Call the town planners out

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has approached a bunch of Ahmedabad architects for a master plan for his capital. But most cities too need an immediate makeover

Taj Mahal, that astonishing monument of love, with its shining white dome, majestic minarets and rectangular gardens, can hold you in thrall. But once out of the complex, filth, chaotic traffic and black pollutants clog one's senses, making one forget the beauty of the monument. Taj Mahal doesn't deserve the city of Agra. But then, this is the sorry state of affairs of most cities and towns in India which are haphazardly and mindlessly built. 

    So when Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recently asked the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) University in Ahmedabad to prepare a master plan for Patna, it was like a breath of fresh air, a concerted effort to tackle messy town planning. But what about other cities and towns? 
    In fact, by 2050, half of India's population is likely to be living in urban areas, leading to a crushing burden on civic amenities. Already, many are marked by old, decrepit buildings, potholed roads, slums and maddening traffic. 
    It wasn't always like this. Town planning in India is as old as Indian civilization itself. Mohenjodaro and Harappa with their remarkable s ew a g e s y s t e m a n d Jaipur with its geometric planning and fortification walls are examples to emulate. 
    Utpal Sharma, dean, faculty of Planning and Public Policy at CEPT University which is helping Patna, says the first things to look at when planning a city are its social (migration patterns, income levels), economic (poor/industrial/rich city) and environmental (topography, irrigated, barren or forested land) issues and what needs to be done 
    for the next two decades. "Town planners often don't take all these issues into consideration," he says. "CEPT is now advising Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Mumbai, Gandhinagar and Guwahati in this regard." 
    But what use are master plans when they haven't kept pace with rapid urbanization? Architect Pradeep Sachdeva says bureaucratic and political obfuscation, lack of progressive implementation systems and sheer apathy have proved the death knell for our cities. "Bigger cities are coping with day-to-day problems in a knee-jerk mode. Cities will start collapsing if a new order for planning is not urgently put in place," he says. 
    It's a complex problem, all right. Municipalities can't clean up towns due to dearth of money and money isn't there as taxes aren't enough, says Kavas Kapadia, professor, Department of Urban Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. "The important question is: Does my city provide basic satisfaction – 140 litres of water daily (which is the norm), good transport and electricity? Even the Metro in Delhi, just five years old, has reached its capacity and needs to increase its frequency, bogies, etc. Ideally, a Metro should be there within half to three-fourths of a kilometer from one's home." 
    Even a city's road grid system should be far larger than itself, like New York. "In Germany," says Sharma, "roads come up first and then the city. In India, it's the other way around. In Shanghai, there is good public transport and high density housing — both carrying forward its vision of a future economic power." 
    In India, if cities are shabby, their peripheries are worse. Unplanned growth here, says Pradeep Kapoor, secretary general of the Institute of Town Planners, India, is because land values are low as compared to the city, there's a poor system of enforcement and building regulations are violated. Sachdeva says, "Politicians have not realized the benefits of urban development nor the dangers of neglecting it," he says. 
    Another serious drawback is the lack of adequate town planners. Kapoor says that some 500 town planners graduate every year and their present strength is not more than 4,000. "This is not even sufficient to provide one planner for one municipal town. Large states such as UP, Bihar, Orissa and Haryana don't even have planning schools, whereas Karnataka, Maharashtra, TN and Kerala which have a high rate of urbanization are hardly producing 50 planners annually," he says. Plus, there's no monitoring of town plans and no authority to oversee land development authorities, says Kapadia. 
    It shows. Even Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province in China, has an airport which seems bigger than Delhi's T3, laments Nidhi Kumar, a student who recently returned from there. 
    We have a long road ahead but some cities such as Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and Bhubaneswar are aiming for the tag of a planned city. "Old Jaipur," says Sharma, "is a classical Indian city built some 300 years back. Its uniform pink colour, shaded streets, wide roads and orientation towards the sun show great visual planning." 
    When will other cities have similar foresight? 
    TALE OF MANY CITIES 
Mumbai | Has efficient public transport but narrow roads. Land acquisition is the only way out 
Delhi | Has wide roads but is an automobileoriented city. Needs a rapid transport system 
Chennai | Nicely planned but needs a better transport system 
Hyderabad | Huge city with traffic jams. Needs dedicated roads for buses which can provide urban-rural connectivity

URBAN UTOPIAS? (top) Damaged roads such as this one are a common sight inIndia and compare unfavourably with the smooth, wide roads of old Jaipur (above left) and Shanghai