[Urbanstudy] From New Delhi, some urban legends

[Vinay Baindur]

<http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2974595.ece>

 http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2974595.ece

>From New Delhi, some urban legendsA. Srivathsan
[image: The Mumbai city skyline. Chennai and Mumbai have low FSIs and there
has been tremendous pressure on local authorities to increase it.]
AFP The Mumbai city skyline. Chennai and Mumbai have low FSIs and there has
been tremendous pressure on local authorities to increase it.

The Centre's prescriptions for urban renewal are either a recycling of
earlier ideas or a retelling of misplaced World Bank views.

The assessment of seven expert committees, which reviewed the state of
urban planning ahead of the 12th Five-Year Plan, is that Indian cities will
soon reach a precipice—unless a course correction takes place, cities will
turn into a nightmare. While the diagnosis is on the button, the expert
committees themselves have failed to prescribe innovative solutions that
can provide hope for the future of urban India.

First, the conclusions of the expert committees: while cities are rapidly
expanding and outpace all projections, institutions that manage them are
moving on leaden feet. The plans they make are rigid, least comprehensive
and less inclusive. Lack of institutional clarity, poor intellectual
capacity and dearth of enabling tools are making things worse for the
cities and their citizens.

The urban population at present is 377 million (31 per cent of the total
population) and about half this number live in the 50-million-plus cities.
When the urban population surges and crosses 600 million in 2031, mega
cities will burst at the seams and even the newly created metropolitan
areas would face what is now a familiar pattern of urban ills. The pressing
question is this: if the cities cannot cope with current levels of
urbanisation, how would they measure up when “a true scale of urbanisation”
unfolds?

The 12th Plan expert committees have prescribed various strategies and
plans as a way forward. They include preparation of national spatial
strategy, drafting regional plans, making flexible local-level plans,
strategic densification of cities, urban regeneration that will pay for
itself and devolving planning powers to the local bodies.

Some of these proposals are recycled ideas and a few others seem to
unthinkingly mirror the well-known but misplaced views of the World Bank on
FSI. Some totally miss the point.

That the locus of city planning cannot be the geographical boundaries of
the city, and should include the surrounding region for a balanced urban
development, is an idea under consideration for many years. As early as
1966, a model Regional and Town Planning and Development Law was
circulated. In the 1970's plans for various regions such as Dandkarnaya and
Chandigarh were formulated. Even the expert group constituted during the
11th Five-Year Plan also recommended a regional plan.

The question to be asked is why this suggestion, repeated every five years,
has not been implemented? The same question should also be asked about
transferring urban planning powers to local bodies and strengthening them,
a recommendation that all expert groups make without fail. From the time
the 73rd and 74th Amendments were made to the Constitution in 1993, these
objectives have remained elusive.

Recommendations such as “promoting symbiotic development” between urban
centres and rural hinterland, building capacities at the Centre, State and
local level and establishing a professional cadre of State development
authority were also made five years ago. No headway has been made.

It is evident that neither the Central government nor its experts have been
able to influence State-level urban policies. Directing urbanisation from
the cosy seat of New Delhi has not worked. Attempts to directly influence
the urban planning of select cities through the cash-rich Jawaharlal Nehru
National Urban Renewal Mission have also not made any deep impact.

Some recommendations are deeply flawed. For instance, the present working
group on Urban Strategic Planning has concluded that Indian cities suffer
from archaic density regulations. By irrationally sticking to a low Floor
Space Index (FSI, a ratio that determines how much area can be built on a
given plot), cities do not optimally use land, it says. The suggestion is
that the FSI be increased. This is also the World Bank's position on Indian
cities.

Chennai and Mumbai have low FSI—1.5 and 1.33 respectively—but they also
have one of the highest population densities in the world. Chennai has a
density of 26,597 persons per square kilometre and Mumbai 20,057 persons
per square kilometre. This density is comparable to that of Manhattan, a
pet example of policy makers, which has a residential FSI ranging from 3.5
to 10. Lower FSI in itself is not an issue. It functions in relation to
other factors such as the size of plots and per capita ownership of built
up area. To the credit of the planners in such cities, despite tremendous
pressure from lobbying groups to increase FSI, they have stood their ground
and reminded them that there is more to city planning than just recovering
land prices. Poor enforcement and violation of this regulation is a
different issue.

In this context, when a national policy unmindfully recommends higher FSI,
it is bound to undermine local reasoning and arguments that favour a
low-rise and high-density city pattern over high-rise city growth. What is
also conspicuously missing in such a recommendation is the possibility of
increasing FSI only for the purpose of social housing to reduce the
mounting housing deficit. And linked to this, why should government lands
be unlocked to monetise them without dedicating it for low-income housing?

Expert group recommendations may serve the limited purpose of helping the
Central government arrive at its funding figures and allocation. But if any
change has to occur and cities have to meaningfully grow, the locus of
action has to be at the State level. This is needed not only because urban
development is a State subject; for all reasons, initiatives for policies
and plans, vision and priorities have to emerge locally to address space,
resource, mobility and environment issues. The effort and focus then has to
be on finding ways to push the State government to radically rework its
urban development.

*ansri at thehindu.co.in*

Keywords: urban
planning<http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2974595.ece?css=print#>
, urban development<http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2974595.ece?css=print#>
, Indian cities
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