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A Radical town planning approach, advantages and disadvantages

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Written By psaram42 - 11 August, 2009

Traffic Bangalore Planning environment Decongestion Analysis Society Others Everything else

There is a need to have some changes in the current thinking, as far as the town planning aspects of cities like Bangalore are concerned. Sustainability and the Global Environment are gaining more and more attention due to increasing human population upsetting a natural ecological balance. It may not be inappropriate to set a good example of a radical town planning concept, for the future generation, before it is too late. 

What is town planning? 

Town planning is the science of planning the cities which are basically non agro based, in nature. It involves comprehensive planning aspects of the physical and social development of a town, city or a mega city. A village on the other hand is agro based requiring large tracts of land for growing food. With the Industrial Revolution People were till now blissfully unaware of the inadvertent adverse effects on the environment. However a time has come for taking stock of the situation. 

Kalidasa, a well known name in Indian Context had a humble beginning. 

He was once seen to cut a branch of a tree on which he was sitting at the wrong side! Tis story perhaps puts the current malady in a proper perspective. 

The Traffic hassles faced by the Bangalore Praja are well known. This is borne out by the fact that traffic issues get maximum attention on the Praja site. Let us try to put various issues getting attention on the site: 

  1. Traffic
  2. Taxation
  3. Decongestion
  4. Health
  5. Public Hygiene
  6. Civic Amenities
  7. Public Toilet
  8. Public Transport
  9. Travel
  10. Water Borne Disease 

(My one paisa on: It may be a good idea to introduce tracking the indices used on the praja site) 

In this thread I would like to evoke some radical thinking in this direction. 

COMMENTS

I think the best way for

sarvagna - 11 August, 2009 - 09:13

I think the best way for India is identify new plots of land for completly new cities and plan the developments properly keeping even the smallest of smallest things in mind.

Lease the township plans to real estate guys to completly develop the facilities and allowe them a percentage of the land developed.

i don't see any other way where we can make our cities look even close to the looks of the other cities of the developed countries.

Needs strong political will - period

sanjayv - 11 August, 2009 - 09:45

I think the solution for all of this is to change the politics in the country.  For Bangalore to transofrm, there is a need for some strong, possibly radical decisions; an ability to stand up to vested interests, an ability to formulate a plan and stick to it, and the use of engineering and technology (not just IT).

None of this is possible in the current frame-work as has been demonstrated time and again.

The Radical Design approach for a future Bangalore

psaram42 - 11 August, 2009 - 05:40

 Let us try to enumerate the major design criteria:- 

  1. Limited cosmetic Smooth ground level Vehicular traffic
  2. Only Foot paths and cycling tracks at ground level.
  3. Increasing on ground Population Density with nearness to under ground Metro.
  4. Under ground Metro based commutation
  5. Primary Exclusive Under ground Rectangular non crossing multi level Metro Grid
  6. Secondary Rectangular Metro grid at 45 degrees to cater for better accessibility with increasing city extent
  7. RWH compatible community town planning concept (To be separately dealt later)
  8. Etc 

The above are simple but radical concepts. These are presented as a food for thought for the kind concideration of "Praja". 

My Two paise Bit on Radical Town Planning

RKCHARI - 11 August, 2009 - 06:14

I also suggest some thought be put on Green Building concepts including roof gardens and solar window screens which would reduce room temperatures considerably and have a cascading effect on use of electricity for airconditioning.

With trees being gobbled up almost by the hour, the only option to building a sustainable city would be to emphasise on roof gardens and abundant foliage on balconies. Technology improvements have ensured an ecologically sustainable roof and frontage of buildings without fear of water seepages etc can be built.

Wonder if praja members would support some form of self mandated code amongst builders to ensure landscaping gated complexes or multistoried buildings is not limited to swimming pools / club houses and a small children's play area alone.

I am sure most of you have seen the sad looking concrete jungle that Purvankara Reviera and Rohan Vasantha groups of apartments enroute to Marathahalli from Whitefield have sprung up. Can you imagine if each balcony had a luscious green foliage hanging over them, how much more pleasing the entire expanse will look?

Would such concepts apply to radical town planning?

 

Car free cities, suburb

sanchitnis - 14 August, 2009 - 14:27

 Here is the website corresponding to the book "car free cities" http://www.carfree.com/ .

Also reposting an article on Vauban: a german car free suburb:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html

Sanjay Chitnis

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