Urban Design Issues In India

“Waste to the river” by Daniel Bachhuber is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Urban Design is a system of shaping the physical aspects of planning infrastructure and dealing with issues which go beyond architecture. It is an integrated ecosystem involving stakeholders, policymakers, governance, ecosystem, urban designers, and architects.

Urban Design In India

Urbanization in India is continuously reviving itself leading to large number of people migrating to cities and towns in the hope of better future. 1/4^th of urban housing in India accounts for slums. More than half population in Mumbai, stays in slums around the economic centers of the city. A developing country with large number of populations like India face some critical urban design issues. Some of them are mentioned below:

1. Rigid masterplans and conditional zoning regulations.
2. Urban density limiting building regulations.
3. Lack of policy, planning and regulations escalate the number of slums.
4. Scarcity of revenue generation by urban entities for renewal of infrastructure.
5. Improper system of water supply and wastewater management.

“India – Sights & Culture – garbage-filled canal” by mckaysavage is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Issues in Urban Design

In India, often the masterplans are inflexible due to the restrictive zoning and land use regulations. This results in limiting the housing supply and raising the costs of the same for both parties i.e., the homebuyers and the renters. Also, insufficient housing policies results in the demand for housing which comes from the low paid section of population. Yet in some parts of India, there are public-private-partnership policies which aid in the development of housing sector.

In addition, people use private transport more in the name social status. The dependency on cars has resulted in overcrowding of roads, pollution, and the increase in travelling time. Hence, creating a demand for road networks. Metropolitan cities like Mumbai survives on the lifeline of vast railway network. But overcrowding is the main issue during peak hours. Therefore, with regular efforts rail network can improve as it should.

Moreover, other problems faced by the country are sewage and sanitation. Furthermore, issues that needs addressing are water and wastewater management. Now a days, government is taking initiatives in some areas, but a large portion remains unattended.

Energy consumption demand surge with the rise in urbanization. India needs to create new techniques of power generation along with its capacity. Megacities contribute in most of the energy consumption and of environment deterioration. Also, it is to be noted the tremendous rise in cost of land results in snatching away the chance of having decent homes for the poor. This adversely impacts the women, children, and the old people. This creates a need to innovate the strategy for decentralized urbanization.

Conclusion

Finally, I feel developing countries like India needs improvement in urban planning and innovative ways are need of an hour. Most of the states and cities follow Town and Country planning Acts which provide guidelines for creating masterplans and transforming cities and their character. But many of these should call for reviewing and upgrading to include the advancements in technologies, and urban planning policies. Also, it is important to include citizens in the planning committee as they are the users and no one better than them can give voice to the urban problems they face. Currently, planning process as the procedure is greatly technocratic due to less user participation and involvement.  Also, it is important to have technical rigor while creating masterplan, it is essential to involve the people in the design process at some stages.

In conclusion, I would say, major cities in India like Mumbai and Delhi face most of the urban design issues and have the potential for improvement. And the moment to begin is now, if the country has to keep up with the upcoming demands of urbanization.

While it is getting better and better as city (Mumbai), and disintegrating (very rapidly and quite unnecessarily) as environment… perhaps what we are experiencing is the last burst of energy… the spastic twitches before the end. – (Charles Correa)

Reference:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2011/07/04/indias-urban-challenges

https://www.orfonline.org/research/indias-urban-challenges-recommendations-for-the-new-government-2019-2024-52148/

https://isocarp.org/app/uploads/2014/05/Review_07_Specimen_Chapter_1.pdf