Lately I’ve been reading up a bit about urban planning. Anyone who has lived or is living in India will tell you that urban planning is something that is present only in text books. Except for probably a couple of cities, urban planning is hardly taken seriously, as evinced by the appalling state of infrastructure in our country.
So what exactly is urban planning?
In layman terms, urban planning involves planning the layout of a city / town in terms of the commercial & residential areas and infrastructure (public transport, roadways) connecting them and support facilities like hospitals, schools / colleges, malls, cinemas, etc. It also includes water supply, waste management, drainage and sewage facilities and all the other trappings necessary to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.
So, as any Mumbaikar will tell you, our city – except for certain pockets – completely lacks the above. Thanks to the large-scale migration of people from other places, the municipal authorities have been unable to proportionally increase the infrastructure facilities, leading to overcrowding in trains & buses, an abysmally high density traffic on roads and an overall pathetic quality of life for the citizens in general.
Being a cluster of seven islands, the city of Mumbai faces a tremendous space crunch. As a result the suburbs are where a lot of residential projects have taken off. So we have a situation wherein the commercial hub is in downtime Mumbai (referred to as South Mumbai), while a majority of its workforce resides far-away in the suburbs. The result – people spend around 1-2 hours commuting to work one-way. Besides, most of these hours are either spent in crowded trains which lack even breathing space or in cars which move at a snail’s pace due to traffic snarls.
Are there any solutions for rectifying the mess?
Honestly, for a city like Mumbai which is the financial hub as well as the entertainment capital of the country, there is very little that can be done to improve the crumbling infrastructure.
But, we could always try! The first step that the authorities should take is to forget about converting Mumbai into Shanghai. Our authorities need to understand the importance of looking inward for solutions rather than adopting stuff that worked elsewhere.
So here are a few steps that could ease the problems faced by Mumbai:
Invest in public transport, rather that focusing on building statues in the sea or monstrosities like the sea-link: Considering that a majority of its citizens depend on the trains for their daily commute to and from work, the government needs to invest in upgrading the railway infrastructure. This could include increasing the number of coaches in trains and adding more rakes (trains) to the existing fleet. Recently, there were talks of having air-conditioned trains for Mumbai. This is like a cruel joke as the average train has as many commuters hanging outside as there are inside. Rather, the railways could consider ideas such as doing away with seats in certain trains, as this would increase the passenger capacity.
Explore water-ways: For some reason or the other, water transport has been neglected in Mumbai. Considering that the city is surrounded by water, hovercrafts would help reduce the number of people traveling by private vehicles.
Decentralizing the commercial hubs: Until a couple of years ago, the heart of the financial district of Mumbai was South Mumbai. Recently, the Bandra-Kurla area is gaining prominence as a financial hub with a number of financial institutions moving there. Perhaps a few more commercial areas in Navi Mumbai might help de-congest South Mumbai. However, while creating these commercial areas, the authorities should ensure that they are linked to residential areas by rail & road so as to ensure minimum commuting time. Also the said residential areas should be given higher FSI so as to accommodate as many people as possible.
Open spaces: While most parts of Mumbai lacks open spaces, the authorities should ensure to demarcate areas as open spaces wherein parks can be created. Even the parks should be designed in such a way that they cater to different sections of society.
Daycare centres & recreation facilities: Currently the only recreation facilities on offer are malls. Yes, glitzy power-guzzling malls are the only places wherein people are expected to while away their time and empty their wallets. Instead, if the authorities could work towards building recreation centres with facilities for sports, swimming, reading, exercise, etc it would benefit the entire community as well as ensure that people are healthy.
Sanitation and waste management: The number of public toilets in India are extremely less compared to the size of our population. Which leads to a lot of pressure on existing toilet facilities. Even in Mumbai, a large number of people are forced to defecate in the open due to lack of toilets. This is something that needs to be looked into on a priority basis.
