FTN Blog: Our cities are geared for the rich

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The metro accident in Delhi and the waterlogging in Mumbai motivated us to start a discussion on which way our cities are heading.

Face The Nation on Tuesday was about 'Are We Following the Wrong Model of Urban Development'. The discussion really set me thinking.

The government is supposed to be promoting "inclusive growth"- its supposed to be a government for the aam admi. But is there any attempt being made on the part of our urban planners and managers to make our cities hospitable, humane and habitable for the aam admi? I live in Delhi and I can tell you if you are a pedestrian in this city, you have to fear for your life!

There are no subways, no walking paths and almost no pavements. And have you ever seen senior citizens trying to cross a flyover? It's a horrifying spectacle watching septugenarians attempting to scale three-foot fences and barricades.

Honestly, I really feel the planners have contempt for the people and instead are trying to implement some fantasy notion of a city. An architect friend of mine has told me that it is a two and a half kilometer walk for a villager - say someone who is on foot and has come to Delhi for treatment at AIIMS - to negotiate that fearsome clover leaf flyover or whatever it's called.

I wish the government would realise that we cannot aim to have cities in the Western sense. We have a large informal sector, we have pedestrians, we have cyclists, we have vegetable vendors, we have cycle-rickshaws - how much more rich and diverse and aesthetic our cities would be if we had an urban design that incorporated all these features into our definition of the "city".

At the moment we seem to be imitating a Western model of giant flyovers and massive highways which may be good for 20 per cent of the population but are making life dangerous for those who don't have cars.

Do we need so many flyovers? Is it simply contractors who are benefitting from building them? What about housing for the domestic worker sector? Surely that should be a priority. Our cities are certainly fostering a tragic segregation between classes instead of making our cities into humane livable zones where all castes and classes can mix and intermingle freely.