India's Urban Planning is Dismal

'If you want affordable housing, bid adieu to open spaces and green lungs' says BMC ( The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai ) announced the Mumbai edition of the Times of India.  To add fuel to the fire Ajoy Gupta the BMC Commissioner showed a rare alacrity when he said ' It is debatable if people need affordable houses or open spaces. We adhere with the  former view'.  The statement showed an ignorance of the basic tenets of city and urban planning that no doubt will spell further doom for the city of Mumbai. In other words instead of Mumbai becoming a better city, the Development Plan envisages making Mumbai a monstrosity in the years to come with rapidly deteriorating lifestyle for its inhabitants.  

Source : Times of India May 10, 2016

Somehow the BMC seemed to think that open spaces were only important from an ecological point of view and that is where it is perhaps most mis-guided.  Good urban planning brings about a change in  social and economic functions as well, to create a sustainable future.

The problems of urban cities

According to the UN population surveys, India is likely to have 700 million rural poor moving to cities by 2050.

With 45,000 plant and nearly 90,000 animal species, India is considered one of the world’s most mega-diverse countries. Experts suggest continued growth in its urban population could lead to enormous loss of biodiversity. Yet, the country has yet to demonstrate serious planning efforts to address the impact of increased urbanisation on the environment.

Brazil which is home to more than 56,000 plant species, has taken the lead in setting new trends in urban planning. Its “green city” Curitiba has demonstrated that urban planning can be environmentally friendly. Curitiba’s population of 1.8 million consumes 23 per cent less fuel per capita than the Brazilian national average. The city has 16 parks, 14 forests, and over 1,000 green public areas shared by its residents .

So from a future perspective, India probably needs to focus more on green cities than smart cities because green cities is being smart for the future.  

Benefits of green space in cities

Central Park forms the Green Lung for New York City

Open spaces have significant importance in the life of the settlements. The areas with high green-coverage rate have ecological and environmental importance. These green spaces can improve the urban climate, abate the urban heat-island effect by their ecological-balancer function and reduce environmental damages. Through their social importance, the open spaces can help the residents in adjusting to a healthy lifestyle. By their aesthetic importance, they determine the characteristic of the settlements, ameliorating the built-up character of the cities.

There is a growing body of research showing a connection between human health and wellbeing and the design and structure of towns, cities and regions. Research in this emerging field is now being undertaken by several sectors including medical, health promotion, recreational studies, urban studies and planning and transport planning research. 

London offers its residents 31 times the open space that Greater Mumbai offers its citizens, and New York offers 26 times the space. According to one estimate Mumbai has just 1.1 sq metres of open space per person.  

 Mumbai's Development Plan

Salt Pan Lands in Mumbai

The BMC has proposed unlocking of 2,100 hectares of No Development Zones that were initially perceived as full of mangroves and reclaimed land. It also plans to generate 500 hectares from the tourism development authority; 260 hectares from salt pan lands and 140 hectares of port trust land. In effect, they are using ecologically sensitive land in Mumbai for development purposes.

Salt pans act as natural buffers during floods.

So not only does the Development Plan create a deteriorating lifestyle for its residents, it threatens to destroy the city from an ecological point of view.

The short term economic benefits of converting land for development rather than retaining it as open space is a shortsighted vision in urban planning for India's most prominent city. 

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