URBAN PLANNING

This article is part of a special series: Air Quality in our Cities Ruchika fumed behind the mask that her mother tied around her nose everyday. She had to pass through Peenya, the "dirtiest and "most polluted" locality in Bengaluru to reach her workplace. Her mother, a health expert, had told her "This is the point where pollution in 2015 was 1300 ug/m3." That figure in itself made no sense to Ruchika, till her mother added that the junction was 26 times more dangerous than the World Health Organisation's recommendation and 13 times worse than the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)'s  standards!…

In a city like Chennai where public transportation is not really optimal in terms of supporting last mile connectivity, share autos are the cheapest and easiest option and have naturally emerged as the common man’s preferred mode of transport. But the advantages of this intermediate public transport or para transit cannot override the range of problems faced by commuters and even share auto drivers themselves. In Part 1 of the series on share autos, we discussed why share autos are necessary, especially in view of the demand surplus that crowded MTC buses are not able to meet. But commuters list…

We are looking for two Full-time interns for this research project in Bangalore on: Ashwath katte (tree worship) as a sustainable urban space The research will look at the practice of tree worship which continues to be a part of the everyday life of the people in the city. Specifically, it will look at how the Peepul tree shrine and the raised platform around it, locally called the ashwath katte has developed as a sustainable urban space. Using spatial ethnography and oral history methods, we will attempt to understand how the katte can help sustain not only environmental practices but…

With Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), Metrorail, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses and suburban rail network, Chennai is one of the metros in the country that have a more efficient local public transport system. However, rapid growth of commuters has led to the emergence of an illegal, parallel system in the form of share autos. The fact that 15,500 share autos ply on the city roads each day indicates how this form of private transportation is plugging the gaps in the public transport space. This Citizen Matters series on share autos provides details on the emergence of share autos, problems…

This article is part of a special series: Air Quality in our Cities The sputtering sound of many of our auto-rickshaws and the chimney-like smoke emitted by them (as well as by buses and some cars) have one thing in common: Diesel. At the policy level, the government of Tamil Nadu has taken various steps to phase out diesel vehicles from the roads, as a measure against vehicular pollution, but the implementation has been far from satisfactory. In 2009, the State Transport Authority had directed the petrol and diesel driven auto rickshaws in Chennai to switch to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). According…

Shifting from the slick, tree-lined Vasanthnagar to the mud and gravel of HRBR in East Bengaluru did it. Building a dream house in a nightmare colony with no roads or facilities dealt quite a shock to D.S. Rajshekhar ten years ago. It was then that he felt that unless he stepped forward and joined like-minded citizens to show some fighting spirit, he would continue to live in a perpetually 'under-construction' colony. His Residents' Welfare Association referred him to Citizens' Action Forum (CAF), which was a simple association of rather indignant residents. It was an idea that was seeded in 2007. It had…

While there have been attempts to formally plan the growth of a city, this has not proved to be successful in many parts of the world. Informality does play a significant role in several cities, especially those that are in the emerging economies. For those working in the informal sector, access to capital is limited and resources are not plentiful. The informal worker or the street vendor therefore borrows from the public spaces of the city where no price or a small price can reduce or eliminate the overheads related to rent or ownership of a space. In a study…

Around the city, it's easy to see that a number of localities are struggling to manage their waste. Heaps of trash lie around on the sides of roads, and are cleared only occasionally. The BBMP has tried various things to stop this - from warning signs to pleas to decorating a few places hoping that people will be reluctant to dirty them. None of this has worked. Now comes a different explanation. Some communities want to bring back the old bins. Until about a decade ago, the municipality used to have bins at street corners and people would dump their…

Like most other cities in India, Bhubaneswar has two faces. One is as tinselly and bright as you would expect a fast-growing city to be. The other frowns with the strain and concentration of having to look good. Bhubaneswar was the first choice of the Ministry of Urban Development's (MoUD) flagship Smart City project. A year later, it featured in the top 20 global cities of the world in the Global Smart City Performance Index 2017,  according to a survey by UK-based Juniper Research. The city was a member of a list that included Singapore (that topped the list), San Francisco, London, New…

LED lights to illuminate Bengaluru airport's second runway in 2019 The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA)'s brand new second runway slated to operate from October 2019 will be powered by energy and cost-saving LED lights. This choice was made to ensure lower maintenance, reduce power cost, ensure higher levels of safety and efficient operations. This will be the only airport in India to have LEDs. In a press release issued by Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), CFO Tom Shimmin said that US based company, ADB Safegate, will be installing the necessary equipment to maintain the airfield’s LED lights such as cables…