Infrastructure

Wide footpaths, bright street lights, a separate lane for cyclists, designated parking space and benches to relax on while shopping. The transformation of Thiyagaraya Road in Pondy Bazaar into a pedestrian plaza has redefined the shopping experience for many residents of Chennai.  For the first time ever in Chennai, a dedicated space was allocated for pedestrians for a hassle-free shopping experience in a commercial street. At this part of T Nagar, vehicle users and pedestrians now coexist without disturbing each other.  The pedestrian plaza was much needed for Pondy Bazaar, where citizens shop throughout the year. The changes envisaged as…

The Covid-19 pandemic and various levels of lockdown has affected us in many different ways; from livelihoods, education and mobility, to mental health. Confined physically and mentally for months, there is one common thing that everyone longs for – open spaces that can be freely accessed. On that claustrophobic backdrop, any decision that makes this a reality, was going to be welcome.  So, making Church Street a vehicle-free zone for a certain number of days in a month was a happy development for Bengaluru. The hope is that this weekend experiment will reduce pollution, encourage walking and use electric vehicles. …

As we saw in Part 1 of this series, many apartments in Bengaluru have been rushing to install rooftop solar panels in view of expected policy changes. These systems have helped apartments steeply reduce their monthly power bills for common areas. Here's a guide on how you can get a rooftop solar system installed in your apartment too, based on information from the Bangalore Apartments' Federation (BAF), a collective of nearly 500 apartment associations in the city. Also see: A guide to installing solar power in your home What is a rooftop solar system? In this system, solar panels are…

Several large municipal councils in the country have budgets which could be the envy of a small state government. A case in point is Brinhanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the corporation that runs Mumbai (20-21 Budget: 33,000 Crores). With such large budgets and huge manpower to execute the works, why is almost every civic facility in Mumbai in a sorry state? Roads, water supply and drainage, sanitation and healthcare facilities, municipal schools etc. scarcely bear any comparison with similar such facilities in more civilised countries. The answer is not far to seek. To prove the point, a recent news item in the…

Vishnu Gattupalli is a happy Management Committee (MC) member of his apartment, Trifecta Starlight, located at Mahadevapura. Their newly commissioned 84 kWp solar power plant helps them save more than 80,000 rupees each month on common area electricity bills. “We are extremely happy to have the rooftop solar power plant that has no direct emissions”, says Vishnu. The committee was inspired by the success stories of solar installations in other apartments. Vishnu who is also Secretary, Whitefield Cluster of Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF), says over 30 apartments in the city have adopted solar rooftop. Rooftop solar systems are now an…

Pedestrians are among the most endangered population category of Hyderabad, the sixth most populous urban agglomeration in India and the fourth largest in terms of area. “One-third of accident victims in Hyderabad were pedestrians,” according to Telangana Director General of Police, M Mahender Reddy.  Given the current state of the pedestrian walkways and footpaths, this comes as no surprise. The rapid cheek-by-jowl urbanisation over the last four decades has put a heavy burden on Hyderabad’s infrastructure, especially its transportation and road network. The few pavements that do exist are in very poor condition with about 95% of them encroached by…

Not too far from 57-year-old Shivaji Sutar’s current rented room in Lower Parel is the Ganesh Nagar D slum, where one of Mumbai’s first slum self-development projects was initiated over 20 years ago.  Shivaji is among the 390 residents who pooled in money to upgrade his own hut and the basti into a residential complex with three seven-floor buildings. All was going well. The first building was ready, a section of residents had moved in to flats in 2005, and the construction of the second building was proceeding. But in 2009-10, an alleged fraud wrapped the project in a terse…

A few weeks ago, we explained how India’s most populous city, Mumbai, has the highest density of leopards in the country.   Unsurprisingly, wildlife experts have called for an increase in the number of leopard rescue centers in Maharashtra. With the increase in the leopard population in the state and human habitations closing in on the green forest spaces, the conflict between humans and leopards are increasing. Leopard rescue centers are a stop gap arrangement to deal with such conflicts.   Rescuing big cats  A leopard rescue center houses leopards that are injured, rescued or caught for attacking humans or they are…

Every year, some buildings give up the fight against Mumbai’s harsh monsoon rains. Why aren't the collapsing buildings repaired to save people who live in them? One answer seems to be lack of funds.  On 16 July, Bhanushali building in Fort collapsed, killing ten people. It was awaiting repairs since June 2019, when it was granted permission to be repaired from its own funds.  The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority shift the residents out of the buildings, pull them down and erect new structures in their place. Some residents are wary of such a strategy…

Housing is a fundamental social and economic need that determines the quality of life and health of people. Housing also underscores the deeply entrenched urban plight of our cities. 6.5 crore persons, that is 1 in every 6 persons, lived in slums and informal settlements in India in 2011. The existence of 33,510 slums, surveyed in 2013, in our 4,000 plus cities is another staggering statistic. Long-term marginalization of these neighbourhoods, is visible in the poor access to water and sanitation amenities in slum households. The census of 2011 showed that  43.3% households did not have water inside their homes…