Urban Planning

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• A Bridge Too Near in Urban Planning: Last Monday’s so-called “public hearing” on the Peddar Road flyover project seems to have been designed for failure. There is no logical reason why a large group of Nationalist Congress Party members should have felt it necessary to disrupt it — apart from the fact that the NCP controls the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, the project proponent. It’s unlikely that these fine, dedicated party workers will be found swanning back and forth along this road. The only reason why any road and bridge building contractor would love such a project is, of course, its monumental cost. There’s money to be made here, lots and lots of it.  » continue reading
  
  
• A Manifesto For Mumbai in Urban Planning: Mumbai matters. How can it not? The sixth most populous city and one of the largest urban regions on the planet, it is home to over 20 million people. It’s a city that speaks over a dozen different languages, each one uniquely filtered, adapted and adopted: only here will you hear an irate bus conductor bellowing at a passenger “aage chal, khaali-peeli bichme khada hain khamba ke mafak” — an absolutely delicious phrase that melds Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Mumbai into one unmistakable linguistic bhel-puri that still gets the message across. » continue reading
  
  
• Alien Vs Predator, Hawker Vs Pedestrian in Urban Planning: This is a familiar sight. A police wagon rolls up. The street bursts into frenetic activity — shouts, calls, men running, wooden racks and trays being gathered and squirreled away into the some recess between buildings. The oddest things are flung into the police truck: pots, pans, shirts, pedestals, baskets, cutlery. It takes the better part of an hour, sometimes less, sometimes more, and then there is an unusual quiet to the street, a strange sense of space. It doesn’t last, of course; they are all soon back, later that day or the next or the day after. » continue reading
  
  

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• Endangered Species In The Urban Jungle in Urban Planning: The Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh is not only a tragedy of epic proportions: it is the result of utter criminality. It happened on 24 April and rescue work is still going on. As of 10th May, the death toll is over 1000; and there may still be survivors — in what seems a miracle, a woman trapped for 16 days beneath the Rana Plaza rubble was rescued a few days ago. » continue reading
  
  
• Exterminating Communities in Urban Planning: What kind of government, what kind of system allows suffering like this? Very early in Gregory David Roberts’s Shantaram comes this reaction to a first view of Mumbai slums. It is a reaction fuelled by shame, guilt and rage, and it is the view of an outsider. We who live here have passed beyond such feelings. We simply do not even notice them any more. Perhaps this has to do with our ‘culture’ of the philosophical shrug and the always-reliable excuse of karma. But karma and justice are uneasy bedfellows. » continue reading
  
  

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• If Only We Had Listened in Urban Planning: On 1 September, Charles Correa turned 80. By any measure, it has been an extraordinary life, marked by uncommon professional success and international recognition as one of the great designers of the world. A week earlier, Ratan Tata released Correa’s new book, A Place in the Shade, a collection of essays and lectures spanning several decades and extending his previous book, The New Landscape. » continue reading
  
  
  

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• Minimum City in Urban Planning: A few hundred yards down the road from Nana Chowk to Tardeo, next to Sunkersett Mansion on the road’s left, there stands a small temple. It has a handsome arched entrance and clear space on three sides. This is not one of the over-built modern temples that substitute spirituality with size and commerce; this is an old, quiet place of worship that appears ageless. It also looks like a last act of defiance against the towering monstrosities that surround it. A little further on is another, an agiary. That, too, has withstood the steady onslaught of commercial high-rise development. » continue reading
  
  
• Murdering Trees, Killing Cities in Urban Planning: In the run up to Mumbai’s municipal elections, of the many to-be-left-unfufilled promises made by political parties, two were common: less corruption and more “infrastructure”. The latter, in our peculiar notion of what makes a ‘world-class’ city, only means more roads, more bridges. No one promised to make our city more liveable. In my constituency, apart from the familiar talk-to-the-hand and offerings for lotus-eaters, there were many odd symbols for candidates: a sewing machine, an LPG cylinder and something that looked like a pasta machine cross-bred with a meat grinder. Not one had a tree or anything that looked like it. » continue reading
  
  

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• Playing Games With Our Cities in Urban Planning: Part of the process of growing up is the recalibration of the dazzling career ambitions of childhood to far less glamorous endeavours. Few ever realize their dreams. Fewer still know exactly what they want to do when they grow up. Some dreams, like becoming a dentist, are unlikely. One thing no child ever dreams of being is an urban planner. » continue reading
  
  

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• The City’s In A Pickle: Add Salt? in Urban Planning: Every few years the issue surfaces only to be buried. It happened again last week: The Chief Minister floated an idea of opening up Mumbai’s salt pan lands for affordable housing and slum rehabilitation. A few days later, the idea was dropped. Once again, the backpedalling was the result of our Queen Mum’s view on things. This U-turn was triggered by some letter she wrote many years ago. If Madam has spoken, who are we to even dare to think? » continue reading
  
  
• Two Bridges And A Bus Lane in Urban Planning: As Mumbai’s Peddar Road Flyover finally gets approval, another bridge project is also inching its way forward. This is the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, MTHL, to connect Mumbai to the mainland. Funding for this enormous project has been a problem; and, like the Peddar Road flyover, this one too has a history of stuttering starts. » continue reading
  
  

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• Walking The High Line in Urban Planning: In Mumbai, we have become used to limiting our thinking of public open spaces to areas planned for public parks and gardens. To create a public open space out of abandoned, privately owned industrial infrastructure requires a leap of imagination. » continue reading
  
  
• What Kind Of City in Urban Planning: Last Tuesday, protesters from Vasai did the unthinkable: marching to South Mumbai from Vasai they diverted onto the Bandra Worli Sealink, otherwise closed to pedestrians, and so stormed a cars-only citadel. The police were unable to stop them. Questions were later raised about this act of “illegality”, but the comment from independent MLA Vijay Pandit, who led the march, provides another perspective. “Why should the Sea Link be only for rich people and their cars?” he asked, calling the Sea Link a rich people’s bastion.  » continue reading