cities is because of lack of a comprehensive strategic framework towards capacity development. As the matter is of urgency, it has become imperative for Nagpur Cityto adopt measures aimed at raising the executive capacity profile of

1

2

1. Team Equi-City and Regional Director of AIILSG (Nagpur) Jayant Pathak meeting Ashwin Mudgal, newly appointed Commissioner of Nagpur Municipal Corporation 2.

Equi-City team conducting training assessment survey at corporation office

local governments if they are to fulfill the development role which has been assigned to this level of government.

Sustainable development at the local government level should be located in a strategic framework to enhance the sustainability of capacity development and complement its success potential.

The following measures were suggested and can be considered as a framework of strategies for capacity development at local government level; Governance and accountability – building credible institutions that are viable and credible, Human skills – individual skills and the link to institutional development – these two are inextricably linked. This

can be achieved through the following measures: ♦♦ Staff development at local government and community level must be intensified. ♦♦ Training in planning and management of local development must be hastened as this will form the basis upon which the local government human capacity will be strengthened. ♦♦ Conducting a staff audit as a first step with a view to determining areas where there is excess capacity and shortfalls which are to be addressed. ♦♦ Carrying out recruitment of suitably

qualified persons to improve the quality of staff available at local government level. ♦♦ Capacities to capture the knowledge from past experiences to use for future and more advanced interventions.

However, depending on the Local Government capacities and the need to enrich the process with experiences beyond the Local Government, Local Governments may opt to employ the services of external facilitators. Here Equi-City team is one such medium for training and capacity building and through this strengthening the local authority.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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NEWSCAN

Swachh Survekshan 2017

Indore: cleanest city in India New Delhi: A survey, commissioned

by Ministry of Urban Development during January-February this yearto evaluate cities on cleanliness, has ranked Indore and Bhopal, both in Madhya Pradesh, at the top of the list.

23 cities and towns of Madhya Pradesh are among the top 100 cleanest cities in the country.

Gujarat,with Surat ranked 4th and Vadodara 10th,has 21 cities in the top 100 list. In the top 50, Gujarat has the maximum of 12 cities, closely followed by Madhya Pradesh with 11 and Andhra Pradesh with eight. New Delhi Municipal Corporation and Navi Mumbai grabbed the seventh and eighth rank. Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh which hosted the BRICS Urbanisation Forum in September, 2016 ranked three in the race of cleanest cities. Tamil Nadu and Telangana account for four each.

Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh account for one each in this group. A major transformation in respect of sanitation has taken place in these states therefore Naidu has called them ‘Movers and Shakers’ of the ongoing cleanliness drive. Gonda town in Uttar Pradesh is the dirtiest city ranked 434.

Union Minister for Urban Development said during release of SwachhSurvekshan, 2017 in New Delhi, “I would prefer to call these results as ‘Citizens’ Verdict’ on sanitation in urban areas, given the scale and eagerness of citizens’ participation and the fact that these 434 cities and towns account for about 60% of the country’s urban population,” All the surveyed cities were given marks out of 2000, of which 900 (45%) accounted for Solid waste management which further includes door-to-door

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Top ten cities 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

I am particularly happy over the fact that over 80% of the respondents reported a definite improvement in cleanliness in our cities and towns over the last year and in sanitation related infrastructure and services like waste collection and processing has improved Venkaiah Naidu Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information and Broadcasting

collection, Processing and Disposal and ODF status. Of the remaining 1100 marks, 600 (30%) were for citizens’ feedback and 500 (25%) were on independent observation.

Citizens responded to a set of six questions. They also gave their perception of sanitation in cities and

Indore Bhopal Visakhapatnam Surat Mysuru Tiruchirapally NDMC Navi Mumbai Tirupati Vadodara

towns. Besides this, 421 assessors of Quality Council of India physically inspected 17,500 locations in 434 cities and towns. 2680 residential locations, 2,680 commercial locations and 2,582 commercial and public toilets in these cities and towns for on the spot third party assessment of ground level assessment of sanitation.

Minister of Urban Development, Venkaiah Naidu tweeted on this: “Survey results are very encouraging.

Revealed major improvement in cleanliness in last one year.Swachh Bharat buzz is reflecting on ground.

Swachh Rankings of 434 cities and towns will be announced on May 4 this week. More than rankings, citizens’ perception and field reports are more exciting.”

A total of over 37 lakh citizens responded with their feedback during the two month long Survey. The samples have revealed that sanitation in cities and towns has substantially improved during last one year. The results of Swachh Sarvekshan-2017 have confirmed the efforts being made under Swachh Bharat Mission.

NEWSCAN

New Policy Guidelines include cab safety measures for Women Nitin Gadhkari accepted recently the recommendations of Maneka Gandhi (in picture)

NEW DELHI: New Policy guidelines are recommended by Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) for safety of women passengers availing cab services. These measures have been recommended by Minister of WCD, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The recommendations come in the background of numerous cases of sexual harassment of women in cabs being reported on social media after women took to twitter and facebook to flag their ordeal. The recommendations made by the WCD Minister have been approved by Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari for inclusion in the regulatory guidelines. Women commuters have been expressing their concern via social media to Maneka regarding safety in

taxis. The WCD Minister has launched a hashtag, #HelpMeWCD, where any woman or child facing harassment or violence can directly report their cases by tweeting.

Delhi Police is also trying to provide safer and secure atmosphere to the women in the capital. To improve women safety, the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, Amulya Patnaik, launched the improved version of “HIMMAT” app which is more userfriendly and has features which makes it simpler, smoother and smarter than its previous version. Earlier, for registration on the app, one had to fill 13-14 fields, these fields have been reduced to six with the option of choosing for preferred languageHindi or English. According to google playstore, only 90,000 people have

Safe Ride for Women ♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦ ♦♦

The taxis should be mandatorily fitted with GPS panic devices.

For the safety of women and child passengers, the central locking system in the taxis should not be allowed.

The driver’s identification along with the photo and registration number of the vehicle should be prominently displayed in the taxi.

Violation of the stipulated rules by the taxi operators/drivers should be strictly dealt with in accordance with law.

Sharing of seat should be subject to willingness of passengers.

downloaded the app since its launch in 2015 and approximately 31,000 users have registered. The app was launched

by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in January 2015, for safety of women who travel alone in and around Delhi.

The app was earlier launched for Android platform but is now available on iOS platform as well. The changes were made after the app failed to get expected responses. “Earlier the registration process for the application was a little cumbersome because of which the users were probably getting discouraged to register. Now we have revamped the entire app to encourage more people to use it”, Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi, Deependra Pathak said.

After the approach by Delhi police towards women safety, High Court of Delhi asked the city police about the immediate measures they can take for the safety of women in the national capital. A division bench of Justice Ravindra Bhat and Justice Yogesh Khanna suggested that the police carry out a survey in vulnerable areas — especially slum clusters and look into the problems faced by women and children.“What are the immediate measures for women’s safety? You (police) could also use unorthodox methods. Use survey method. Talk to people, women and ask about the problems they face. Policing happens at the more affluent areas. Focus on the neglected areas like slums and jhuggi-jhopri colonies,” the bench said. During a hearing on a gangrape, Delhi Commission of Women Chief Swati Maliwal told the court that eveteasing (harassment) is a very common problem outside schools in the morning and during shift change and more police must be deployed around schools to tackle the problem.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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NEWSCAN

Executive Bureau Meeting

UCLG ASPAC reviews its key projects UCLG ASPAC invited its members to shed light on the status of SDG projects that they undertook to address issues such as climate change and pollution in their respective countries

CATBALOGAN: United Cities and Local Governments, Asia Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) organized the first session of Executive Bureau Meeting (EBM) at Catbalogan City, Philippines from April 5-7, 2017. The meeting highlighted activities undertaken by the executive bureau members from August 2016 to February 2017 pertaining to implementation and promotion of global agendas such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), New Urban Agenda and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).

South Korea’s Gapado Island was mentioned as a success story in the EBM. The island, home to 177 people, relies mainly on solar and wind power for electricity. Two wind power generators have been installed on the island, which produce 500 kilowatts of electricity. The installation of the solar panels on residential homes was mainly covered by the Jeju Special SelfGoverning body (JSSGB). The body has spent more than USD$100 million to help Gapado become carbonfree. With this help, residents aren’t strapped with the costs of installing

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solar panels on their homes which cost roughly USD 12,000. Instead, they pay just a portion of the total amount. Lee Young-Suk, the island’s microgrid center manager said, “The entire village consumes around 150 kilowatts. The wind generators produce around three times the power used by the households. If the wind generators produce 500 kW of extra electricity, it is stored in smart meters on the electricity grid.”

UCLG ASPAC engaged with Malang Regency, Indonesia to advance the construction of Pro-poor solid waste management system.

After undertaking field survey and additional baseline survey, it was found that households across 3 villages generated 6 tonne/day of MSW. This, coupled with organic waste generated from the nearby Mantung Market, was deemed as ideal fuel for the proposed waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in the regency. UCLG ASPAC also undertook soil and land analysis to prepare the detailed engineering design of the WTE plant and hopes that the plant will be operational soon contributing

to reduced carbon footprint. Malang was also shortlisted in the 3rd Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation in December 2016 as part of SDG agenda.

Furthermore, UCLG ASPAC in collaboration with United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) organized the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) in New Delhi in November 2016.

The SDG outcome document – ‘Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ that highlights the need for disaster risk reduction across a number of sectors was mentioned. Secretary General Dr Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi urged member countries to adopt a disaster management framework that adopted various measures such as disaster risk governance, disaster preparedness, response and recovery and investing in earthquake resilient building structures.

In terms of innovative green practices, Taipei city was mentioned as a notable example. Mayor Ko Wen-je unveiled the Fu De Public Cemetery’s expanded tree burial site, as well as designated flower beds where grieving families can scatter the ashes of their loved ones. Je commented, “The lines of traffic of families returning home fueled a dusty blanket of smog over the island’s skies. Flower bed and ocean burials are just the beginning of the city’s efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of those in the afterlife.”

UCLG ASPAC hopes that SDGs will be addressed by member nations in their developmental agendas to build a green world.

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BRIEFS

NEWSCAN

Projects worth Rs 143 Cr underway in Jammu under AMRUT scheme

AMC releases Heat Action Plan

Deputy CM Dr Nirmal Singh directed officers of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) to ensure that projects under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban transportation (AMRUT) scheme worth Rs 143.54 Cr are completed in mission mode.

Developmentalworks include drainage and sewerage sector management, urban transport upgradation and creation of green spaces on different nullahs. Besides these, mobile toilet vans, road sweeping machines and multi-level parking facilities too would be taken up.

AHMEDABAD: With Ahmedabad registering 42o C, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) declared a ‘Yellow Alert’ and set into motion the Heat Action Plan (HAP) to ensure protective action, such as increasing shade access by keeping all gardens and parks open throughout the day and identifying areas to install water dispensers. As part of the 2017 Ahmedabad HAP, Mayor Gautam Shah and Municipal Commissioner Mukesh Kumar launched city-wide initiatives to ensure minimum cases of heat strokes and dehydration deaths this year. The HAP is a first of its kind initiative by the AMC in South Asia.

Under it, a variety of measures have been taken up: ♦♦ The Ahmedabad HAP uses a simple, color-coded, early warning ‘heat alert’ system. These are; ‘Yellow Alert’ or Hot day advisory between 41oC43oC, ‘Orange Alert’ or Heat Alert Day between 43.1oC-44.9oC and ‘Red Alert’ or Extreme heat alert day > or = 45oC. Each alert corresponds to a different set of remedial measures that are initiated.

Vertical gardens adorn walls of buildings in Surat

♦♦ SMS, e-mail, radio and WhatsApp will be used by AMC to disseminate information across the public. LED display boards at traffic junctions have also been used to communicate crucial information. ♦♦ AMC is cooperating with state education department to reduce school hours statewide because of extreme heat. The estate department is working with builders to make arrangements for laborers and construction workers.

This year AMC will distribute ‘Cool Roof Paint’ to people living in slum areas and set up medical centers citywide to address heat stroke and related health emergencies.

The Ahmedabad HAP was developed and launched in collaboration with the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Indian Institute of Public HealthGandhinagar (IIPHG) and National Research Development Corporation (NRDC). The HAP can be emulated by ULBs across India.

Floral waste to fertilizers Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has launched an initiative to deck up the walls of Kavi Narmad Central Library and Science Centre with vertical gardens. Around 1,480 square feet of wall space at both the spots have been covered with plants of various species like Koinal, Pineapple Brown, Ribbon Grass Variegated, Asparagus Sprengeri, Chlorophytum, Reep Red and Pandanus. SMC officials feel this step will liven up the surroundings of the buildings.

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KOLKATA: As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), state-owned Coal India Ltd. has started two projects at Dakshineswar Kali temple and Babadham temple in Deoghar to produce organic fertilizer from floral waste.

“Two more projects at Kalighat Temple and Tarapith in Birbhum district are also under implementation. The Kalighat project will take 3-4 months while the project at Tarapith would be operational in May,” he said.

“These facilities at various temples are capable of handling 800kg of floral waste for producing around 200 kg of fertilizers. These can be self-sustaining projects as NGOs managing the project at the temple, sell the fertilizers at Rs 20-22 a kg against the market rate of something

between Rs 60 to Rs 120 a kg,” he said.

Coal India Chairman Suthirtha Bhattacharya told PTI, “ECL has done an excellent job in waste to wealth under CSR project. We are open to support similar projects in more temples across country wherever feasible.”

The project helps in implementing Swachh Bharat programme using huge floral waste generated daily at temples.

The projects were funded by the coal behemoth as the infrastructure cost varied between Rs 15-19 lakh for civil work, plant and machinery which is handed over to an NGO which manages the project. Coal India said that funds would not be a constraint for implementing such projects in various temples across the country.

CITY IMAGES

The Pearl City

Qatar Builds ‘Venice’

The Pearl Island in Doha (Qatar) is a luxurious residential complex, developed on a four-square km reclaimed island which has 32 kilometers of new coastline lined with private villas, dozens of apartment towers and hundreds of homes, along with luxury hotels and opulent stores and restaurants.

It is the first land in Qatar to be available for freehold ownership by foreign nationals. The name “Pearl” refers to

the major pearl-diving industry based on the shallow seabed where the island has been built and its design also resembles a string of pearls.

There is a “Venice-like community” with extensive canal system, pedestrian-friendly squares, more than 400 town homes, over 6,000 parking spaces and plazas and beachfront townhouses. There is even a replica of Venice’s Rialto Bridge.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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NEWSCAN

SMC speeds up beautification work Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has begun construction of a multipurpose community park project worth Rs 5 Cr. Mayor Sanjay Chauhan said, “Around 75 bighas of land near Kanlog has been turned into a park. SMC planted flower beds and ornamental trees in the initial phase. Walking trails, resting spots, a forest nursery and parking will be eventually developed.” The beautification work is one of the major developmental activities announced during the 2017-18 annual budget.

NMCG approves STP Worth Rs 2100 Crore

In a major push to Namami Gange programme, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has approved 26 projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2154.28 Crore. This amount will be spent in the states of UP, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Delhi for creation of new sewage treatment capacity of 188 Million Liters per day (MLD) (approx.), rehabilitation of 596 MLD of existing Sewage Treatment Projects (STP) capacity, upgradation of 30 MLD of existing STP capacity, Interception and Diversion works and sewerage network of 145.05 km. Under NamamiGange Programme, 100 per cent central funding is being made for new projects. The completion of these projects will help in reducing the pollution load on the river Ganga as discharge of untreated effluent is one of the major source of pollution in river Ganga.

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May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

NDMA conducts mock exercise on forest fire in Uttarakhand DEHRADUN: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) recently conducted first-of-its-kind statelevel mock drill exercises on forest fire in Uttarakhand. The mock exercises aimed at assessing the intended result of integrating the preparedness and response mechanisms of the forest department with the district administration.

The mock drill was a part of a three-day event which began with coordination conference on April 18, 2017, followed by a table top exercise on the second day of the event. These meetings were organised to ensure the necessary arrangements are in place for conducting the mock exercise.

The exercises were conducted in coordination with various agencies, such as fire, forest, army, health, police, National Disaster Response Force

(NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force(SDRF) and civil defence. The exercise was conducted simultaneously at multiple locations, including residential areas adjoining forests, across all 13 districts. Retired Major General VK Datta, an NDMA expert, who led the whole exercise briefed about the proceedings of the day. As soon as reports of fire incidents started flowing in from districts, all senior officials reached the State Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) within a short time. They analysed the situation and issued instructions to districts for responding to the forest fires.

Simultaneously, officials in the districts also assembled at their respective EOCs, formed response teams and swung into action. Using various techniques and equipment, fires were doused and affected people, animals rescued.

BMC appoints transgenders to collect taxes from defaulters BHOPAL: Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to appoint transgenders as collection agents to improve tax collection and shame defaulters. Mayor Alok Sharma mooted the idea during the second ‘Bhopal Choupal’, a weekly open forum for citizens to put forth their complaints on civic issues. During the forum, a group of transgenders approached Sharma for a job. After consultation with BMC officials, it was announced that transgenders who meet the statutory requirements would be able to apply for contractual posts in the BMC. The corporation would enroll two transgenders to begin with.

In 2016, BMC became the first civic body in India to announce a public restroom for the transgender community.

The facility is under construction in Mangalwara area of Bhopal. There are an estimated 10,000 transgenders in and

around Bhopal. The corporation would also undertake a survey and carry out registration of the transgender members and help them apply for housing under the ‘housing for all’ scheme of the Central government.

On 15 April 2014, Supreme Court of India declared transgender people as a socially and economically backward class entitled to reservations in education and job sectors and also directed union and state governments to frame welfare schemes for them. This was followed by the Rajya Sabha passing the ‘The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016’.

Though the Lok Sabha is yet to address the technicalities and coordination of ministries pertaining to the above bill, the recognition of the third gender in India holds importance. It will bring the transgender community into active public role and give them a life of dignity.

NEWSCAN

GHMC to build ready shelters for attendants of patients Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will be soon making ready shelters for attendants of patients at seven main hospitals in the capital for which 80% per cent of the project cost or Rs. 9.71 Crore has been released by the Telangana Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (TMEPMA).

Total cost for these shelters is about Rs. 12.14 Crore of which Rs. 3.80 Crore has been spent so far. Earlier, the civic body had conducted a study at the major hospitals and had identified 605 such patients waiting at the hospitals when it was decided to construct shelter homes for them in the open spaces available at the hospitals.

This initiative by GHMC is one of many planned endeavors focused on addressing cases of homelessness in the city. A recent survey released by GHMC, as per instructions from the Supreme Court,

pegged the number of shelter less persons in the GHMC limits as 1,474 including 1,033 males, 437 females and four persons with disabilities. The survey, part of the National Urban Livelihood Mission, will help in providing permanent shelter equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner under the Shelter for Urban Homeless scheme.

GHMC also identified NGOs and is currently providing Rs 17,500 per month towards maintenance of 12 approved shelter homes, to ensure Aadhar and electoral photo identity cards, opening of savings bank accounts and to provide medical facilities to inmates.

A Shelter Management Committee and Executive Committees have been formed at each shelter home involving inmates, line department officials and other public representatives for smooth functioning.

Naidu inaugurates two-day National Review of PMAY (Urban) Mission NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Urban Development and Information & Broadcasting, M Venkaiah Naidu recently inaugurated a two-day national review of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (Urban) Mission. Naidu urged the State Governments and UT administrations to ensure wider publicity of various components of PMAY (Urban) Mission and to organise loan melas to facilitate interest subsidy to the beneficiaries. He also asked them to involve private sector in a big way to promote Affordable Housing in Partnership, by having synergetic PPP Models. Naidu appreciated the efforts put in by various stakeholders for steering the mission in the respective states/UTs. He further praised the work

of some states that have done quite well with a systematic manner in sanctioning house under the Mission. Top priority has been given to the modification of guidelines, innovations and procedural simplification in implementation of the PMAY (Urban) Mission. Many innovations have been introduced such as Credit Lined Subsidy Schemes (CLSS) for Middle Income groups, Geo-tagging for monitoring the progress of construction of houses, Public Financial Management System (PFMS) to ensure electronic fund flowand Technology Sub-Mission to implement new technologies. NITI Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant, Secretary HUPA, Dr Nandita Chatterjee and Mission Directorate officials at the state/UT level were also present on the occasion.

Govt to deploy 600 young professionals to boost SBM

Tata Trusts, in collaboration with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation had offered to provide 600 Zila Swachh Bharat Preraks (ZSBPs), one in each district of the country for a year. Speaking to the Zila Preraks, the Union Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar said that the was confident that the ZSBP initiative will be a game changer in achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM) in rural India. The three-day training programme, of first 50 young professionals, includes special modules on SBM Guidelines and technical, managerial training on Sanitation.

Uma Bharti to launch Water Conservation Programme for Bundelkhand Union Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharti has launched extensive water conservation programme for drought prone areas of Bundelkhand, Marathwada, Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput in Odisha. Uma Bharti has formally launched the programme at Bandri, Sagar (Madhya Pradesh) and said “Ministry has prepared a master plan for artificial recharge of ground water in Bundelkhand region. In UP region of Bundelkhand, around 1100 percolation tanks, 14000 small check dams/Nala bunds and 7200 Recharge pits/shafts have been identified.�

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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NEWSCAN

TMC to send emergency alerts on mobiles In an emergency situation or disaster reported in the city, Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) plans to alert residents by sending them regular mobile alerts in order to avoid panic arising out of rumours in such situations. Nearly 3000 calls of rescue and disasters are witnessed every year during rainy season. According to the plan, residents will have to subscribe to the facility through a free mobile application that will send timely alerts about water-logging, road jams, tree falls or quakes, tide timings, rainfall, etc to its users regularly.

PMC launches awareness programme to combat child sexual abuse

North-East to attract investment in tourism

The Destination North East2017 (DNE-2017) was organised to build upon the comparative advantages of the North East (NE) Region, which included Business Summit, BuyerSeller meet, exhibition stalls showcasing best features of NE to attract investment in tourism, skill, start-up, handlooms & handicrafts, horticulture, medicinal and aromatic plants.

Investment enquiries have been made by the visitors. The DNE 2017 was organised with a hope to encourage investments in the NER especially in sectors such as, Textiles, Food Processing industries, Medicinal plants, Organic horticulture produce and fresh flowers, tourism, Cane & Bamboo etc. which are inherent strengths of NER.

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May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

Pune: Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) along with the Maharashtra home department’s special cell for women and children will conduct year long educational and awareness campaigns for municipal school students to avert child sexual abuse.

Vaishali Ranade, coordinator and counselor of the special cell (Pune) said, “Children mostly from the poor sections of society are enrolled in civic schools. It has been observed that parents of these students come from the working class and pay less attention towards them.”

Childline, a helpline working for children in distress, had addressed 41 cases of child sexual abuse in September 2016 alone against 74 cases in 2015 in Pune. AnuradhaSahasrabudhe, Director of Dnyana Devi Childline says, “In many of the cases of sexual abuse of children that come to Childline, relatives or known individuals are involved. Children either call us directly or we get information and then we intervene in the matter. From father, to uncle to some close relatives, there have been several instances of child

sex abuse by relatives. There needs to be strict action or punishment against the perpetrators.” Sahasrabudhe also opines that the ‘Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act’ or POSCO is not something that the victims of child sexual abuse are familiar with.

Inadequate implementation of POSCO by enforcement agencies is also an issue.

Active intervention by the special cell hopes to address the lack of knowledge and poor enforcement.

Ranade mentions that the special cell has already conducted two workshops at two civic schools and the response was positive. She mentions, “The children must know the difference between good touch and bad touch. We will educate them on how not to fall prey to allurements. Basically, the workshops will be educative and informative and will focus on preventive or precautionary measures,” she said. The special cell is being run across the state by the home department in coordination with Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS), Mumbai.

NEWSCAN

India’s first book village to make its mark in Maharashtra’s Bhilar

MUMBAI: A village located between the hill stations of Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, popular for its strawberries will now also be known as India’s first “village of books”.

“We have identified around 25 premises like homes, school, temples and other public places in the village, where over 15,000 books would be made available for tourists for reading. In a way we are transforming the whole village into a library,” minister for culture affairs and Marathi language, Vinod Tawde said.

Bhilar has a good readership and villagers enthusiastically came forward to implement the concept, which is why it is being transformed into India’s first “village of books,” the minister said.

Artists from the village have painted the premises chosen for book readings according to various concepts. People would be able to enjoy at least 25 different forms of literature here, the minister said.

The government is planning to organise a lit fest here from time to time and a permanent exhibition on prominent literary figures of Maharashtra has also been set up, Tawde said.

The idea for this book village is inspired by Hay-on-Wye, a Welsh town known for its book stores and literature festivals. Vinod Tawde had, in February 2015, announced his plans to have such a

“Bhilar has a good readership and villagers enthusiastically came forward to implement the concept, which is why it is being transformed into India’s first “village of books. Around 15,000 books would be available for tourists for reading. In a way we are transforming the whole village into a library”

NMC ties up with German firm to build WTE plant

Nashik municipal corporation (NMC) has tied up with German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to develop a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. GIZ will be giving funds around Rs 6.8 Cr. Ramky Enviro Engineers Ltd has been awarded the project. 20 metric tonnes (MT) of bio-waste and 10 kilolitre of septage from public toilets would be processed through bio-methanation and electricity will be generated. The WTE plant has a capacity of 250 KW (kilo watt).

SDMC to launch app to monitor vector-borne diseases

Vinod Tawde Minister for Cultural Affairs and Marathi Language

village in Maharashtra.

As of now, all the books provided by the Maharashtra government are in Marathi.

Books written in Hindi and English will be added to this collection, and they will comprise roughly 15-20 per cent of the total books. Author interactions, literary events and book-readings will also be conducted in the village, Tawde said.

With vector-borne diseases striking early this year, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) will soon launch an application for better monitoring of the disease. The application will have a feature to mark every household visited by domestic breeding checkers (DBCs). Through this, DBC can mark the number of times they have visited a house, areas where breeding was found, challans issued and steps taken to control it.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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Naidu launched 352 housing projects in 53 cities

At a function in Gandhinagar, HUPA Minister, M Venkaiah Naidu recently launched 352 housing projects in 53 cities in 17 States across the country with an investment of over Rs 38000 cr to build over two lakh houses.

To be taken up by members of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) across the country,it is the first major private investments initiative into affordable housing. Over one lakh units are to be built in Maharashtra, 41,921 houses in National Capital Region, 28,465 in Gujarat, 7,037 in Karnataka, 6,055 in Uttar Pradesh.

Fire at Pirana landfill worries corporation, citizens Municipal landfill site, Pirana in Ahmedabad recently caught fire in its garbage mounds. Just 24 hours after it was controlled, it caught fire again. Over a thousand residents ran out of their houses due to suffocation and breathing trouble from methane gas. The nearby residents are the survivors of 2002 massacre living in the Naroda and Gulbarg.

Later, victims demonstrated on Khodiyarnagar-Piplaj Road, causing traffic jam and demanded closure of the fourdecade-old landfill site.

20 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEWSCAN

New Delhi railway station becomes smart in energy saving New Delhi: New Delhi station, one of the busiest terminals of the country, is likely to save around Rs 13 lakh a year with implementation of a smart system to control power consumption as per preprogrammed schedule.

There are 6,000 lights and 1,500 fans and 18 high mast lights at this station which handles about five lakh passengers and more than 300 trains in a day.

Micro-processor based control system, which is accessible through web or smart phone has been implemented to control all fans, lights as per the pre-programmed schedule in sync with weather forecast, said Delhi Divisional Railway Manager, Arun Arora. The cost of this work was Rs 37 lakh and the energy savings per

annum are being realised to the tune of Rs 13 lakh per annum thereby giving rate of return of 35 per cent and CO2 reduction by 70 tonnes per annum.

Referring to renewable energy, he said the division has undertaken initiatives in leveraging solar power.

The currently installed solar panel capacity is 412 KWP leading to annual saving of Rs 54 lakh. Another work at New Delhi at Platform No 2/3 is for 140 KWP with annual saving of Rs 21 lakh has been undertaken at the division.

The division has awarded two works of 20 MW for leveraging solar power at Shakurbasti, Jind, Bhatinda, DelhiAmbala, Ghaziabad-Meerut and DelhiRewari sections.

Four wind power plants dedicated to nation Four wind power plants built by Nalco (National Aluminium Company) with the capacity of 1 mtpawill provide employment to thousands of local youths Bhubaneswar: Union minister of tribal affairs Jual Oram and Union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal dedicated four wind power plants to the nation built by Nalco and announced its expansion plan to raise its capacity to 1 mtpa.

The plants which are being built at a cost of Rs 1,350 crore arelocated at Gandikota in Andhra Pradesh (50.4MW), Ludarwa in Rajasthan (47.6MW), Devikot in Rajasthan (50MW) and Jath in Maharashtra (50.4MW). Company plans to install more power plants of 120 MW, besides installing solar units.

Oram, who had worked briefly with Nalco in the 1980s before joining politics, said: “It is good to see that Nalco is again focusing on production in the state.”

Goyal said: “We are taking concrete steps to enhance Nalco’s production capacities. There is a major expansion programme to raise Nalcos’s production

capacity to one-million-tonne per annum.

The company will provide employment to thousands of local youths, thereby ensuring that they did not need to migrate to other places in search of jobs.”

Nalco chairman-cum-managing director Tapan Chand said, “We are evaluating possibilities of putting up a 150MW plant in the state. We have already approached the state government to this effect for getting clearance. According to the proposal, it will attract investment of Rs 900 crore.”

AnMoU was signed by Nalco with IIT-Bhubaneswar on Research and Development and another with MIDHANI on high value products in the presence of the union ministers.

The ministers also handed over cheques to 10 girl students belonging to below-poverty-line families from Angul and Damanjodi as part of the “Nalco kiLadli” scheme.

NEWSCAN

NDMC launches smart idea: Dump your waste, get paid These smart bins-cum-vending machines will recycle the bottles and cans using the latest technology. Only plastic materials can be thrown into the smart bin and people will get money in return New Delhi: Under the Smart City Project, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has installed smart vending machines for recyclable waste at Connaught Place and India Gate which will be made functional in a couple of days as they are still being tested. The smart machines give monetary reward to anyone who disposes waste like plastic, glass bottle and papers.

NDMC chairman Naresh Kumar said, “Last year the council had installed its first smart vending machine in Connaught Place. The newly installed ones have more features compared to the earlier one”.

“The concept is to give people something in return for disposing waste. It is important to segregate the waste and this is the smart way of doing it. Anyone can dispose plastic bottles, glass bottles and papers, and will get Rs one, Rs two and Rs three respectively in return. For bigger bottles people will receive Rs three and for plastic bags, they will get Rs one per bag,” said Kumar.

Kumar also said that the machines are linked to e-wallets and money will be transferred there directly.

“While disposing any waste in the machine, people will have to register with their e-wallets which is only a two-minute procedure and money will be transferred into the e-wallet,” said Kumar.

Kumar clarified that the machines are linked with e-wallets because they have additional features and allow people to buy movie tickets, local DTC bus tickets, Volvo tickets, transfer money, recharge, book parking, cabs

and pay bills as well.

“The machine has numerous features. It has free Wi-Fi, which allows people to book train tickets, platform tickets and book hotels too. Even NDMC 311 bills can be paid through MaxPay wallet,” he said.

One can also enter Aadhaar card or thumb impression to open bank accounts or purchase sim cards, get doctor’s appointment and pay school fees with the machine.

However, these vending machines are still being tested before being functional to all. NDMC has installed four such machines across Connaught Place and one at India Gate. Kumar added that more such machines will be installed across NDMC area after reviewing the new ones.

In December last year, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated two such ‘smart dustbins’ at Palika Bazaar gate number 2 which was first of its kind in the country, under the smart city project of NDMC in which only plastic bottles or cans can be thrown in the smart bin and people will get coupons in return. The results were good and NDMC is expecting same for this initiative as well.

“Dustbins are the most important aspect of cleanliness in public areas as well as markets due to heavy footfall,” said NDMC Chairman Naresh Kumar.

The installation of smart bin is to promote behavioral attitude and encourage people to use dustbins.

With the installation of such bins will inculcate a habit of using dustbins.

The smart bin will also act as vending machines as people will get coupons or money in return for dumping plastic and cans in these bins. The smart bin will help segregate the waste and recycle items.

These smart bins-cum-vending machines will recycle the bottles and cans using the latest technology. Only plastic materials can be thrown into the smart bin and people will get money in return. The NDMC has decided to install such dustbins in other commercial areas too.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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NEWSCAN

BJP sweeps civic polls in Delhi ♦♦ The division of responsibility must be fixed vis-à-vis centre, state and MCDs. All three organs should shed their obstructionist role and rather become facilitators. Only then quality of urban or even rural life can be enhanced. ♦♦ Mission achieved now time to shed obstructionism Delhi: The counting day of urban local bodies in Delhi on 26th April did not throw any surprise. As expected Bharatiya Janata Party swept all three municipal bodies. In fact, even after running Municipal Corporations for two consecutive terms, which was mired by allegations of huge corruption, inefficiency and multiple strikes, BJP managed to better its record and won a third consecutive term. In 2012, the party had won 138 out of total 272 seats. This time it won a whopping 181 seats decimating its rivals Aam Aadmi Party and Congress. AAP that made its full debut in these elections was left holding the broom, its election symbol, and was swept away by the BJP tsunami. The party managed to win only 48 seats. Congress which won 78 seats in 2012 had to settle with just 30 corporators this time.

Gainers and losers

BJP and Congress emerged as gainers and AAP was the biggest loser if we compare the assembly results of 2015.

AAP had won 67 seats out of 70 while BJP has to remain content with just 3. Congress had failed to even open its account. A look at vote share of all three parties shows that compared to 2015 assembly elections BJP vote share went up by four percent and that of congress by a little over 12 percent, though it did not translate into seats for them. Aam Aadmi Party lost more than fifty percent of its vote share and settled with just a little over twenty six percent compared to fifty four percent in 2015.

BJP’s strategy and its success

BJP, from day one knew that odds are

22 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

stacked against them after running the municipal bodies for last ten years. So the party went for a kill with its decision to not give ticket to any sitting corporator or even their family members and relatives to negate antiincumbency factor. The Party fielded all new faces in the elections and though PM Narendra Modi did not campaign he was omnipresent. His photographswere all over the place, he was on radio, TV and print advertisements of the party. And lastly the party managed to convince the voters of Delhi that the state government headed by Arvind Kejriwal did not allow the municipal bodies to work in the last two years by withholding funds and creating hurdles through its negative politics.

A Union minister and senior BJP leader summed up the party’s victory and said “the massive victory of BJP in MCD is another indicator of mood of the nation. They want to go with development agenda of PM. It’s like a capital punishment to AAP by People of Delhi. Despite getting huge mandate the AAP government looked at the MCD as enemy and did everything to stop them functioning”.

The writing was on the wall for AAP. Delhi’s voters certainly perceived its politics as negative and voted against it. If anybody is to be blamed for AAP’s debacle at the hustings it is the party itself which was seen all the time fighting either with the centre or the local bodies. Disillusionment and anger of the voters against BJP shifted towards Aam Aadmi Party and the party paid a heavy price for it. Congress which has almost gone into oblivion after 2015 assembly elections made a comeback of sorts and can take some solace from the fact that its vote share

more than doubled and got back its sizeable chunk of supporters that had shifted their allegiance to AAP earlier.

BJP led corporations have their hands full

The party in the run up to the elections maintained and had promised that they will make Delhi as ‘envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’. The national capital needs total overhauling to make it a liveable city. The five major challenges that the new corporation will face is on the fronts of sanitation, turning its finances and replenishing its coffers to pay its employees, control vector-borne diseases, cleaning the environment and restoring the services to the citizens of Delhi. Apart from this there are other challenges like parking, licenses for hawkers and street vendors, cleaning and maintaining the public spaces and free them from encroachments.

While the new corporations are expected to pick up these issues at the earliest, what is of utmost importance is that all three layers of government in Delhi must come together to solve the problems of the city. The first indication came from Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal who after the results were out tweeted “my government looks forward to working with all three MCDs for betterment of Delhi”.

While BJP is celebrating its massive victory, it is now tasked with putting the corporations back on track and make them functional. The division of the responsibility must be fixed vis-àvis centre, state and MCDs. All three organs should shed their obstructionist role and rather become facilitators.

Only then quality of urban or even rural life can be enhanced.

NEWSCAN

Delhi corporations to bring prudent fiscal management Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, National Vice-president of BJP and Rajya Sabha MP, oversaw BJP campaign in MCD elections. He speaks to Urban Update and explains what is the plan of BJP leaders in the house for Delhi

You managed to overcome huge antiincumbency. What was BJP’s strategy and focal point of the campaign?

Our strategy was three pronged. To provide opportunity for young and fresh talents, fresh and innovative ideas and renew our efforts to make people aware of our work and the mis-governance as well as obstructionism of AAP government in Delhi. To be honest, there was no huge anti-incumbency.

Had that been the case, why would we have talked about our past performance in MCDs? Now that you have registered such a massive victory, what are the immediate priorities for the civic body?

Our newly elected members will prioritise issues after going into the nitty-gritty. But we have explained

State Government should have worked on its promises of providing well lit public places, putting marshals in buses and so on and so forth

our plans elaborately in our Charter of Commitments. On the whole, our emphasis will be on enhancing the quality of urban life in Delhi. People are fed up of freebies. They want good services and we are committed to provide them.

One of the ways you dealt with antiincumbency was to deny tickets to all sitting corporators and their relatives.

As a strategy that worked but also indicates that it was an indirect admission of corruption charges against BJP run corporations in Delhi.

Not at all. It was an organisational strategy. We in BJP are known for taking decisions in the larger interest of the people. We had taken such decisions in the past too. Many of our old hands will now be put to use in party organisation.

To improve services in Delhi benefitting the citizens, all three organs that is centre, state and civic bodies need to work together. Given the experience of last two years do you see that happening? Or the confrontation will go on?

Well, this question needs to be addressed to the Delhi CM. In the past, as told by our MPs in Delhi, the CM did not bother even to hold a meeting

with all MPs. Perhaps, his huge 2015 victory made him think that the MPs and Municipal Bodies are lame duck representatives. The recent verdict has shown that in fact his government is now a lame duck government. At least now one hopes that wiser counsels will prevail and the Delhi government starts cooperating with MCDs. Security of women is a big issue in Delhi. There are many dark spots in the city which have been identified but nothing has been done. Will we see some movement in that direction?

Again, the State Government should have worked on its promises of providing well lit public places, putting marshals in buses and so on and so forth. They must understand that simply pointing fingers to others won’t work.

All three corporations are financially in the red. How do you propose to get them out of it given the populist measures announced during the campaign?

There are no populist things in our Charter of Commitments. We have and we will augment income of corporations through smart and prudent fiscal management.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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COVER STORY | Cities & Jargons

COVER STORY | Cities & Jargons

Chuck Urban

jargons

The world is becoming predominately urban. It is always expanding and so is the vocabulary relating to city development. A lot of new buzz words are thrown around to put forward the idea about specific kinds of urban development. We must stay away from pointless gobbledygook to focus on real issues plaguing our cities

24 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

HOSPITAL

Abhishek Pandey | Editor abhishek@aiilsg.org

T

HO T EL

here is no rule book for building a city yet the cities, these days, are planned around certain naming conventions.

These conventions decide the initial planning and priorities of a city.

Indian cities are writing a new growth story with novel development plans and the prospects of fine urban living.

The plans for new-age cities are weaved around a couple of jargons and the most popular among them is Smart City. Government of India had announced a Mission on this in 2015. But, what is a smart city? There is no universally accepted definition.

For cities in the developed world, smart cities represent the kind of cities which provide ‘open data’ based solutions using Internet of Things and other modern technological interventions at the world’s disposal.

One size does not fit all. The above definition does not feature in Smart Cities Mission guidelines released

by GoI. For countries like India,

smart cities mean equitable and efficient provision of basic services for every citizen. That means if our cities are providing drinking water, sewage network, clean roads, housing solutions, waste management facilities to all then cities qualify to become smart. However, Indian government has kept it open for urban local bodies to interpret smart city as per their own strengths and requirements and the cities have come out with their plans.

Every city has its own requirements and so they must create their own definition of urban jargons. It is true that the city development around a specific idea provides urban planners and decision makers a straight path and prioritises their specific objectives. This also makes policy formulation easier but such plans do not necessarily address all the problems. And, there is possibility that certain sectors or the concerns of a section of society are left out in such scheme of things.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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COVER STORY | Cities & Jargons

What do these jargons really mean…

Inclusive City

An inclusive city is a city in which the processes of development include a wide variety of citizens and activities. These cities maintain their wealth and creative power by avoiding marginalization, which compromises the richness of interaction upon which cities depend. (Source: Inclusive Urbanism)

Resilient City

A Resilient City is one that has developed capacities to help absorb future shocks and stresses to its social, economic, and technical systems and infrastructures so as to still be able to maintain essentially the same functions, structures, systems, and identity. (Source: 100ResillientCity Project)

Sponge City

A sponge city is a city that is designed to passively absorb, clean and use rainfall in an ecologically friendly way that reduces dangerous and polluted runoff.

Associated techniques include permeable roads, rooftop gardens, rainwater harvesting, rain gardens, green space and blue space such as ponds and lakes.

(Source: Policy document, China’s Sponge City)

Livable City

There are five fundamental aspects of great, livable cities: robust and complete neighborhoods, accessibility and sustainable mobility, a diverse and resilient local economy, vibrant public spaces, and affordability.

(Source: Livable City Plan of San Fransico)

Sustainable City Development

Improving the quality of life in a city, including ecological, cultural, political, institutional, social and economic components without leaving a burden on the future generations. A burden which is the result of a reduced natural capital and an excessive local debt. Our aim is that the flow principle, that is based on an equilibrium of material and energy and also financial input/output, plays a crucial role in all future decisions upon the development of urban areas.

(Source: The definition of sustainable urban development came up during URBAN21 Conference in Berlin)

Smart City and Definitions “A Smart City provides effective integration of physical, digital and human systems in the built environment to deliver a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future for its citizens.” (Source: BSI PAS 180- Smart Cities Vocabulary) “Smart Cities use Information – Communication Technology (ICT) to engage citizens, to deliver city services, and to enhance urban systems.”

(Source: European Parliament Report)

“A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of the present and future generations with respect to economic, social and environmental aspects.”

(Source: ITU’s Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities)

26 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

If a city aspires to become a global city and hub of business activities, can it ignore its urban environment and sustain? Same way, if a city is striving to become a green city; can it ignore the introduction of modern technology in its delivery mechanism and infrastructure development.

The answer is an obvious no.

The sad part is that it does happen.

Take the example of Gurgaon (now Gurugram), the city was developed at a fast pace by acquiring land from farmers and other land owners to make it the hub of international business activities. It did become so in a couple of years but the city planners and developers gave little focus to integrating other key components such as efficient drainage, accessibility for all, pedestrian pathways, or effective traffic management. Such problems are still plaguing the city and incessant rain in July last year underlined the gap in planning. City planners and local leaders must stop following the herd and pick up best components from all popular urban naming conventions to make their cities better.

Jargons and city development

Urbanists world over have coined scores of jargons but most of these remain less understood or misunderstood. The prime reason is that there is no standardization of terminology being used in the domain. These terms cannot be put in water-tight compartments. Take the example of most popular term in urban development sphere— Smart City. Several definitions have been conceptualized by different organizations.

It is just one example. Urban development sphere has seen evolution of many such terms relating to kinds of cities being popularized.

These include Intelligent City, Digital City, Inclusive City, Green City, Equitable City, Sponge City, Ghost City, Low-Carbon City, Livable City, Climate Resilient City, etc. And, if one scratches the surface, the story

behind conceptualization of the idea can be revealed. None of these terms have any standard definition.

Cities have adopted these ideas and begun implementing essential requisite policy changes and project plans in their existing development framework. Adopting of these terms for a city reflects the aspirations and vision of city leaders, planners and their citizens.

The question lingers—are we mindlessly becoming part of the herd and ignoring the real issues plaguing our cities? There is no harm in building a smart city but can a smart city be equitable it terms of service delivery. City leaders, planners and technical experts, must reinvent the definition rather enlarge the scope by including essential components for long term sustainability of the city.

Smart City Mission has addressed the issue by calling for smart city proposals from cities to define their idea of embedding smartness in their city system.

At local level, a couple of urban local bodies have even refused to implement the smart city mission because it apparently did not suit their needs. Their reasons are varied.

State government of West Bengal has decided to develop its ‘Green Cities’.

And, Navi Mumbai Corporation has denied saying that the Smart Cities Mission would give India’s central government increased powers over urban local bodies and elected representatives, as Special Purpose Vehicle would give more powers to bureaucrats.Such powers were constitutionally reserved for local authorities.

The nation’s process of bringing change in cities is contested at various levels. And, this appears to be part of the process that would evolve a strong model of city development and management.

City and their evolution

Any city in any country in the world evolved over a period to serve some specific purpose. This is true for Indian cities too. Take the example of a mid-

If a city aspires to become a global city and hub of business activities, can it ignore its urban environment and sustain? The answer is an obvious no. The gloomy part is that it does happen.

Take the example of Gurgaon (now Gurugram), the city was turned into a hub of international business activities but the city planners and developers gave little focus to integrating other key components such as efficient drainage, accessibility for all, pedestrian pathways, or effective traffic management. Following the herd mindlessly would result in creating urban mess

size city like Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Though, it is older than many Indian cities it did not exist two centuries ago.

It began taking its shape when British made it (then Cawnpore) one of their key garrisons.

The English contributed in shaping the city and the vestiges of British era can still be found in the city. Post independence, industrial revolution, especially setting up of jute and cotton mills, made the city an industrial city.

Migrants from different parts of the state and nearby states came in for employment and gave it a metropolitan flavor. It did not strive to become an industrial city.

It evolved through a process.

Similarly, Bengaluru, from the very beginning, was not meant to be an IT Capital of India but when the industry flourished, the governments supported the development by addressing infrastructural needs and city came into a shape.

Our idea of terming a city’s development in a certain water-tight compartment does reflect what we want to make out of that city but the problem is that city builders must not make the development process pointed in just one direction. We need holistic development model for addressing multiple problems of the city.

According to a report ‘Reconceptualising Smart Cities: A Reference Framework for India’

by Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, “Towns and cities, unlike rivers and mountains, are human creations. They reflect

our aspirations and respond to the challenges of that era. Cities are the response to social, political or technological transformations. New Delhi was built for ease of ruling a large land, while Jamshedpur was created as a company town for the steel makers, presenting all modern conveniences of a city in a state that was largely rural.

“Unfolding technologies can create new opportunities that old towns could not even imagine. The new towns of midland England were the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, which created extensive opportunities for work and play.

More recently, the Silicon Valley was created, transforming the rich agricultural Californian land for unleashing the multitude of opportunities that silicon chips create.

India too has its own Electronics City in Bangalore where Information Technology rules.”

These explanations talk about the business side of city development but we may shift focus to define the type of cities on the basis of its urban environment and service delivery.

Every city is trying to find out its own expertise by introducing new policies in development plans, mobility plans, landscaping, green cover, and service delivery mechanism.

The mad rush to adopt a fancy term for city development would not help. A conclusive solution model having components to address the problems of a city must be taken into consideration for better results at ground level.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

27

Numerographs | Cities & Their Performances

India

By 2030

590

270

million people will live in cities

91

million people net increase in workingage population

million households will be middle-class

900

million square meters of commercial and residential space needed

$1.2

trillion capital investment is needed to meet projected demand in cities

Top 10 cities for Green buildings 2016 64

Paris

London has the highest percentage of green building projects (68%).

48

Singapore Shanghai

15

Beijing Tokyo

11 London 8

Dubai

8 Paris

Sydney

Singapore 6

New York

5Shanghai

Hong Kong

4 Beijing 0

68

Green Buildings (%)

64 48

London and Paris have more than half of the built stock (64%) certified as ‘Green’.

15 11

Tokyo 20

840

Dubai

8

60

Green (%) (%) GreenBuildings Buildings

80

Criteria Sydney landscape 6 (30%), Green Building Efficiency and Performance (25%) City-wide Green Building Green BuildingNew Policies Yorkand Targets 5 (12.5%), Green city culture and environment (32.5%) 4

Hong Kong

Mercer’s 19th Annual Quality of40 Living60Survey-2017 0 20 80 Countries Vienna (Austria) Zuric (Switzerland) Auckland (New Zealand) Munich (Bavaria) Vancouver (Canada) Dusseldorf (Germany) Frankfurt (Germany) Geneva (Switzerland) Copenhagen (Denmark) Basel (Switzerland)

Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Mercer evaluates more than 450 cities surveyed Worldwide.

The only non-European cities in the top ten are Auckland at no. three and Vancouver at no. five

Ranking that assesses each city’s supply of electricity, drinking water, telephone and mail services and public transport as well as traffic congestion and the range of international flights available from local airports

Top Tourist Cities 2016 21.47

Bangkok

19.88

London

21.47

18.03

Paris

15.27

Dubai

12.75

New York City

12.11

Singapore

19.88

18.03

Number of International Visitors in 2016 (In million)

15.27 12.02

Kuala Lumpur

11.95 12.75 11.7

Istanbul Tokyo

Number of of International International Visitors in 2016 Visitors in 2016 (million) (In million)

12.1110.2

Seoul 0

12.02

5

10

15

20

25

11.95 11.7 10.2 0

5 May 201710 15 28 | www.urbanupdate.in

20

25

Metromorphosis

68

London

68

cities will have population of over 1 million

7400

70%

kilometers of metros and subways will be needed

40%

of India’s GDP will come from cities

70%

of India’s population will be urban

of net new employment will be generated in cities

City Momentum Index, 2017

97.5

Cities are changing with the introduction of new policy regime at national and local level. City governments are making all possible efforts to stand tall in desire indexes. We look at some key 97.4 97.3 97.2 ranking systems96.6 to adjudge where do our cities stand...

City Bengaluru Ho Chi Minh City Silicon Valley Shanghai Hyderabad London Austin Hanoi Boston Nairobi

Factor Responsible Technology hub FDI Hotspots Technology hub Business centre Technology hub Innovation and Education Technology hub FDI Hotspots Technology hub Silicon Savannah

Liveability Index 2016

98 97.5 97 96.5 96 95.5 95 94.5

96.6

96.1

95.9

Team UrbanUpdate

95.7

97.5

97.4

97.3

97.2 96.6

96.6

96.1

95.9

95.7

95.6

Two Indian cities, New Delhi (ranked Overall Rating (100=ideal) 110) and Mumbai (115) scored 58.9 and 56.9 in EIU’s Liveability Index.

95.6 OverallRating Rating(100=ideal) (100=ideal) Overall

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) surveyed 140 cities in 2016 and assigned rating relative to New York for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five categories; stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

World’s Most polluted Cities Gwalior, India MAzar-e-Sharif, Afghnistan Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia Riyadh, saudi Arabia Aba, Nigeria

PM10 particulate PM10 particulate conc, micrograms per cubic conc, micrograms per meter, annual mean cubic meter, annual mean (Updated 2016)

Kaduna, Nigerai

Source: ADB, EIU, WHO,Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated, McKinsey Report , Mercer’s survey, Solidiance Research and Analysis , Global Destination Cities Index, Mastercard Inc.

Rawalpindi, pakistan Zabol, Iran Peshawar, pakistan Onitsha, Nigeria 0

200

400

600

800

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

29

Leaderspeak | U

Ranjit S Chavan President, AIILSG

Cities need sustainable business model There is no such thing as a free lunch. The saying fits in the case of cities too. If our cities have to perform better on various indexes relating to livability, sustainability, and efficiency, they have to build a sustainable business model for service and infrastructure projects to ensure long-term viability, and for moving the projects beyond trials to full city roll-outs

I

ndian cities, after 70 years of independence, have not been able to develop a financial model that can take care of their operational expenses; forget about generating additional revenue for investing in the new infrastructure or projects for improving service delivery and city management system.

Almost all municipal bodies in India are facing funds crunch.

Financial source from ULB’s activities

As per the 12th schedule, municipal functions include urban planning including town planning; regulation of land-use and construction of buildings; planning for economic and social development; roads and bridges, water supply for domestic, industrial and commercial purposes; public health, sanitation conservancy and solid waste management; fire services; urban forestry, protection of the environment and promotion of ecological

30 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

aspects; safeguarding the interests of weaker sections of society, including the handicapped and mentally retarded; slum improvement and upgradation; urban poverty alleviation; provision of urban amenities and facilities such as parks, gardens, playgrounds; promotion of cultural, educational and aesthetic aspects; burials and burial grounds; cremations, cremation grounds and electric crematoriums; cattle pounds and prevention of cruelty to animals; vital statistics including registration of births and deaths; public amenities including street lighting, parking lots, bus stops and public conveniences; regulation of slaughter houses and tanneries.

Out of these functions, less than half have a supporting financing source.

The corporation is responsible for taking care of stray animals but there is no income involved in the activity. Similarly, many

of these works such as fire services, maintenance of parks have no or very little source of income.

State of financial affairs

A recent survey, in March this year, by a non-government organization Jaanagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, revealed that cities do not earn enough to pay the salaries of their employees. The survey states that the salary component of employees of Patna Municipal Corporation is 320% more than its total earnings. In the other five cities surveyed, which fall in this category, the salary expense is in the range of 128-199% of the total income of the municipalities.

Indian urban space is expanding. There are 52 urban agglomerations with populations of over a million and cities generate 63 per cent of nation’s GDP. The government estimates that 70 per cent net new employment will be generated in cities by

2030. This further expansion would require focused investment in civic services and urban infrastructure.

The critical question is not where will money come from because there are national and international financial institutions which can offer financial assistance to urban local bodies to plan and implement the projects of public welfare but it is the responsibility of urban local bodies to present a viable business model to sustain the projects and achieve the break-even in a stipulated time period. The new development schemes are targeted to bring in financial reforms in ULBs through accounting reforms and introducing enhanced financial understanding for generating more revenue through existing resources and create new sources of income.

Infrastructure is an enormous challenge for urbanization. A report by McKinsey Global Institute estimates that between 2013 and 2030, US$57 trillion of investment will be needed globally, mainly in Roads, Power, Water

and Telecom technologies.

The Report on Indian Urban Infrastructure and Services (2011) estimates that Indian cities need to invest Rs 40 lakh crore (at 2009-10 prices) on urban infrastructure over the 20-year period from 2012 to 2031.

Can running cities be profitable?

Why not. Cities can earn money. Smart City Mission is an initiative that is targeted to bring in a financial reform in urban local bodies and make them financially self-reliant.

These missions not just look at how can ULBs generate more revenue but also look at how corporations can fill gaps to ensure efficient utilization of resources.

Municipal corporations can generate revenue through internal and external sources.

At present, internal revenue sources like the property tax and user charges are the most important funding levers available to a municipality because without effective, predictable generation of internal revenues, it will be

Municipal corporations, despite as many as 18 roles assigned to them in the 12th Schedule after the implementation of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, have not been able to develop any sustainable revenue generating tool to meet their expenditure requirements. Out of these functions performed by municipal bodies under the 74th CAA, less than half have a supporting financing source

a tremendous challenge to attract new, external sources of funding. Municipal bond market is at a nascent stage and has not been explored well as only a couple of cities have come up with municipal bonds. According to a research paper published

by IFMR Finance Foundation on Sustaining Finances for Indian Cities, “the municipal bond market has also seen some very valuable innovation in the form of the pooled bond mechanism to enable small and medium sized cities that lack the requisite credit worthiness and expertise to access the capital market on their own.� Union government is gradually moving in the direction and has introduced credit rating for cities that will be useful in launching of municipal bonds for the corporations.

The government has engaged many institutions and consultants for improving the financial health of urban local bodies. A couple of years ago, introduction of double entry accounting reform to bring transparency, was such a step. AIILSG played an important role in rolling out the reform in many Indian states including in the North East region of the country.

Cities can also be enabled and empowered to tap their unused potential and increase and diversify own-source revenues in innovative ways such as land-based finance.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

31

Article | Smart Capital City

Amaravati: The Building of Andhra’s New Capital The model of Amaravati will be an epitome of worldclass smart city where city planners have incorporated many ideas including transit oriented development, modern waste collection and disposal mechanisms and maintaining the ecological balance with green spaces which will provide high quality living for its occupants Akash Mandyal Editorial Assistant

A

maravati has been envisioned as a worldclass smart city which is being built on the banks of the river Krishna. After the acquisition of 32,000 acres of land from farmers by the N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Amaravati is geared up to become a well-planned smart capital city. Maintaining the equilibrium between farmers and the government Mr Naidu said, “We made them partners in the capital project under the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) by returning developed plots of 1,000 sq. yards for residential use and 250 sq. yards and 400 sq. yards for commercial use for farmers of dry and wet lands respectively, for every acre taken away.”

The city will be an epitome of worldclass infrastructure and efficient resource management that will provide high quality living for its occupants.

The new city is being constructed at an expected cost of 1 trillion rupees on 217.23 square kilometers and is expected to generate jobs to sustain a population of 9-12 million people in the surrounding capital region.

For this project Singapore, China and Japan became source of inspiration and finally the core capital master plan’s work was given to a Singapore firm – SurbanaJurong Private limited

32 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

and the design to Japanese company Maki and associates for the 16.9 sq.km core capital formation. The master plan is divided into 3 parts by Surbana Jurong Private Limited. It also drew on Singapore’s expertise and experience in urban planning and governance and project execution. The Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) and Singapore Cooperation Enterprise have begun to provide capacity development training in various areas for Andhra Pradesh government officials who will be involved in the development of Amaravati and the capital region.

According to the master plan for the seed capital area (SCA), the core

city will be spread over 16.9 sq.km and the development of the city will be completed in five stages by four different departments.

Gateway, Down-town, Government core and Water-front are the four departments to carry out the respective developments.

Amaravati Downtown: The Amaravati Downtown as per Amaravati Seed Capital Area Master Plan is the commercial heart of the capital city which has the best access through public transit.

Amaravati Gateway: The eastern entry to the city is from the semi express way connecting Gannavaram Airport to the City. As per Amaravati Seed Capital Area Master Plan, this node will create the first impression of the Capital City because it forms the gateway to the city. It has been designed in a way to create the necessary impact that one needs to feel while entering the Capital City. The bridge is designed in itself to become a symbol of the city to welcome the arrivals.

Amaravati Government Core: The government core is probably the most important area of the Capital City. This area will cover 16.7 sq.km and comprise the AP Legislative assembly, Legislative council, High court, Secretariat, Raj Bhawan, quarters for ministers and officials, and the township for

government officials. The seed capital area (SCA) will be home for about three lakh residents. The business hub is expected to generate seven lakh jobs in various sectors including government.

Phase one of Amaravati Seed Capital Area Master Plan is completion of Amaravati Government core which includes Assembly, Secretariat, civic plaza, city gallery, state ministries and government housing.

Amaravati waterfront: In Amaravati Seed Capital Area Master Plan, Amaravati waterfront is envisioned as an active public waterfront with large public buildings which will attract people to the waterfront. The Amaravati plaza is a grand plaza that will be a multipurpose space housing activities such as waterfront amphitheaters, traditional street hawkers, etc. in order to create an interesting yet compatible mix of activities.Amaravati will possess a distinctive river front with lush open spaces for its citizens to enjoy. Innovative approaches are envisaged to turn the reservoirs, storm water detention ponds and canals into locales for public enjoyment even as they perform the critical functions of storing water and controlling flooding. This includes iconic towers, waterfront commercial, Amaravati flyer, promenade, performing arts

It took 12 years for Astana, Kazaksthan’s capital, to grow up to support a 1.2 million population. Our Chief Minister is targeting to reach this level in five to seven years. Our biggest challenge is to make 1 million population live in Amaravati city in the next seven years Dr Sreedhar Cherukuri Capital Regional Development Authority, Andhra Pradesh

theatre, convention center and indoor sports center.

Amaravati’s model comprises nine cities – knowledge city, health city, financial city, tourism city, government city, sports city, electronics city, justice city and education city. The capital city has been planned for about 500,000 residents. Its first phase is expected to be completed by 2018.

City planners have incorporated many ideas including transit oriented development, modern waste collection and disposal mechanisms and maintaining the ecological balance with green spaces. A regional expressway and an outer regional expressway will connect various towns to the core capital region. A dedicated freight corridor will connect with highways leading to New Delhi via Hyderabad.

National waterway 4 proposed to be developed on Wazirabad-VijayawadaRajahmundry-Kakinada routes connecting other places via rivulets and canals. An airport planned at Mangalagiri and 5 corridors will have high speed railways.

The six key factors taken into consideration for this master plan are “providing jobs and homes, world class infrastructure, quality living, protecting identity and heritage and resource management and environment”. To provide and enhance mobility and accessibility to the citizens, the master plan provides a transport hierarchy that comprises of an integrated network of metro rail of about 12 kms, bus rapid transit of about 15 kms, downtown road of about 7 kms, arterial roads and sub-arterial roads of about 26 kms and collector roads of about 53 kms with varying broad right-of-way.

Laying emphasis on sustainability, renewable energy too occupies a place in Amravati smart city model. The city is being planned on sustainable development principles, extensive large open green spaces have been planned that shall add value to the urban ecosystem. Recognizing the unique value of Amaravati’s location beside the Krishna River, the master plan preserves much of the existing greenery and waterways, while

introducing new parks, gardens and recreational facilities such as a cricket stadium. The landscape would create world class aesthetic appeal to make the city livable and attractive. Special emphasis has been laid to enhance development of extensive walkways and pedestrianisation interlinked with open and green spaces with a blue and green network of more than 25 kms to promote walk-to-work environment and non-motorized transport.

Giving the example of Astana, Kazaksthan’s capital, Dr Sreedhar Cherukuri, Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh Capital Regional Development Authority (CRDA) said, “It took 12 years for Astana, Kazaksthan’s capital, to grow up to supporta 1.2 million population. Our Chief Minister is targeting to reach this level in five to seven years. Our biggest challenge is to make 1 million population live in Amaravati city in the next seven years.”

He said, “Funding for the capital city is not an issue. Around six to seven proposals from multilateral agencies are in an advanced stage. International collaboration is also being worked out.

We have HUDCO, World Bank, ADB, AIB and BRICS proposals. China and the UK are showing interest. A French delegation has also come and met us. They expressed their interest to provide technical assistance as well as execute public transportation, water and sewerage, energy as well as smart city solutions. Additionally, the French Development Agency has expressed its keenness to fund key public transport systems and focus infrastructure projects in Amaravati.”

Return of farmer’s plots, developing critical infrastructure like roads, water supply, power in the entire capital city, developing internal amenities in neighbourhood (plots given to farmers) and getting economic value to the city are among CRDA’s priorities.

“We have already allotted land to Vellore Institute of Technology, Indo UK Hospital and Tirumula Tirupati Devasthanams for the setting up of a replica of Tirumala temple. Around 900 acre of land is allocated for government complexes,” Dr Sreedhar said.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

33

Article | Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor

DMIC aims to develop world class infrastructural and sustainable cities DMIC aims to develop new manufacturing cities, logistical hubs and residential townships along the 1500 km stretch that will incorporate the philosophy of sustainability and development. Once completed, these cities will be the hallmark of a resurgent India Pinaki Das | Editorial Assistant

D

elhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is a mega infra-structure project of USD 90 billion (Rs. 5,85,000Crore) covering an overall length of 1483 kms between Delhi and Mumbai. With financial & technical aid from Japan, DMIC envisages creation of nine mega industrial zones of about 200-250 sq. km. having infrastructure such as high speed freight line, modernized sea and air ports.

DMIC will pass through six states - U.P, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra,

with end terminals at Dadri in DelhiNCR and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) near Mumbai.

Several industrial estates and clusters, industrial hubs, with topof-the-line infrastructure would be developed along this corridor to attract foreign investment. Four projects of the first phase of DMIC are expected to be completed by 2019.

24 nodes comprising investment regions and industrial areas will be developed as part of the DMIC across the six aforementioned states. These nodes will not only facilitate the development of Central Business Districts (CBDs) in

the designated areas but will also lead to the inception of livable, aesthetically pleasing and sustainable cities. While some states will see new cities coming up, others will see additions to existing city infrastructure. A few DMIC cities mentioned below will shed light on the vision of DMIC.

Gujarat International Fin-tech City (GIFT)

GIFT city is an under-construction CBD between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Its main purpose is to provide high quality physical infrastructure so that finance GIFT City

34 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

and technology firms can expand their business and breakthroughs in an environment where factors of production are conducive to their growth. The estimated cost of the project is Rs.70, 000 Crore. GIFT City would be built by GIFT Company Limited (GIFTCL), a joint venture between Gujarat Urban Development Company Limited (GUDCOL) and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) over an 85 million sq. ft area. Some of its internationally accredited infrastructure deserves mention; ♦♦ District Cooling System (DCS) would be implemented in commercial and residential buildings. Within this, a district cooling plant cools down water to a temperatureof 4.4oC and then sends it via pipes to the Energy Transfer Station (ETS) of a building’s basement. The ETS uses the chilled water to cool the building’s water through a Plate Heat Exchanger (PHE). The chilled water flows between two pipes into the building wherein the warm water returning from the building flows between two adjacent pipes back to the PHE to be re-cooled. Electronic pumps pump the building’s cool water through the building into the Fan Coil Unit (FCU) where air is forced past the cold water tubing to produce an A/C environment.

The water leaving the FCU after it has dissipated its coolness returns to the PHE to be re-cooled. Each building room can use available thermostat to circulate the cooled air. DCS can lead to energy savings of upto 1.1 billion kWh. ♦♦ Plasma Gasification System (PGS), the first of its kind in India, will be used to treat Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). PGS uses high temperature thermal plasma to convert MSW into green energy and saleable by-products. The process involves MSW being shredded into smallest parts; these are then dumped into a hopper that will transport the shredded MSW to the plasma

chamber. Inside the chamber, N2 is supercharged with electricity by a torch to create a plasma wand, which reaches a temperature of 19,427oC. The shredded MSW breaks down at this temperature into its elemental components which can later be used to make abrasives or road material. Gas generated mainly H2 and CO, is cooled, dusted and transported for use in fuel cells and H2 vehicles.

No ash or methane is generated in this process.

Dipesh Shah, Head, (IFSC and Strategy), GIFTCL spoke to Urban Update; “Our development plan revolves around 62 million sq. ft of builtup area. Out of this, 67% is allocated to commercial setups, 22% is residential development and 11% is social facilities like schools, hospitals, clubs, etc. Our garbage collection and disposal system is completely automated and involves no human interference.”

VikramUdyogpuri, Ujjain

VikramUdyogpuri has been selected by the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) and DMICDC to be developed as a Smart City as part of PithampurDhar-Mhow Investment Region. It is located 12 km from Dewas and has a total area of 1100 acres. Some of its innovations are as follows; ♦♦ A 5.2 MLD tertiary treatment plant based on Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) technology would be deployed. The process involveswastewater going into primary treatment chamber, where the solid substances are retained.

From there, the wastewater is fed into the SBR tank (2nd chamber). Biological cleaning by microorganisms takes place in the SBR tank. Short aeration and rest phases alternate in a controlled cleaning process. The so-called activated sludge can now develop with millions of microorganisms and clean the water thoroughly.

After that a rest phase takes place during which the live sludge sinks to the bottom of the system. This allows a clarified water zone to

form at the top of the SBR tank. The purified wastewater can now be fed into a water body. Thus, sludge can be effectively cleaned. ♦♦ Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) will be implemented in the above CBD. SCADA along with Programmable Logic Controllers or PLCs would monitor critical infrastructure such as MSW and wastewater treatment plants, electric grid management systems, disaster management response systems, internet server management systems and traffic management systems amongst others. Naya Raipur in Chhattisgarh is also implementing a similar system.

Mahindra World City (MWC), Jaipur

MWC, Jaipur spans across 3000 acres and is a joint development between Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO) and Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd. It became the first city in Asia to be certified as Stage 2 of C40. C40 is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. It is the only project from Asia and emerging economies to reach stage 2.

Prashant Yadav, Business Development Manager (BDM), MWC, Jaipur spoke to Urban Update and shed some light on MWC’s status, “We are ready with our roadmap to be carbon neutral by 2025 as part of the C40 stage 2. Under this, we’ll be using 66% of recycled water & planting 1 lakh trees amongst other initiatives. There are 7 stages under this C40 initiative. We hope to achieve the top rating soon.”

MWC Jaipur is also trying to become the second food-waste free city after its sister city MWC, Chennai achieved the top spot.

The road to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its entirety is a colossal endeavor but the efforts by various stakeholders under DMIC to achieve the same with innovation and persistence is an exercise that all can learn from.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

35

Article | Liveability

Indian Cities

Why not so

livable!

Arzoo Arora | Editorial Assistant

Melbourne, for six years in a row, remains at the top of the Livability Index, released by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). No Indian city could grab a position in first hundred

O

ut of 140 cities, New Delhi ranked 110 and Mumbai ranked 115with scores of 58.9 and 56.9 whereas the top ten cities have scored above 95. No other big city of India- Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata –could find a palace in the ranking. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) surveyed 140 global cities andassigned a rating relative to New York for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

known for its women friendly and safe infrastructure. On stability parameter, two of the Canadian cities, Toronto and Calgary scored the highest.

The toppers

Why not Indian cities so livable?

Six of the top ten scoring cities are from Australia and Canada. Melbourne topped the list, scoring 100% in three parameters—Healthcare, Education and Infrastructure. Other than Melbourne, only three other global cities; Vienna, Sydney and Perth scored 100 in infrastructural facilities. Viennais

36 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

What is Livability?

A city with basic civic amenities and good urban governance is all that is needed to be called as a livable city. United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat) says that, the character and livability of a city is defined by its streets and public spaces. Livability Index looks at which cities have the best living and worst living conditions.

Indian cities have performed poorly on different livability indexes. They could not compete with other global cities. At a time when global cities are addressing climate change issues and trying to enable smart technological interventions such as Internet of things

for various city activities, Indian cities are struggling to provide basic services such as water and electricity.

According to a paper on Urban Water Supply and Sanitation by Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS), only 49 per cent of households in urbanIndia have access to piped water supply within their premises. One of the studies of UN in 2016 says that India’s most prestigious metropolises are neither lovable nor livable. The reasons could be many; and air quality could be one of them.

World Health organization (WHO) recommends that PM2.5 should be kept below 10 as an annual average, while New Delhi has an annual average of 122.

According to the report by the WHO, New Delhi is the 11th worst polluted city in the world.

Mayors of London and Paris are working smartly to curb air pollution of their cities by implementing several measures like promoting public transit and levying ‘toxicity charges’. Even after the enactment of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA), mayors do not enjoy much decision making power relating to policy change. Financial decisions are not in their hands and in addition Indian cities don’t have fixed tenure of Mayors. In some cities like in Chandigarh, they serve only for a year.

Other Livability Scales

There are several other reports on livability which give similar results for Indian cities.Mercer’s 19thQuality of Living survey assessed 230 cities globally in 2017. Cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi ranked above 140.

The 2016 Cities in Motion Index (Barcelona-based University of Navarra’s IESE Business School and the Centre for Globalisation and Strategy) ranked these cities low on most parameters for a “smart, livable city”. Out of 181 cities, New Delhi came in at 174, followed

by Bengaluru at 176 and Kolkata at 179. Mumbai (167) ranked better than them, while Lagos and Karachi came in at 180 and 181.The parameters for the survey were governance, international outreach, mobility and transportation.

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.

Article | Urban Transport

Drive Urban Mobility Right It is imperative for Indian cities to strengthen and promote public transport to tackle congestion and air pollution issues. Focus on building pedestrian friendly infrastructure and use of green vehicles can improve livability significantly. We have to steer the new age city development towards a right path

I

n the current Urban Environment, Traffic and Transportation are the most important contributors in achieving a good quality of urban life. Many urban areas, which otherwise offer satisfactory services to their inhabitants in Water Supply, Sanitation, Solid Waste Management and Social Services, but cannot provide satisfactory levels of service in transportation are perceived as unlivable and unfriendly; such is the impact of transportation on quality of life in a city.

It is necessary to draw a distinction between the terms “traffic” and “transportation”, though these terms are often used interchangeably. The act of transporting or conveyance is called transportation. Thus we say “We have to get people out of their cars and encourage them to use alternate forms of transportation”. On the other hand the flux or passage of pedestrians and vehicles on the road is called traffic.

For example we may say “ Tra f f i c is slow

T C Benjamin Former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra.

38 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

in rush hour”. In this discussion, we will use the word transport to cover both the above phenomenon, though the fine distinction between the two should be understood.

What is the purpose of transportation?

Imagine a barber located at city A. He is a skilled barber, but finds himself without any work since all the people staying in city A are bald. But if he transports himself to City B, then he gets sufficient work because there is a demand for his services in city B.Here the UTILITY of the barber is increased when he transports himself from A to B. In a second example, there is a fishing harborin town C but the fish which is landed in the harbor do not find any buyers since the people in that area are all vegetarians. However, if the fish is transported to anotherlocation D there is a good market for fish there. Here the Utility of the fish goes up when it is transported from C to D. Thus we may conclude that the purpose of transportation is to increase the utility of goods and services.

Let us apply this principle in a practical situation. Three areas in a city – Industrial, Residential and Recreational-need to be connected by roads. We have to decide on the priority to be given while connecting these areas. We find that the utility of the people in the residential areas will be increased if the residential area is connected to the industrial area. So the Residential - Industrial connectivity should be given priority over Industrial – Recreational and Residential –

Recreational connectivity.

This principle of utility increase should be applied every time we plan a transport facility.

The National Urban Transport Policy 2006

This policy was launched by Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India in 2006 and spells out 6 cardinal objectives for Urban Transportation.

Any new urban transportation project should aim to achieve one or more of these objectives. Let us look at these objectives in some detail. i) All plan should be for the common benefit and wellbeing of people This objective implies that there should be equity in the distribution of benefits across the various modes of transport. In Indian cities we can generally identify three different modes of transport (the approximate percentages of road users in each of the mode isindicated in brackets).

Pedestrians - Those who walk on roads (25%).

Public transport (60%).

Private transport (15%).

As per this objective we have to distribute funds in such a way that the benefits are accrued to the above modes as per percentages indicated. Thus pedestriansfacilities should get 25% of the total allocation for transport and so on. We see that this is never the case and both the pedestrians and public transport users do not get an equitable share of the resources. ii) Urban Transportation as an important parameter in urban planning Very often when development plans are prepared, transportation planning is an afterthought. Famous urban planners like Frank Lloyd Wright haveprescribed creating the development plan with transportation facilities as the basic consideration.

Have you ever thought of the percentage of the total urban area reserved only for transportation facilities like roads, railways, bridges metro corridors, busstands, railway stations, truck terminals, bicycle stands, and pedestriansfacilities ?

In Mumbai, this percentage is as low as 11% and in Pune just 8%.

Compare these with Chicago where 40% of the total urban area isreserved for transport facilities, and Tokyo where 25% is reserved. We must seriously think of reserving more areas in the spatial plans of cities for transport facilities. Remember that creating elevated corridors, water transport facilities, helicopter connectivity, etc. effectively translate to increasing this percentage. iii) Respecting the Pedestrians We have seen that 25% of the road users are pedestrians. There are deficient facilities for them like footpath, subways, foot over bridges, sky walks,and zebra crossings. They are at the mercy of motorized transport.

Elderly people and children become more vulnerable to traffic hazards due to lack of proper facilities for pedestrians.

Respecting the pedestrians means giving freedom to the pedestrians to use the transport facilities fearlessly and conveniently. iv) Importance to Public Transport We have seen that 60% of the road users use public transport. How can we make public transport more attractive?

This is extremely important in today’s urban scenario because unless we promote public transport,congestions and pollution will continue to increase unabated.

We should think of improving the capacity and frequency of public transport and making public transport more attractive and comfortable. Keeping the ticket rates Sr. No.

Classification

at reasonable levels, giving safety and convenience to ladies and making public transport more accessible will increase the credibility of public transport. v) Promoting use of cleaner technologies Around 25% of air pollution in urban areas is due to automobile exhaust. In India, Bharat Stage IV is currently enforced.By 1st April, 2020 the government expects all vehicles to comply with Bharat Stage VI standards.

Urban Planners can help in reducing pollution by regulating the congestion with the provision of bypass roads, elevated roads, intercept concepts etc. which are discussed later. vi) Seamless MultimodalTransport Systems A commuter should be able to easily transfer himself from one mode to another by using single smart card.

For example,a person alighting from the plane should be able to get into the metro at the airport itself, which will take him to a taxi stand from where he can get a taxi to go home. All these trips will be done using a single smart card.

All the above objectives need to be carefully addressed while planning and implementing the transportation projects in the urban areas.

Urban road hierarchy

The Indian Roads Congress (IRC) classifies urban streets into a five level road hierarchy, the details of which aredepicted in the table below: Characteristics

1 Expressways

Multi – lane two way traffic. Access controlled, stopping not allowed, loading and unloading not allowed, parking not allowed.

2 Arterial Roads

These are city specific roads with the same characteristics as express ways above. Shop Frontage not allowed.

3.

Sub Arterial Roads

These are feeder roads to arterial roads and provide some amount of access services to adjoining properties.

4.

Collector Roads

Thesecollect and distribute traffic generated in residential neighborhoods and business and industrial estates. Parking in specific areas can be allowed. Similarly loading and unloading can be allowed in specified locations.

5.

Local Streets

These allow for unhindered excess and unrestricted parking and pedestrian movement.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

39

Article | Urban Transport

Roads at the highest end of the hierarchy have maximum mobility but minimum accessibility. Similarly roads at the end of hierarchy have minimum mobility and maximum accessibility.

While planning for urban road network it is necessary to consider all the above types of roads with their respective characteristics so as to have a rational, collection and distribution network.

Problem of congestion:

There has been a tremendous rise in number of vehicles using the city roads in the past two decades. To make matters worse, transport in our cities is multi-modal, reflecting the socio economic fabric of these cities. This mix of traffic makes traffic management more difficult.

Transport planners often used the concept of Passenger Car Unit (PCU) to denote the impact each mode of transport has on the traffic flow. Thus the PCU for a Car is 1, for Bus / Truck 3.5, forBikes 0.5, for Cycles 0.2 and for Bullock Cart 8. This spectrum of varying PCUs make traffic flow erratic and unstable. The purpose of good traffic planning should be to restrict the modes on a given road to vehicles with similar PCU. Thus we see that on Expressways Bikes,Cycles,Bullock Carts and Tractors are not allowedthereby restricting the PCU band within a range of 1 – 3.5 only. This ensures a smoother flow of traffic. The Bus Rapid Transport System {dedicated lanes for public buses (PCU 3.5)} and Cycle Tracks {dedicated lanes for Bicycles (PCU 0.2)} work on this principle.

Traffic Volume Counts

It becomes necessary to find out the extent of traffic on a given road to see if its capacity is sufficient. For thisTraffic Volume Counts are made. Here the observed volume have to be converted to PCUs before proceeding to design the road. A simple example for hourly traffic at peak period on a city road is depicted below.

From the above volume we can design the road. If a single lane is supposed to carry 800 PCUs per hour (IRCs Standard), there should be 1280

40 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

Mode

Volume (Nos)

PCU

Volume (PCUs)

Cars

500

1

500

Trucks

100

3.5

350

Bikes

860

0.5

430

Total

1280

/ 800 = 1.6 or 2 lanes for the road one way. The total carriage way will be comprised of 4 lanes with a central divider and footpaths on either side.

Good practices in Transport Management

We will discuss two good practices in traffic management aimed at reducing congestion and pollution and ensuring a smooth flow of traffic.

Segregation of traffic

Segregation means separation. Three types of segregation of traffic are generally used: i) Segregation in relation to destination Bypass Roads: Suppose a truck has to go to Mumbai from Satara.

Enroute it has to cross the city of Pune.

However it does not have any loading / unloading to be done in Pune. If we provide a by-pass road the truck can avoid entering Pune City. This would be good example of segregation in relation to destination.

ElevatedRoads: The through traffic in a city can be segregated from the local traffic by a continuous elevated road. Thus the elevated road offers high mobility but low accessibility for road users. Since the through traffic does not interfere with the local traffic both benefit in the process. ii) Segregation by types of Traffics a) Bus Rapid Transport (BRT): The BRT envisages dedicated lanes for the public buses. Normally, the inner lanes of a multi-lane road are dedicated to public transport. It is necessary that proper grade separation like foot over bridges or subways are provided for the commuters so that they do not have to cross at grade the outer lanes, where fast vehicles are plying. If such safety measures are undertaken BRT is an excellent way of promoting public

transport. b) Cycle Tracks: Cycling needs to be encouraged since it is non-polluting and offers a healthy alternative to road users. However, the easy availability of cycles along the corridors needs to be ensured if this exercise has to be successful. c) Pedestrian and Elevated footways: We found earlier that giving freedom to pedestrians is one of the objectives of the National Transport Policy. Foot-paths should be free of encroachment and should be sufficiently wide to contain the pedestrians flow. Foot overbridges are

less popular than subways. However, Mumbai has successfully demonstrated the popularity and utility of Skywalks which are extended footover bridges covering several streets. iii) Segregation of moving vehicles from parked vehicles In the hierarchy of urban roads we have seen thaton-street parking is not to be tolerated on Expressways, Arterial Road and Sub Arterial Roads. Only limited parking is allowed on Collector Roads. This means that sufficient off street parking is available either in the buildings’ basement or in the lobby levels or in public parking lots.

Most of the Municipal Corporations and Municipalities have Development Control Regulations for parking, which prescribe the extent to which areas have to be kept in the basement and lobby level for captive parking. In cities like Mumbai public parking is encouraged by giving incentives by way of more

Floor Space Index (FSI) to developers who create multilevel public parking.

Cities like Nagpur have prescribed no shop frontage streets to avoid on street parking of vehicles.

Intercept concept

Many cities are resorting to intercepting traffic at its outskirts to have congestion free roads during peak period. A very good initiative in this regard is the provision of truck terminus at the boundary of cities where trucks and tourists buses are made to park during peak hours.

They are released after the expiry of peak hours. Another application of Intercept concept would be cordoning off of busy city centers for vehicular traffic during peak periods by providing public park facilities outside the congested centres. The area within the cordon will be allowed only for the pedestrians.

Suggestions for new initiatives in traffic and transport

From the above discussion some useful initiatives in urban traffic and transport to be taken up by urban local bodies can be suggested as follows: ♦♦ Total prohibition of On-street parking / loading / unloading on Expressways / Arterial / Sub-arterial roads. Parking / loading / unloading to be allowed on collector roads only at specified locations. ♦♦ Provision of BRT with grade – separated entry / exit at bus stops. ♦♦ Increased funding for pedestrian facilities and construction of foot paths, foot over bridges, skywalks, subways and pedestrian malls / precincts and keeping them free of encroachments. ♦♦ Encouraging public transport by: 1. having dedicated corridors of buses 2. increasing the number of buses and their frequency 3. having separate buses for ladies 4. keeping ticket rates affordable 5. improving comfort of travel – air conditioning, good seating and ambience 6. establishing a multi-modal seamless transport system. ♦♦ Creating truck terminals at the entry points of the city. ♦♦ Constructing By-pass roads / Elevated roads. ♦♦ Creating seamless multimodal transport systems.

Conclusion

Indian cities vary considerably in terms of their population, area, urban form, topography, income levels and growth constraints. Accordingly, transport planning will have to depend on city specific features but the ultimate approach in transport planning should be to improve the quality of living in the cities through integrated and sustainable transport systems.

Transport planning should indeed receive requisite attention while drawing up strategic city development and land use plans.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

41

Velo-City | Ahmedabad City

From Shah of all Shahs to Sardar and the Father of the Nation Ahmedabad, undoubtedly, is the largest city in Gujarat today and is always buzzing with economic activities. At one point of time the city was called ‘Manchester of the East’. The city boasted of more than 125 textile mills in 20th century. The city has seen many highs and lows but has grown, nonetheless, over hundreds of years

A

hmedabad, undoubtedly, is the largest city in Gujarat today and is always buzzing with economic activities. At one point of time the city was called ‘Manchester of the East’. The city boasted of more than 125 textile mills in 20th century. The city has seen many highs and lows but has grown, nonetheless, over hundreds of years.

On 4thMarch,1411 Ahmed Shah I founded this city and made it the capital of the state. Ahmed Shah, who was just twenty years old then, and had assumed the throne in 1410 stood at the banks of

42 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

river Sabarmati and scripted the city in his mind. Ashaval, which was a small village then, became Ahmedabad. He ruled for thirty two years and built many monuments whose foundation and structure have stood the test of time.

ManekBurj on the corner of Ellisbridge, BhadraFort and Jama Masjid are some examples. In fact, the city’s foundation was laid at ManekBurj, which was the first settlement to be built for the fort walls.During the rule of Shahs, arts and architecture were nurtured and admired as sultans promoted the unique Indo-Islamic architecture with traditional Hindu and Jain approaches

Kumar Dhananjay Consulting Editor

merging with Islamic architecture.

Major historical sites like Jami/Jama/ Jumma Masjid (Friday Mosque) and Teen Darwaja were constructed by him.

Ahmedabad always had a rich history and tradition of shared culture and practices. Renowned historian Professor RizwanKadri, who has studied the city in grand detail, says “the speciality of Ahmedabad is its monuments. The beauty of Ahmedabad’s monuments is in its carvings and delicacy,which you will not find in the monuments of North India. So during different regimes the city kept adding glory to its cultural life

and kept moving ahead”. The city has also witnessed many low moments in its life which are termed as black spots on its rich cultural heritage. But it has always bounced back. Professor Kadri adds “the city is one but it has different colours. It is multi dimensional.

History and legacy of harmony in the city is quite long. The social fabric of Ahmedabad is entwined. In Ahmedabad you will find people from every nook and corner of the country.

They come here for prosperity and then become one with the city”.

Political power center of 20thCentury India

The two great sons of India Mahatma Gandhi and SardarVallabhbhaiPatel both started their public life from this city. Mahatma Gandhi established Satyagraha ashram in 1915. He wanted to start his active political life from Ahmedabad and he wanted to become a councilor of Ahmedabad municipality so that he can begin the cleanliness campaign. He even started his DandiYatra from the cityitself. Sardar Patel also started his active public life from 1915. Patel won his first election in 1917 exactly a hundred year ago.

Visionary that he was, he planned Ahmedabad to grow out of the walled city and beyond Sabarmati River on the western side. Professor RizwanKadri

Sardar Patel wanted Ahmedabad to be a newage city. He came up with Ellisbridge and Maninagar as part of town-planning schemes. He planned to expand the city from the walled city, across the river with the Ellisbridge Town Planning Scheme. Farmers opposed this move because they were losing land. But Sardar made them realize that his dream of a new city would bring prosperity to all

says, “There was much opposition to the move. But Sardar stuck to his guns and finally won over the masses, by saying that unless we break down the walls and expand our horizons, our development will remain inhibited.”

Foundation of modern Ahmedabad

Sardar Patel wanted Ahmedabad to be a new-age city. He came up with Ellisbridge and Maninagar as part of town-planning schemes. He planned to expand the city from the walled city, across the river with the Ellisbridge Town Planning Scheme. Farmers opposed this move because they were losing land. But Sardar made them realize that his dream of a new city would bring prosperity to all.

The city has travelled through times and has kept assimilating and innovating to its urban profile. It has grown into a mega city. A survey done in 2015 threw up surprises about the city. It was a survey done across the best eight metropolitan cities in India.

Ahmedabad edged out Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, etc. on various parameters such as physical and civic infrastructure, social and cultural values and peace of mind.

Walls got broken,the city grew out of the walled area, expanded, brought in more and more people but as is the case it also saw some lop sided development in modern times.

The city which witnessed almost unprecedented development also had its fair share of problems in the form of social and communal unrest. Now the city is clearly divided as most of the wealthier residents moved across the river Sabarmati to the west side of the city and the poor remained in the east, old part of the city. The city may have got awards and accolades for its infrastructure and planning projects but this divide is so stark and glaring that one cannot ignore it while travelling through the city. Of late, ghettoization is another social challenge that the city is facing. The urban thinkers and planners have received praise for the city’s most ambitious development projects but most of them are deployed

in the western part of the city.

The great tom tom about the city’s manageable traffic and a functional BRT corridor along with roads free of encroachment extends only as far as the Sabarmati. In the east and the south of the city, largely inhabited by the poor, autos, two wheelers, bikes and even cars rush up the BRT lanes and the streets are occupied by hawkers and road side shops taking space away. There is absolutely no traffic management in this part with traffic signals mostly non functional and traffic police absent from the scene.

If one takes a stroll along the concrete embankments on the Sabarmati riverfront, you find young couples from nearby institutions, kids rolling on the grass in several gardens that line up the river and senior citizens slowly walking along the pathways looking at the old city across the river .The Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, which conceived the plan and executed it and gifted the city a new promenade, is one of the most ambitious projects undertaken in any Indian city. But this monumental urban planning project also came at a human cost. By some estimates nearly forty thousand people were displaced from the banks of the river. Many of them had lived there for decades. Today, more than a decade after the project was first initiated, the authority says that most of the displaced have been relocated.

Some of them were given houses in apartment blocks built on the relatively central grounds of former mill compounds, while others were sent to the fringes of the city in the south.

A place which is beyond the reach of public transport and their fragile work networks.That these people were successfully relocated is noteworthy, credit for it goes to Sabarmati residents themselves. Also community leaders deserve fulsome praise for this and also the local nonprofit organizations that provided them legal aid. With their help these poor habitants of Sabarmati riverfront were able to push back and forced the administration to accept that they are the legitimate stakeholders in the city they call home.

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

43

BOOK REVIEW | GOOD READS

Look East, Visit East, Enjoy East! to make Calcutta the base of East India Company’s operations in the Bay Area.

Abhilash Khandekar Consulting Political Editor Free Press Journal kabhilash59@gmail.com

A

fter introducing a series of books on cities, I took a break to introduce to you, my dear book loving readers, a magnificent architect’s wonderful book in the May issue of this magazine.

I am back to introducing yet another well-researched book on India’s very important (coastal) city about which we in the North or Central India do not talk much or even know much, of course barring exceptions. Yes, it is Calcutta which had facilitated the entry of the British into India. The author Mr Ray Choudhury is a veteran Calcutta author and a former journalist with the Hindu and The Statesman. He has written five books related to different aspects of this quaint city which he is in love with. Unlike in the book on Hyderabad, which also touched upon some recent history, this book talks mainly about the aspects of Calcutta’s early growth. It does not delve into post-independence era of the West Bengal State’s unique capital that is situated on the banks of Hooghly (Hughli) river and the Bay of Bengal.

Have you heard of Sutanati? Some of you may have but since Calcutta has been pushed to history’s dustbin by its new Bengali name Kolkata, I am sure Sutanati is little too difficult to recall.

Well, it was like any ordinary Bengal village until Job Charnock set foot on this village (24th August 1690) on the banks of a not too well known river.

Yet, by the middle of 19th century, it was being described as the second city of the British Empire. Credit is given to Charnock for his prudent decision

44 May 2017 | www.urbanupdate.in

Evolution of ‘City of Joy’

The detailed story running into some 550 pages of this book deals with the early evolution in the section ‘Around the old Fort’. It was the time when the village had just no planning and later in 1756, when the town fell to forces led by Nawab Shiraj-ud-Daula this unplanned growth continued. Whatever we may say of the ‘ novel’ Swachh Bharat campaign being tom-tomed now under Modi Government, even in those days, as the book narrates, during the period mentioned above, the main effort on the part of authorities was directed at cleaning up the place and setting up essential facilities such as hospital, a jail, a mayor’s court and strengthening the banks of river. All these issues are still talked about and planned in modern Indian cities. So our British ancestors had already showed the way to urban dwellers and managers about three centuries ago!

Then the book takes up in second section ‘The town spreads itself’ wherein details of town’s planned but gradual growth which saw Calcutta expanding southward till the end of 18th century is explained. This period witnessed land acquisition and compensation given to land owners, formation of today’s Maidan, the building of arterial Circular Road and setting up of bazars and improving drainage system. While reading such books on developing cities, I am always amazed at the foresight and concern of the rulers and city managers (a word which had not been coined then, though) about problems such as unplanned growth, drainage system improvement and river bank strengthening etc. Now in the third section the author deals with a marked advent of town-planning era set in motion under Lord Wellesley and then the story grows to the point where the famous Lottery Committee was

formed in 1817.

What was the Lottery Committee and what was its significance in Calcutta’s overall growth under the British? Since the British officials felt the pinch of paucity of funds for city development, Governor General (GG) Lord Wellesley (1798-1805) had thought of the Lottery Committee but set up a Committee for the Improvement of the Town of Calcutta in 1803. Later, the Lottery committee was set up by Lord Hastings in October 1817. The Lottery Committee itself was the successor to the town development effort initiated by the GG. The author gives credit to Wellesley for sowing the seed of modern Calcutta as early as in 1798 when he took over as the GG. “Considering the growth of Calcutta from earliest days till it became the centre point of British Empire in the East, the point can be made that it was Wellesley who first introduced the tool of planning in the efforts to develop the city which, within the next one hundred years, enabled the city to attain its coveted position in the subcontinent”.

Wellesley was the first Governor General to take a holistic view of the state of the town on his arrival and to engage in a many-faceted exercise to transform the town’s future into a better one. The work began by Wellesley was continued by his successors Lord Minto (1807-1813), and the Earl of Moira, later Lord Hastings (1813-1823), both retaining the overall administrative framework of the development effort in the shape of a general committee for improving the town and, more importantly, extending all the support they could muster to assist it in its work.

Funds raised by annual public lotteries were set aside for city development work. There is a mention of Rs 60000/were garnered through lottery, in the book.

Elsewhere in the book, the author has taken lots of pains to put before the readers the major stages of city’s

development and have spoken about mighty Hooghly river in greater details besides about dense forested areas in south of Calcutta and paddy fields having covered esplanade of the new fort in 1770. Reverend Long has written that Charnock had extensive physical surveys done for Sutananti, Gobindapur, Town Calcutta and Bazar Calcutta.

There is an interesting mention about river: “The river was the lifeline of the English in the early days providing them with among other things, the comforting thought that if there was ever a siege of the settlement they could always use the waterway to get away or receive help. Yet, it was the river that was proving to be difficult for the English because of its waywardness especially with regard to the eastern bank which was being eroded by the strong current. In 1766, the Bengal Council was under pressure to protect the spot where the new Fort William was coming up because of ‘encroachment of the River’, a threat which was averted by spending around six lakhs Arcot rupees on a scheme to protect the fortifications.

The river chapter is interesting because today in India we see river rejuvenation as a new fashion and massive amount of expenses to restore

rivers for the posterity.

Although Wellesley had left India with an image of Calcutta’s original city planner as Governor General, all his plans and schemes did not continue to remain and had to be suspended for various reasons. Such hurdles however, did not obstruct Minto’s path and it is safe to suggest that real work of improving Calcutta’s basic infrastructure was begun during his time.

Almost all of the British officials contributed significantly to the city’s civic issues and urban facade. One of them worked on storm water problem and planned canal for giving way to excess water during rains and storms.

In the chapter ‘Birth of a Canal’ there are absorbing details of how the officials used to think of their city and the convenience of the people, among other things. It was not that only Britishers were the citizens of Calcutta but also many Indians were staying there, known as the natives. “.... The magistrate wrote that “on any slight excess of rain” Chitpur Road would be under two to three feet water.

The third objective was the forming of a ‘direct and easy communication’ with the salt water lake and that part of town.” .the magistrate wrote with satisfaction: “I purposely went down

Book A City in the Making Author Niyogi Books Author recommendation Borrow from friend & return Publisher Harper Collins Pages 564 Price Rs 995/-

Good

Reads

that road (Chitpore Road) at 5 o’ clock on the very evening of the storm to observe the effect of the several water courses I had recently formed, and I had the gratification to observe there was not a drop of water lying on any part of the road of Chitpore....”. Incidentally, the author has used at many places two different spellings for proper noun like in case of Chitpur.

This is just a glimpse of the approach of the officials of those days about city building. The entire book is full of such instances, thinking processes of the Governor Generals, financing patterns in vogue for the city development exercises, cleaning up the town and so on. There were several committees that were formed from time to time to help govern a newly built town in India.

The author writes at one place “These aspects highlight the point that the facets of town development which had emerged over the previous four decades focussing on the regulation of space were entirely disaggregated and were devoid of any centralised approach to improving conditions within the rapidly growing town”.

While I don’t say today’s planning practices are all junk and that the city planners are absolutely out of sync of the people’s needs while planning comforts and safety in Indian cities but with the chaos in Indian cities that is witnessed ( and suffered) by anyone, not much is required to be said, actually.

This book uses beautiful black and white pictures of architect’s plans, of old buildings and the Governor Generals to help a reader relate instantly to what the author is describing.

So from the Mughal period till the Britishers’ rule, this interestingly unfolding story of Calcutta which clearly had more influence of the English than perhaps any other town in India is quite engrossing for anyone who has even limited interest in history or city planning or how Calcutta became what it is today.

Of course, a lot has changed in the West Bengal capital in the last more than one century, the British imprint is adequately visible all over, be it cricket or architecture!

www.urbanupdate.in | May 2017

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URBAN AGENDA | Urban Metabolism

Urban Quest For Efficiency

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Urban ecosystem is degrading everywhere and the impact would amplify further if the anticipated impacts of climate change are added. Cities have to re-align urban governance, policy and their projects in sync with ecological principles.

The morphology of operational mechanism is directly linked with the immunity of urban metabolism of a city. Technology has played a significant role in the field of city management and the changes it is bringing are encouraging.

Policy and projects based on urban metabolism of a city should strike a balance between government agencies, business houses, local communities and all sections of society the reforms and changes the built environment requires. These reforms can be brought in with utilizing modern technological tools with opening up of public data. Availability of user data can enable individuals to respond to specific issues, leading to a more custom-made and effective approach. It is encouraging that many local corporations have started recognizing the importance of engaging citizens and business houses in solving urban issues. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had organized an event in which the corporation has provided citizen and government data to students and asked them to come out with a scientific solution.

No city can afford to ignore these technologies such as Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT) that has been improving urban services in general worldwide. The most

46 May 2016 | www.urbanupdate.in

appropriate example is analysis of population flows and planning urban transport systems.

According to a report by McKinsey Global, globally, $400 billion a year could be saved by “making more of existing infrastructure” through improved demand management and maintenance. Take the example of technological intervention in transport management, Israel has introduced a 13-mile fast lane on Highway 1 between Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport. The lane uses a toll system that calculates fees based on traffic at the time of travel. To make it work, the system counts the cars on the road; it can also evaluate the space between cars to measure congestion. This is real-time pattern recognition of a very high order. The information is then put to use in a way that increases “throughput,” or the amount of traffic the road can bear. If traffic density is high, tolls are high; if there are few cars on the road, charges are cheap. This not only keeps toll revenues flowing but also reduces congestion by “steering” demand.

Such interventions on Indian urban roads can also be helpful in controlling congestion.

To work towards a sustainable urban future, a holistic approach is needed. This will also require that citizens play a role in putting a stop to depletion of urban ecosystem.

Local bodies with citizens have to make sure that patterns of resource consumption are checked and this will eventually lead to conservation of water, energy and other resources required for running cities.

Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor bhau1008@gmail.com

Digital technologies have become the veins of city management systems around the globe. They have boosted the immunity of urban metabolism in a way that is helping them fix their basic faults and improve efficiency. The embedding of technology has also shifted the relation paradigm between citizens and urban local bodies

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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