Click to play videoEvery day seems to bring yet another story of an urban nightmare. Mumbai was completely waterlogged on Tuesday after the second day of continuous rain.
Mumbai has spent over Rs 1,000 crore on the Bandra-Worli sea link but clearly not enough on drainage. Delhi is still in shock after the accident on the metro construction site in which six people died. Is the development of the Indian city, with their big flyovers and wide roads, neglecting the basic needs of its inhabitants?
Indian urban planners now say it is time the Government questioned its priorities on urban development. The question that was being asked on CNN-IBN's Face The Nation was: Chaos in Cities: Is India following a wrong model of urban development?
On the panel of experts to try and answer the question were Union Urban Development Minister, S Jaipal Reddy; Co-founder Janaagraha, Ramesh Ramanathan; architect, activist and writer, P K Das; and Hazard Centre head, Dunu Roy.
At the beginning of the show, 85 per cent agreed that India was following a wrong model of urban development while 15 per cent disagreed.
URBAN PLANNING IN A MESS?
It seems that it is high-time India spent more money on urban planning, which is in complete chaos. There is no safety on places like Metro sites and there are no proper drainage systems, yet crores of rupees are being spent on making big roads and showpiece flyovers.
S Jaipal Reddy kickstarted the debate by saying that one could not rush to a conclusion on such a broad issue and that these issues were exceptions, not things which occurred with regularity. "Even while analysing the problem, we must draw a distinction between one-time construction accidents or the annual flood problem in Mumbai city. All problems cannot come under one banner."
Ramesh Ramanathan responded to this saying that India currently did not have any model of urban development whatsoever. "We have no coherence of how we are examining our cities and how we are looking at the challenges. What we are seeing today is the result of a very band-aid, adhoc approach. As India urbanises we are going to continue to see such messes."
He said the danger was in casting this as a rich versus poor debate.
"Cities are very complicated. They are the playgrounds of all competing stakeholders because cities are both social and economic engines. The model of development needs to recognise that everyone's interests need to be met and what we need are policies at the national, state and local level that can then respond to these. Today, what you are seeing is completely cacophonic," he stated.
Dunu Roy said that he agreed with both Jaipal Reddy as well as Ramesh Ramanathan in parts. "What we see is that 80 per cent of the money is being spent for 20 per cent of the population. And this is not inclusive growth. If you build a sea-link, it is a priority for cars and those people owning cars. It is not a priority for people and it is extremely exclusive growth."
NO INCLUSIVE GROWTH
Agreeing with Ramanathan, P K Das said that there was an anarchy of development in India.
"Urban planners and transport planners and all sorts of officials were working separately, not in tandem and almost contrary to each other at times, which is counter-productive to the larger process of integrative planning for cities. Even things that are being done are not being done well. There is complete lack of comprehensive planning. Housing, transportation, sewage, social infrastructure, amenities, public conveniences - all these authorities of the government which are independent can be woven together by Miniter Jaipal Reddy towards a more participatory planning process."
Jaipal Reddy said that he did not differ with any of the other panelists at all.
"Until recently the Government of India was not taking a look at urban development because this is a state subject under the Constitution of India. But since we launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, we have been able to sanction schemes worth Rs 95,000 crore in the last three-and-a-half years. And 90 per cent of this amount was meant for basic services - drinking water, drainage, underground sewage, housing for the poor and not for flyovers or such."
He said that great stress was being laid on public transportation for inclusive growth. "Delhi Metro has been a magnificent success. As part of the stimulus, we have provided 15,500 low-floor semi-luxury buses to various medi-cities in India. The solution is public transport and not private transport," he added.
There are over 5 lakh cycle rickshaws in Delhi, 80 lakh people are dependent on hawking and vending and they all have to use flyovers on which cars are whizzing up and down. The majority is finding it hard to be a part of the urban growth, according to these statistics.
Ramanathan said that the tension emerged when not enough is allocated to cities. "How much does it really take to build inclusive cities in India? Unless we address this problem, we won't be able to solve much. The total cost of building inclusive liveable cities in India could come to a staggering $1 trillion. And these are cities not like the ones we see in the west but which are very basic cities. Even an initiative like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission is going to address less than .1 per cent of this requirement. So in the allocation, we are fighting over the crumbs. We don't have a national policy on how we are going to generate and allocate the funds so that all cities are able to benefit. Today, the conversation is reduced to who is getting the bits and pieces of what we are getting in the crumbs. I think we need to open up this debate to say what do cities really need from a financing standpoint to make it better and then say where the money is going to come from."
URBAN MILCH COW
Dunu Roy said that Indian cities have ceased to be about the people who live in them, but they are milch cows, money-making enterprises for politicians and contractors.
"What I am trying to say is that there is a planning model. This planning model has changed over time and the current planning model which has come up with the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission is essentially one which has been given over to consultants. Unfortunately most of these consultants have very little experience of urban planning. The model that these consultants are following is a financial model and it has got nothing to do with people anymore," he said.
He added that for example, when the Metro plan started in Delhi it gave a plan of Rs 5,000 crore, whereas the Indian Railways was ready to give the same plan for Rs 600 crore. He wanted to know why was the Indian Railways' plan not taken up.
"What success of the Delhi Metro are we talking about. It was supposed to carry 25 lakh people in phase 1 but it has carried only 7 lakh people. Is that a success?" he asked.
Jaipal Reddy responded to this by saying, "This is not correct because all the schemes sanctioned relate to basic services and contracts if any are awarded by the state governments and urban local bodies. You can't do without contractors, but it is for the state governments and urban local bodies to see that the work is properly executed. We are now trying to see that the quality of the implementation scheme is up to the mark. I am not aware of this so-called offer made by the Indian Railways which Dunu Roy is talking about. The trouble was only between the choice of the gauge to be used for the Delhi Metro - standard gauge and broad gauge. Ultimately the Government of India went in for standard gauge. I repeat that Delhi Metro is a huge success. Cities in India cannot do without such local transport. I think that the only problem right now is that we have not built enough feeder channels so that more people could travel in the Metro."
He said that the figure that 50 lives have been lost in the Delhi Metro construction in only a year was completely incorrect. He said that 50 deaths have occurred but since the time the Metro project was started in Delhi. "Accidents are unfortunate, but somehow unavoidable. But I must say that our own record compares favourably to the construction of metros in cities like Singapore.
Ramanathan interrupted at this saying that the financial stakes which cities offered especially in terms of land pose a huge danger of them becoming the feifdoms of political interests. "This is a very legitimate concern and we must do everything possible to make cities people centric."
"However, where I disagree with Dunu is that somewhere he is suggesting that there was a better model in India before the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission came up. I think cities were in very bad shape before this model came up and if you look at the reform agenda of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, it is attempting to do exactly what we have said should be done in this debate - which is make strong city governments, make them accountable directly to the people, make cities the masters of their own destiny and allow citizens to have a stake in the outcome of their cities. This is not happening in a nice, smooth way and all of us share the blame for this," he concluded the debate by saying.
FINAL SMS/WEB POLL: Chaos in Cities: Is India following a wrong model of urban development?
Yes: 87 per cent
No: 13 per cent
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