Disparities now, but urban chaos ahead

Disparities now, but urban chaos ahead

The city is fast getting tangled in its own socio-economic disparities, which fuel urban chaos. Fancy salaries on one side, the harried urban poor on the other. The auto revolution on one side, non-motorable roads on the other. This urban-urban divide within the city could just hijack the Bangalore boom, much ahead of its full realization.

On Tuesday, A Ravindra, former chief secretary , termed this increasing divide as more worrying since it causes the mismatch between demand and supply of services to the citizens. He was speaking on the topic 'Urban planning and the dynamics of city growth' as part of the four-day international conference on public policy and management .

"In Bangalore, the demand for roads, water and power has outgrown the supply but what's more worrying is the increasing urban-urban divide... With the boom in IT sector , the salaries have increased but the situation of the poor stays the way it was,'' Ravindra said and pointed out the housing sector to underline the increasing divide. While the city boasts of major luxury housing projects, the boom is in stark contrast with the substandard houses where the lower middle classes and the urban poor live.

Plans for plans' sake

The master planning model that the country has taken from the times of the British has failed to address the growing issue of unplanned growth in the metros. In Bangalore, there have been four masterplans between 1972 and 2007. The result is far from encouraging , as reflected in what Ravindra calls "cities within cities'' , where the illegal layouts and constructions continue to boom.

The recommendations to have metropolitan planning committees (MPCs) remain on paper. Even the city development plans - that are mandatory for funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM ) - are being submitted in a hurry to ensure that the funds are released.

As Greater Bangalore braces for more challenges in the form of the urban sprawl, the key to the future is integrated urban planning and governance reforms that ensure new planning institutions, municipal governance and effective delivery of services, according to Ravindra. The other key aspect will be the smooth integration of transportation planning into the land development model.

The critical difference will come when the implementors look beyond developing a "car city' ' and look at the possibilities of a congestion-free city. While cities like London have experimented with restrictions like congestion taxing in the city centre, similar concepts are still caught up in debate in India. The immediate focus should be to encourage use of public transport.

Later in the day, Syed Zameer Pasha, managing director, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), made a presentation on the corporation's plans - including 500 more schedules and ethanol-blended diesel - during a session on urban transport. The conference, being organized by the Centre for Public Policy (CPP), ends on Wednesday

The Future Is Vertical

Kala Seetharam Sridhar of the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), during her presentation on land use regulations, highlighted how a stringent floor area ratio (FAR) model has led to an urban sprawl in many Indian cities. A highly restrictive land use in India has pushed the cities to their peripheries , she said and underlined that the per capita floor area consumption in Indian cities was extremely low, compared to cities in the US and Europe. Even with the accompanying worries, there is a need to revisit the FAR model in our cities and look at a vertical growth as the way forward, as against the horizontal growth.

Market-oriented Governance

The urban local body (ULB) as the service provider, the citizen as the customer - this is the model of governance that could define the way forward in Indian cities, according to P K Srihari, former additional commissioner (finance) of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP). "A market-oriented governance is going to be the key. The government can think about the citizen as the ultimate beneficiary and act as a service provider. For instance, when the government is looking at the process of property collection, it can explore various options - like online payment - which are effective and citizen-friendly ,'' Srihari said.

Moot Points

Disparities lead to urban chaos Vertical growth suggested to check urban sprawl Compliance of law has to complement governance reforms Integrating transportation with land use plans is key Metropolitan planning committees are the way forward Hurried plans submitted for JNNURM funds