Central Idea:

The article discusses the recent inauguration of Mumbai’s Atal Setu, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link bridge, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, it critically analyzes this development within the context of outdated urban planning principles from the 1960s. The slow implementation of city plans is viewed positively, as it has preserved essential open spaces and ecological features crucial for climate mitigation and adaptation.

Key Highlights:

• Inauguration of Mumbai Trans Harbour Link bridge, Atal Setu, symbolizing development.
• Critique of urban development rooted in 1960s planning ideologies.
• Slow plan implementation seen as advantageous, preserving open spaces and ecological features.
• Rapid infrastructure construction causing environmental problems and neglect of urban ecology.
• Failure to account for the city’s dependence on ecology leading to air quality and water runoff issues.

Key Challenges:

• Adherence to outdated planning ideologies despite advancements in urban ecology.
• Rapid concretization and infrastructure projects causing environmental problems.
• Lack of consideration for the city’s dependence on ecology in current infrastructure development.
• Slow and contentious realization of development plans in Mumbai.
• Air quality crisis and increased rainwater runoff due to insufficient planning for urban ecology.

Key Terms:

• Urban ecology
• Concretization
• Infrastructure construction
• Climate crisis
• Development plans
• Slow plan implementation
• Open spaces
• Wetlands
• Rapid urbanization
• Ecological context

Key Phrases:

• “Dated and problematic mode of city-making.”
• “Failures to account for the city and its citizens’ dependence on ecology.”
• “Preservation of open spaces, wetlands, and gardens for climate mitigation.”
• “Toxic air quality levels and increasing rainwater runoff as evidence of planning failures.”
• “Reimagine infrastructure planning for the climate-changed city of the present and future.”

Key Quotes:

• “Planners and engineers alike have simply not accounted for the fact that the city and all its citizens depend on an ecology to live.”
• “Rather than rush to complete these outdated intentions of the past… this is a good time to reimagine infrastructure planning for the climate-changed city of the present and future.”

Key Statements:

• The bridge and coastal road represent a dated mode of city-making from the 1960s.
• Slow plan implementation has preserved open spaces and ecological features vital for climate mitigation.
• Rapid concretization and infrastructure construction have led to environmental problems in the city.

Key Examples and References:

• Inauguration of Mumbai Trans Harbour Link bridge, Atal Setu.
• Mumbai CityLabs event on January 13 highlighting slow and contentious realization of development plans.

Key Facts and Data:

• Completed 60 years after initial design, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link bridge is portrayed as a symbol of development.
• Preservation of open spaces, wetlands, and gardens due to slow plan implementation.

Critical Analysis:

The article criticizes the persistence of outdated planning ideologies, emphasizing the need for a shift towards contemporary urban ecology principles. It highlights the negative environmental impacts of rapid infrastructure construction and calls for a reimagining of infrastructure planning to address current and future climate challenges.

Way Forward:

• Reimagine infrastructure planning in line with contemporary urban ecology principles.
• Prioritize the preservation of open spaces, wetlands, and green areas for climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Consider the urban social and ecological context of the 21st century in planning.
• Learn from past failures and avoid rushing into completing outdated infrastructure projects.
• Encourage sustainable and ecologically sensitive development in Mumbai.

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Central Idea:

• The article discusses the formation of the Kerala Urban Commission in the context of global urbanization trends and the need for a comprehensive approach to urban development.
• It highlights the challenges faced by urban areas in India and emphasizes the significance of revisiting and re-evaluating urban policies.

Key Highlights:

• The article reflects on the historical development phases of urbanization in post-independent India, noting the failures of both Nehruvian centralized planning and the subsequent privatization trends in the 1990s.
• It underscores the necessity of understanding objective patterns of urbanization, focusing on migration, settlement patterns, and the role of information technology.
• Governance issues in cities, such as delayed transfer of subjects to municipalities and the debate on having managers instead of elected officials, are highlighted.
• The article suggests that existing urban missions, like Swachh Bharat and Smart Cities, have failed to produce desired results and may continue to do so.

Key Challenges:

• Piecemeal approaches to urban development are criticized for their failure to address the complex realities of urbanization.
• Governance issues, including the delay in transferring subjects to municipalities and the debate on city affairs management, pose challenges to effective urban governance.
• The article suggests that existing urban missions, like Swachh Bharat and Smart Cities, have failed to produce desired results and may continue to do so.

Key Terms:

• Urban Commission: Refers to the proposed or existing bodies tasked with addressing the challenges and complexities of urban development.
• Urbanization: The process of population migration from rural to urban areas, leading to the growth and development of cities.
• Nehruvian Period: Refers to the development era influenced by Jawaharlal Nehru’s centralized planning approach.
• Privatization: The transfer of control or ownership of public services or assets to private entities.
• Fifteenth Finance Commission: A reference to the commission responsible for recommending the distribution of financial resources between the central and state governments.

Key Phrases:

• “Holistic city approach”: Refers to a comprehensive and integrated strategy for urban development.
• “Engines of growth”: Describes the shift in cities’ perception from spaces of enlightenment to centers focused on economic development.
• “Mission mode of development”: Refers to project-oriented approaches like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and Smart Cities Mission.
• “Complex processes unfolding”: Highlights the intricate nature of governance and financial structures in urban areas.

Key Quotes:

• “Cities were made competitive and termed as ‘engines of growth’ — not spaces of enlightenment, future of dreams, and habitat.”
• “The urbanisation process cannot be reduced to some mission approaches…”
• “Kerala Urban Commission can be the lighthouse for other States…”

Key Statements:

• “An urban commission is required at the national and State levels to understand some of the interesting objective patterns of urbanisation.”
• “The period of the 1990s is the one where the abject privatization of cities began…”

Key Examples and References:

• Mention of the National Commission on Urbanisation formed by Rajiv Gandhi and its recommendations.
• Reference to global urbanization trends, including the impact on climate change and unequal city spaces.
• Examples of failed urban missions like Swachh Bharat and Smart Cities.

Key Facts:

• More than half of the world’s population (56%) currently lives in cities.
• Kerala’s urbanized population is estimated to be around 90%.
• The Nehruvian period witnessed the construction of around 150 new towns with a centralized planning approach.

Key Data:

• The 74th Constitutional Amendment marked a shift towards more private initiative and investment in urban development.
• The Kerala Urban Commission has a 12-month mandate to address urbanization challenges and lay a roadmap for 25 years of urban development.

Critical Analysis:

• The article critically examines the historical phases of urban development in India and highlights the shortcomings of past approaches.
• It questions the effectiveness of existing urban missions and emphasizes the need for a holistic understanding of urbanization processes.
• Governance issues and financial centralization are critically discussed as impediments to successful urban development.

Way Forward:

• The article suggests that the formation of the Kerala Urban Commission could serve as a model for other highly urbanized states.
• It advocates for a comprehensive and objective approach to urban development, emphasizing the importance of addressing challenges such as migration, settlement patterns, and information technology.
• The need for revisiting and relooking at urban policies is underscored for a more successful and sustainable urban future.

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Context

• Indian urban centres need to plan for migration, climate change. Healthcare, affordable housing, sustainability and inclusion hold the key reimagining them.

What does urban planning mean?

• Urban planning encompasses the preparation of plans for and the regulation and management of towns, cities, and metropolitan regions. It attempts to organize socio-spatial relations across different scales of government and governance.

What are ‘Happy Cities’?

• A term that follows the Green City, Sustainable City, Liveable City, in the lingo of urban planning

What is a smart city?

• A smart city is one that uses information and communication technologies to enhance citizen engagement. It is a neo-vision which seeks to improve the delivery of services in urban areas. The following story maps out the steps being taken by India to explore this concept in practice.

Fast Facts -Urbanization in India

Most Urbanized States: Tamil Nadu 43.9%; Maharashtra 4%; Gujarat  37.4%.

3 out of world’s 21 mega cities: Mumbai (19 mill); Delhi (15 mill); Kolkata (14 mill)

Global best practices in urban planning

• The Garden City movement: In the West, the Garden City movement (initiated by Ebenezer Howard in 1898) sought to decentralise the working environment in the city centre with a push for providing healthier living spaces for factory workers. The ideal garden city was planned on a concentric pattern with open spaces, public parks and boulevards, housing 32,000 people on 6,000 acres, linked to a central city with over 50,000 people. Once a garden city reached maximum capacity, another city would be developed nearby.
• Neighbourhood concept: In the US, the garden city movement evolved into the neighbourhood concept, where residential houses and streets were organised around a local school or community centre, with a push for lowering traffic and providing safe roads. London has a metropolitan green belt around the city, covering 5,13,860 hectares of land, to offset pollution and congestion and maintain biodiversity. Why can’t Indian cities have something similar, instead of ring roads and urban sprawls?
• La ville du quart d’heure: Paris has taken this forward with the “15-minute city” (‘la ville du quart d’heure’). The idea is rather simple, every Parisian should be able to do their shopping, work, and recreational activities and fulfil their cultural needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride this means that the number of vehicular trips gets reduced significantly.
• Investment in pedestrian infrastructure and non-motorised transport zones: A city would then be planned for pedestrians, instead of cars and motors. This requires an extensive usage of mixed-use developments, along with investment in pedestrian infrastructure and non-motorised transport zones. Instead of widening highways, this approach would push for widening pedestrian walkways.

What should be adopted for India?

• Every Indian city should ideally have a Master Plan: A strategic urban planning document which would be updated every decade or two. The document would entail how a city is supposed to grow, vertically and horizontally, across zones, while offering a high quality of life in a sustainable manner. Such plans would also consider poverty mitigation, affordable housing and liveability for urban migrants.
• Urban land use needs to be better: One look at satellite map imagery will show that India’s urban growth is increasingly haphazard, with informal, unplanned and sprawling neighbourhoods developing in paddy fields and along linear infrastructure (arterial roads, open spaces). India’s hidden urbanisation, driven partly by our stringent definition of the word, along with weak enforcement of building codes, has meant that the local government is often playing catch-up, unable to provide urban services and infrastructure to keep up with growth.
• Public land availability: Meanwhile, in places where there are formally recognised towns and urban neighbourhoods, outdated planning practices have meant that land utilisation is poor. Consider the case of Mumbai, where almost 1/4th of the land is open public space while over half of it is the underutilised space around buildings, which is enclosed by walls and hived off from public access. Such open spaces, if available, would help cities like Mumbai achieve similar ratios as globally benchmarked cities (Amsterdam, Barcelona) in public land availability (typically above 40 per cent).
• India’s urban density will also need to be thought through: Dense construction on the peripheries of our major cities (for instance, dense construction in Delhi’s suburbs, like Noida and Gurugram) will inevitably mean that public services are stretched and emissions (due to transportation to the main city) remain high. Such urbanisation will unavoidably lock India into a high emissions future while making our cities prone to extreme heat and flooding.
• Then there is climate change: According to the World Bank, climate change may reduce India’s GDP by 3 per cent, while depressing the living standards of its citizens by 2050. Many urban experts cite technological solutions that may save our cities a chain of sea walls, river embankments and reclamations, for instance from such potential calamities. However, structural engineering simply may not be an economically and environmentally feasible option everywhere instead, our focus must be on conservation.
• Climate resilience perspective Bengaluru, with its network of interconnected lakes, could have considered Bangkok-style ferries instead of draining out its lakes. All ongoing and upcoming urban infrastructure projects must be reconsidered from a future climate resilience perspective does the ongoing sea reclamation for the upcoming coastal road in Mumbai make sense if sea levels are rising?
• Establishing a sense of cityhood: By making a push for a city as a co-created space will also require building up institutional capacity.
• Addressing lack of town planning education: India would ideally require 3,00,000 town and country planners by 2031 (there are just 5,000 town planners currently). Much of this problem is fundamentally due to a lack of town planning education in the country there are just 26 institutes that provide this course, producing 700 town planners each year. We already have a shortage of 1.1 million planners. More schools are needed, with a push for local IITs and NITs to have a standalone planning department. With over 8,000 towns and cities, there is a clear unmet need.

Conclusion

• Our policymakers also need to be cognisant of the historical context of our urban development a push for glass buildings or utilising granite may not always be suitable for our cities. Why can’t our cities look distinctly Indian, inspired by our historical architecture? Renewing our cities will require us to rethink various urban topics, including urban design, urban healthcare, affordable housing, sustainability and inclusion among others. Our urban future depends on getting this right.

Mains question 

Q. Renewing our cities will require us to rethink various urban topics, including urban design, urban healthcare, affordable housing, sustainability and inclusion among others. Elaborate.

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