Master plans have traditionally focused on rigid land use planning, but this has made cities inflexible and unable to adapt to dynamic urban growth. It has also promoted unequal and unsustainable development. There is a need to redefine master plans to make cities more smart, sustainable, and equitable. New master plans should be flexible, community-oriented, and focus on transit-oriented compact development, energy efficiency, and inclusiveness. They should involve a variety of experts and stakeholders and use new technologies to guide sustainable urban form and development over time rather than rigidly defining land uses. The goal is to minimize urban problems and make cities higher quality places for all residents.
Defreezing master plans to create better master plansJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper tries look at,critically and objectively, the present system of preparing master plans/ development plans in India and suggests strategies and methodology to make it more rational, focused and user friendly by changing its intent, contents, scope and methodoloy
Redefining master plans to promote smart and sustainable cities JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Master plans/ Development Plans, used as the most potent weapon by the town planner, to promote planned and orderly development has done more damage than good to the cities. Consuming large span of time, involving lot of manpower and requiring considerable resources, master plans has made planners chase the development instead of leading the development. Rigidity of master plans, based on defining the use of every piece of land, has made the master plans irrelevant, irrational and illogical in the face fast changing urban dynamics. Master plans, prepared for a period spanning over two decades, try to freeze the city. As planners, when we do not know our own future, what competency, capacity, expertise and capability we have to define the future of the cities. In the process, majority of cities have been suffering from illegal, sub-standard, haphazard and unplanned growth. Master plans have accordingly, emerged as the major road block in promoting planned urban development and making cities sustainable . For promoting planned development and making city growth both rational and dynamic, focus of planning should be on redefining and putting in place a new order of urban planning, development options and management strategies besides suggesting new format of Master Plans to make cities smart, more humane, equitable, just, efficient, productive, sustainable and providers of assured quality of life to all existing and future urban residents including poorest of the poor.
Town planning - A Tool to Promote Holistic Development of Human settlementsJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Writing is an attempt to briefly describe the context, role and importance of town planning in shaping the human settlements and make them more livable, sustainable and making value addition to human living and working.
Comprehensive Development of Amritsar- Need for A Planning and Urban Develop...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper was written when Amritsar development Authority was not created and Amritsar Master Plan was in evolution. Paper was written primarily to focus on the need of creating a dedicated agency for promoting the planned development of Amritsar Metroplis. Paper is being published by adding the post srcipt in the already published text
Paper is an attempt to define the role and importance of smart cities in the context of state of art planning and design to promote happiness among the residents and stakeholders of the city .
The writeup on Chandigarh is the preface written for the book; Chandigarh-- A City of Two Plans’. Any professional looking for the book may please mail the a dress for sharing the book.
Chandigarh remains most misunderstood and manipulated city, facing numerous challenges and crisis. Known to be city of crisis. Chandigarh was conceived in crisis, born in crisis, grown in crisis and continues in crisis of population, poverty, politics and pollution. Despite all these crises, Chandigarh remains a role model in the domain of urban planning, architecture, urban design, landscaping and urban management. Assuring minimum quality of life even to the poorest of poor and offering basic amenities of life, Chandigarh remains the only city in the country, providing minimum two room accommodation, piped water supply, water borne sewerage, and sanitation system, metaled roads, assured electric supply etc. to all the residents of the city. Known for experimentation and commitment of the professionals including, architects, town planners and engineers, who worked tirelessly, has made Chandigarh, one of the finest planned and developed cities, locally and globally, in the post -independent period. Despite limitations and constrains imposed by the non-availability of adequate financial resources, state of art construction technologies, construction machinery etc, Chandigarh showcased how profession of architecture, town planning and engineering can be effectively leveraged to create one of the finest examples of human settlement.
Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks.
Urban planning deals with physical layout of human settlements. The primary concern is the public welfare,which includes considerations of efficiency, sanitation, protection and use of the environment,as well as effects on social and economic activities.
Urban planning is considered an interdisciplinary field that includes social science, architecture, human geography, politics, engineering and design sciences. It is closely related to the field of urban design and some urban planners provide designs for streets, parks, buildings and other urban areas.
Urban planning is also referred to as urban and regional planning, regional planning, town planning, city planning, rural planning, urban development, physical planning, urban management or some combination in various areas worldwide.
Defreezing master plans to create better master plansJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper tries look at,critically and objectively, the present system of preparing master plans/ development plans in India and suggests strategies and methodology to make it more rational, focused and user friendly by changing its intent, contents, scope and methodoloy
Redefining master plans to promote smart and sustainable cities JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Master plans/ Development Plans, used as the most potent weapon by the town planner, to promote planned and orderly development has done more damage than good to the cities. Consuming large span of time, involving lot of manpower and requiring considerable resources, master plans has made planners chase the development instead of leading the development. Rigidity of master plans, based on defining the use of every piece of land, has made the master plans irrelevant, irrational and illogical in the face fast changing urban dynamics. Master plans, prepared for a period spanning over two decades, try to freeze the city. As planners, when we do not know our own future, what competency, capacity, expertise and capability we have to define the future of the cities. In the process, majority of cities have been suffering from illegal, sub-standard, haphazard and unplanned growth. Master plans have accordingly, emerged as the major road block in promoting planned urban development and making cities sustainable . For promoting planned development and making city growth both rational and dynamic, focus of planning should be on redefining and putting in place a new order of urban planning, development options and management strategies besides suggesting new format of Master Plans to make cities smart, more humane, equitable, just, efficient, productive, sustainable and providers of assured quality of life to all existing and future urban residents including poorest of the poor.
Town planning - A Tool to Promote Holistic Development of Human settlementsJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Writing is an attempt to briefly describe the context, role and importance of town planning in shaping the human settlements and make them more livable, sustainable and making value addition to human living and working.
Comprehensive Development of Amritsar- Need for A Planning and Urban Develop...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper was written when Amritsar development Authority was not created and Amritsar Master Plan was in evolution. Paper was written primarily to focus on the need of creating a dedicated agency for promoting the planned development of Amritsar Metroplis. Paper is being published by adding the post srcipt in the already published text
Paper is an attempt to define the role and importance of smart cities in the context of state of art planning and design to promote happiness among the residents and stakeholders of the city .
The writeup on Chandigarh is the preface written for the book; Chandigarh-- A City of Two Plans’. Any professional looking for the book may please mail the a dress for sharing the book.
Chandigarh remains most misunderstood and manipulated city, facing numerous challenges and crisis. Known to be city of crisis. Chandigarh was conceived in crisis, born in crisis, grown in crisis and continues in crisis of population, poverty, politics and pollution. Despite all these crises, Chandigarh remains a role model in the domain of urban planning, architecture, urban design, landscaping and urban management. Assuring minimum quality of life even to the poorest of poor and offering basic amenities of life, Chandigarh remains the only city in the country, providing minimum two room accommodation, piped water supply, water borne sewerage, and sanitation system, metaled roads, assured electric supply etc. to all the residents of the city. Known for experimentation and commitment of the professionals including, architects, town planners and engineers, who worked tirelessly, has made Chandigarh, one of the finest planned and developed cities, locally and globally, in the post -independent period. Despite limitations and constrains imposed by the non-availability of adequate financial resources, state of art construction technologies, construction machinery etc, Chandigarh showcased how profession of architecture, town planning and engineering can be effectively leveraged to create one of the finest examples of human settlement.
Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks.
Urban planning deals with physical layout of human settlements. The primary concern is the public welfare,which includes considerations of efficiency, sanitation, protection and use of the environment,as well as effects on social and economic activities.
Urban planning is considered an interdisciplinary field that includes social science, architecture, human geography, politics, engineering and design sciences. It is closely related to the field of urban design and some urban planners provide designs for streets, parks, buildings and other urban areas.
Urban planning is also referred to as urban and regional planning, regional planning, town planning, city planning, rural planning, urban development, physical planning, urban management or some combination in various areas worldwide.
Promoting Urban Environment Through Eco- CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper tries to define the role and importance of environmentally sustainable cities to promote urban environment , minimises carbon footprints and reduce global warmng
Redefining Planning Through Planning EducationJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation tries to showcase the relationship between quality of planning Education and quality of education, challenges faced by the profession and option which need to be exercised to make education more qualitative and responsive the challenges faced.
Sustaibale cities -Suggestive approach to make cities energy efficientJitKumarGupta1
The way cities use land, consume energy, eat up resources and impact the quality of life and environment, they are fast emerging as ecological disasters. Uncontrolled and haphazard growth devours land, water and energy from the surrounding landscape. The emerging contemporary patterns of settlements, have created cities which have high level of consumptions of energy due to auto dependence; high energy demand for buildings; water pollution from excessive toxic run off; air pollution and other environmental effects which considerably increase health risks.For the exorbitant, energy and ecological prices, these patterns do not even buy an appropriate quality of life. Cities of 21st century are totally divorced from aesthetic and ecological experience of nature. People are made to spend number of hours for commuting on daily basis. In the emerging social fabric, neighbours are not friends, communities are not tied to place and millions, too poor to afford basic amenities of life to lead a dignified life. Invasion of automobiles has made cities highly noisy, energy inefficient, congested and largely frustrating. Besides causing global macro ecological problems, current settlement patterns have created host of local ecological problems. World life habitats have become extinct; native species are replaced by consumptive exotics; streams are canalized, piped and buried; wetlands are filled and aquifers depleted. Urban heat islands created drive up energy use for cooling besides trapping pollutants in the city. Downstream areas are flooded and polluted largely by the quick run off from large paved areas. All these problems, collectively and individually, have the ability to adversely impact the local ecology. Accordingly, local ecological systems are rapidly losing their ability to produce clean water, air and food and to maintain rich variety of habitat and are fast losing their ability to sustain life.
Each of these environmental problems has their genesis in the design of cities, settlement patterns and urban spatial fabric. Human habitat needs restructuring on priority so that we live within the limits imposed by our life sustaining eco-systems and follow the basic principles which promote the quality of life.To minimize the energy consumption levels and the ecological disasters caused by today’s grey cities, we have to change our perceptions, to learn and think ecologically to create green cities which are both humane and sustainable besides least consumers of energy
Redefining Planning Strategies for Promoting Sustainable Urban SettJitKumarGupta1
Urbanisation in developing economies is fast emerging as a process of transfer of rural poverty to urban environment, leading to concentration of misery; creating distortions and emergence of numerous imbalances and problems. Accordingly, urban settlements are suffering from improper and haphazard development, absence of basic infrastructures and services, lack of housing, high degree of visual and environmental degradation and uncontrolled traffic etc. The cumulative effect of these factors is the degradation of quality of life in urban settlements and large number of subsidies required to keep them operational. Indian urbanization is characterized by urbanization of population, urbanization of poverty, urbanization of pollution and urbanization of environment.Looking at the existing scenario, all evidences suggest that despite best of the efforts of Planners to contain the population and limit and regulate the growth of large cities, they continue to grow and expand at an alarming pace; despite best of the efforts to promote planned growth, haphazard and unplanned development has emerged as the order of the day; despite best efforts made to contain slums, their number and size are growing much faster; despite pursuing the objective of ensuring quality of life to all, majority of urban dwellers are facing deprivation and lack of access to housing, basic amenities and facilities resulting in constant degradation of living environment. Thus, wide gaps have emerged over the years between what is planned and what actually comes on the ground.The dualities and contradictions emerging in the settlement scenario accordingly call for having a closer look at the very mechanism of city planning, development and management. It also calls for evaluating the concepts and systems, which have been followed in the past, for promoting planned growth of human settlements and have resulted in high level of distortions emerging in settlement planning and development mechanism. Since the existing systems and concepts have resulted in widening the gap between planning and development and have failed to achieve the goal of planned growth, surely it calls for their substitutions by some innovative concepts and systems, which would remove emerging distortions, dualities and contradictions in the settlement planning and make them rational and orderlu.
As integral part of human history, cities have emerged as great places to live, work and do business. Cities symbolise the dreams, hopes and aspirations of society. Driving infrastructure and technologies, cities are fast becoming hub of economic and technical innovations. Dictating economy, generating employment, determining quality of life, promoting ideas and innovations besides providing quality infrastructures, cities remain crucial to human growth, development and happiness. Despite distinct advantages, cities also represent chaos, disorder, dualities and contradictions. Polarised cities, showing great contrasts of wealth and poverty, lack capacity, capability and will to meet basic needs of shelter, healthcare, education, water and sanitation. In the process, majority of urban residents are being marginalised with quality of life fast becoming nightmare for people opting for making cities and towns, as their preferred place of residence. Population, poverty, pollution and exclusion have emerged the hallmarks of Indian urbanisation. As consumers of enormous energy /resources and generators of large waste, ecological footprints of cities are growing very fast, promoting green- house gas emissions and global warming. With urban population projected to reach 590 million in 2030, greatest challenge before parastatal agencies, professionals and administrators remains, how to harmonise the urban growth with quality of life and make cities great , happy and smart place to live and work. If genesis of problems of climate change, global warming, rising temperature, ozone depletion and rising carbon footprints is in cities then solution for such problems are also embedded in cities. Search for solutions to make cities safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable would fall in the domain of rationalising prevailing planning, development and management practices; re-defining new order of urban planning, ; leveraging technology; rationalising travel; promoting governance and re-defining design strategies for built environment.
Paper is an attempt to look at the Indian urban settlements in terms of their planning, designing, travel, buildings etc, identify problems they have and options which can be leveraged to make them more effective, efficient, livable, productive and sustainable
Town planning - A Tool to Promote Holistic Development of Human settlementsJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Updated paper tries to bring out the context, role and importance of town planning to make this world a better place to live and work and to make human life more sustainable and efficient. It also tries to brief about the approach which needs adoption to make town planning a better profession.
Paper looks critically and objectively, the role and importance of Master Plans in Rationalising the development of cities, issues created and options to make it a better master plan
Short write up looks at the Norms and standards evolved for the use of planners in undertaking exercise for planning of human settlements at city of local level- defining the role, importance, intent, content, approach and the objectives to be achieved.. It calls for rationalisation of planning norms based on research , with the aim to make them cost-effective, land efficient, more productive and people and sustainability focus
Decarbonising Human Settlements through Regional Planning, Peri-urban Devel...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Text tries to draw the attention of the professionals engaged in planning and designing of cities to the role of peri-urban areas in promoting the future planned growth of urban areas. Text also defines that cities need to be seen , planned , designed, developed and visuliased in the larger context not cofined to arbitrary physical boundaries defined by polotical and economic factors. Cities need to be seen in the larger context of the region and accordingly planned and devloped in the larger context of peri-urban araes/regional context, to stay safe, rational and sustainable. Neglecting rural areas at the cost of promoting urban development can be both irrational, illogical and fraught with danger of having lopsided developmnet of the urban areas. in the developing countries. Making cities carbon neutral will be possible only if the urban / rural areas and peri -urban areas are integrated within a unified planning, devlopment and management framework.
Planning and development options for Peri-urban areasJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper is an attempt to look into periphery, its role and importance in planned development, roadblocks facing its development and suggesting options for rationalising its growth
Strategy and Options for Planning Inclusive CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation looks at the context of inclusive cities, its relevance in the Indian context, problems faced by Indian cities and what are the options to make cities inclusive, and sustainable
Indian Options for Managing Global Warming Through Ruralisation and Rationali...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper looks at the option of adopting dual strategy , revolving round not only rationalising the development of cities but also promoting ruralisation through effective planning. New option will look at making villages more self-contained, self-sufficient, providing basic amenities and services besides generating employment for the rural inhabitants, creation of synergy between rural and urban settlements, rationalising planning, promoting accessibility, minimising mobility, planning for people not for vehicle and creating green built environment..
Planning Smart cities- Concepts and Practices.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Planning remains universal for making cities growth rational and logical. In the absence of planned development, cities cannot be made to grow in an orderly manner. Planners have been making cities different and distinct using different agenda for planning and development of cities. Currently planners are making cities safe, resilient, sustainable and livable. Many nations are vouching to make cities smart. Smart city is not a new concept .It has been followed globally to improve the quality of living and promote operational efficiency and productivity of the cities. It is an attempt to make cities more livable, sustainable and for creating a brand image to attract investment and make them a tourist destination. Globally , smart cities are characterized by high degree of environmental consciousness; using information technology to promote energy/ resources efficiency; creation of knowledge infrastructure; promoting sustainable economic development and high quality of life; ensuring wise management of natural resources through participatory action. According to Forbe, the structure of smart cities will have to be built on eight pillars involving: ‘smart governance, smart energy, smart buildings, smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, smart healthcare and smart citizens. Based on detailed studies and in depth analysis made of the most successful case studies globally, as how to transform cities into great places to live and make a city great, Mckinsey’s suggests three pronged strategies involving, achieving smart growth, do more with less and win support for change. Considering the entire gamut of urban settlements , a city can be made Smart only if it is planned smart, developed smart, operated smart, financed smart and governed smartly .
Presentatio tries to bring out context of the cities in the overall development of communities and nations, and the manner cities are being subjected to devlopmental and population pressure. As engines of economic growth cities are known to have environmental, ecological and infrastructure implications besides becoming the major propeller of global warming and climate change. Looking at the role and importance of cities in alleviating poverty, pollution and numerous other growing dualitues and contradictions, presentation focusses on how to make growth and development of cities more rational, sustaianble, inclusive, safe abd resilient.
Issues and options for raising Resources for Financing infrastructure in Ur...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Considering role and importance of infrastructure, Paper makes an attempt to bring out the options to raise resources to make available urban infrastructure to all in urban India
-Redefining and Rationalising Development Controls - Copy.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Globally recognised as engines of physical, social , economic growth and development, cities have been valued to be the future of humanity and communities. Housing major proportion of population, generating large employment; making major contribution to the economy; and providing quality infrastructure besides supporting and innovating state of art technologies, cities remain relevant and important for defining the agenda for growth and development of any state and communities. However, despite having large number of positivities; cities are also known for its dualities, contradictions, positivities and negativities. If cities have been promoting prosperity, they have also been at the forefront of promoting poverty, pollution, unplanned, haphazard, sub-standard development, climate change and global warming. Looking holistically, problems related to climate change , global warming and rising carbon footprints, environment and bio-diversity, can be largely attributed to the manner in which cities are being planned , manage and governed and buildings are being designed, constructed and operated. In the process, cities, as manmade entities, are fast emerging as embodiment of unplanned , haphazard and sub-standard development.
Globally ,it has been recognised that majority of urban ills have genesis in the typologies of Development Controls , made applicable at the local level for regulating the sub-division of land, determining land uses ; planning of the cities and designing, construction and operation of the built environment. In order to promote planned development, cities have been trying to experiment, invent, revise, review and rationalise the Development Controls periodically.
Capital cities like Chandigarh have clearly demonstrated the role and relevance of Development Controls in ushering an era of state of art urban development and creating quality-built environment. Chandigarh has also showcased that if Development Controls are not reviewed and revised periodically, they can prove to counter- productive and become a perpetual liability for the city and its development.
Considering the role , relevance and importance of Development Controls in making urban development rational and sustainable, there is an urgent tp look critically, objectively and holistically, at the context, genesis, intent and contents of different Development Controls made applicable in the urban settings in general and Capital city of Chandigarh in particular.
Providing a rational, realistic, effective and efficient framework for making Development Controls, more transparent, objective, community focussed, effective , efficient, rational and productive will remain critical to promote planned development and make cities more sustainable and better place to live and work.
Strategies for Planning Smart and Sustainable CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Smart city remains a misnomer. No city on planet earth can claim to be smart. Experts are still searching the soul of smart city in order to precisely define it .Unfortunately smart city has become a money spending/spinning exercise for few individuals/agencies. Entire concept of smart city has been made technology centric, minimizing the role and importance of human beings. In addition, role of Town Planners in smart city has been totally marginalized. How can a city be made smart without intervention of planning and planners. Smart city as a concept has been copied globally to promote operational efficiency and productivity of the cities , with minimum concern for human growth and development. Addressing issue of poverty and making city livable for all should be the agenda of urban growth and development. In the face of homeless people , absence of basic amenities and facilities essential of human living, making city’s smart will be a fallacy and prove to be counterproductive. Cities do not exist in isolation and require the support of rural hinterland. Dealing cities alone by excluding villages will invariably lead to lopsided growth of cities because genesis of majority of urban ills has roots in the neglect of the rural areas. Urban areas must do handholding for the rural areas for synergizing mutual strength and to usher a new era of rational growth. Smart city concept must focus on empowering human being/ living, making them more skilled, create options for meeting the basic human needs and removing the curse of poverty and unemployment.
Strategies for Planning Smart Cities in IndiaJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper critically lookS at prevailing planning, development and management practices; re-define new order of urban planning, ; leveraging technology; rationalising travel; promoting governance and re-defining design strategies for built environment to make cities more humane, just, efficient, sustainable and happy place to live and work.
Promoting Urban Environment Through Eco- CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper tries to define the role and importance of environmentally sustainable cities to promote urban environment , minimises carbon footprints and reduce global warmng
Redefining Planning Through Planning EducationJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation tries to showcase the relationship between quality of planning Education and quality of education, challenges faced by the profession and option which need to be exercised to make education more qualitative and responsive the challenges faced.
Sustaibale cities -Suggestive approach to make cities energy efficientJitKumarGupta1
The way cities use land, consume energy, eat up resources and impact the quality of life and environment, they are fast emerging as ecological disasters. Uncontrolled and haphazard growth devours land, water and energy from the surrounding landscape. The emerging contemporary patterns of settlements, have created cities which have high level of consumptions of energy due to auto dependence; high energy demand for buildings; water pollution from excessive toxic run off; air pollution and other environmental effects which considerably increase health risks.For the exorbitant, energy and ecological prices, these patterns do not even buy an appropriate quality of life. Cities of 21st century are totally divorced from aesthetic and ecological experience of nature. People are made to spend number of hours for commuting on daily basis. In the emerging social fabric, neighbours are not friends, communities are not tied to place and millions, too poor to afford basic amenities of life to lead a dignified life. Invasion of automobiles has made cities highly noisy, energy inefficient, congested and largely frustrating. Besides causing global macro ecological problems, current settlement patterns have created host of local ecological problems. World life habitats have become extinct; native species are replaced by consumptive exotics; streams are canalized, piped and buried; wetlands are filled and aquifers depleted. Urban heat islands created drive up energy use for cooling besides trapping pollutants in the city. Downstream areas are flooded and polluted largely by the quick run off from large paved areas. All these problems, collectively and individually, have the ability to adversely impact the local ecology. Accordingly, local ecological systems are rapidly losing their ability to produce clean water, air and food and to maintain rich variety of habitat and are fast losing their ability to sustain life.
Each of these environmental problems has their genesis in the design of cities, settlement patterns and urban spatial fabric. Human habitat needs restructuring on priority so that we live within the limits imposed by our life sustaining eco-systems and follow the basic principles which promote the quality of life.To minimize the energy consumption levels and the ecological disasters caused by today’s grey cities, we have to change our perceptions, to learn and think ecologically to create green cities which are both humane and sustainable besides least consumers of energy
Redefining Planning Strategies for Promoting Sustainable Urban SettJitKumarGupta1
Urbanisation in developing economies is fast emerging as a process of transfer of rural poverty to urban environment, leading to concentration of misery; creating distortions and emergence of numerous imbalances and problems. Accordingly, urban settlements are suffering from improper and haphazard development, absence of basic infrastructures and services, lack of housing, high degree of visual and environmental degradation and uncontrolled traffic etc. The cumulative effect of these factors is the degradation of quality of life in urban settlements and large number of subsidies required to keep them operational. Indian urbanization is characterized by urbanization of population, urbanization of poverty, urbanization of pollution and urbanization of environment.Looking at the existing scenario, all evidences suggest that despite best of the efforts of Planners to contain the population and limit and regulate the growth of large cities, they continue to grow and expand at an alarming pace; despite best of the efforts to promote planned growth, haphazard and unplanned development has emerged as the order of the day; despite best efforts made to contain slums, their number and size are growing much faster; despite pursuing the objective of ensuring quality of life to all, majority of urban dwellers are facing deprivation and lack of access to housing, basic amenities and facilities resulting in constant degradation of living environment. Thus, wide gaps have emerged over the years between what is planned and what actually comes on the ground.The dualities and contradictions emerging in the settlement scenario accordingly call for having a closer look at the very mechanism of city planning, development and management. It also calls for evaluating the concepts and systems, which have been followed in the past, for promoting planned growth of human settlements and have resulted in high level of distortions emerging in settlement planning and development mechanism. Since the existing systems and concepts have resulted in widening the gap between planning and development and have failed to achieve the goal of planned growth, surely it calls for their substitutions by some innovative concepts and systems, which would remove emerging distortions, dualities and contradictions in the settlement planning and make them rational and orderlu.
As integral part of human history, cities have emerged as great places to live, work and do business. Cities symbolise the dreams, hopes and aspirations of society. Driving infrastructure and technologies, cities are fast becoming hub of economic and technical innovations. Dictating economy, generating employment, determining quality of life, promoting ideas and innovations besides providing quality infrastructures, cities remain crucial to human growth, development and happiness. Despite distinct advantages, cities also represent chaos, disorder, dualities and contradictions. Polarised cities, showing great contrasts of wealth and poverty, lack capacity, capability and will to meet basic needs of shelter, healthcare, education, water and sanitation. In the process, majority of urban residents are being marginalised with quality of life fast becoming nightmare for people opting for making cities and towns, as their preferred place of residence. Population, poverty, pollution and exclusion have emerged the hallmarks of Indian urbanisation. As consumers of enormous energy /resources and generators of large waste, ecological footprints of cities are growing very fast, promoting green- house gas emissions and global warming. With urban population projected to reach 590 million in 2030, greatest challenge before parastatal agencies, professionals and administrators remains, how to harmonise the urban growth with quality of life and make cities great , happy and smart place to live and work. If genesis of problems of climate change, global warming, rising temperature, ozone depletion and rising carbon footprints is in cities then solution for such problems are also embedded in cities. Search for solutions to make cities safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable would fall in the domain of rationalising prevailing planning, development and management practices; re-defining new order of urban planning, ; leveraging technology; rationalising travel; promoting governance and re-defining design strategies for built environment.
Paper is an attempt to look at the Indian urban settlements in terms of their planning, designing, travel, buildings etc, identify problems they have and options which can be leveraged to make them more effective, efficient, livable, productive and sustainable
Town planning - A Tool to Promote Holistic Development of Human settlementsJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Updated paper tries to bring out the context, role and importance of town planning to make this world a better place to live and work and to make human life more sustainable and efficient. It also tries to brief about the approach which needs adoption to make town planning a better profession.
Paper looks critically and objectively, the role and importance of Master Plans in Rationalising the development of cities, issues created and options to make it a better master plan
Short write up looks at the Norms and standards evolved for the use of planners in undertaking exercise for planning of human settlements at city of local level- defining the role, importance, intent, content, approach and the objectives to be achieved.. It calls for rationalisation of planning norms based on research , with the aim to make them cost-effective, land efficient, more productive and people and sustainability focus
Decarbonising Human Settlements through Regional Planning, Peri-urban Devel...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Text tries to draw the attention of the professionals engaged in planning and designing of cities to the role of peri-urban areas in promoting the future planned growth of urban areas. Text also defines that cities need to be seen , planned , designed, developed and visuliased in the larger context not cofined to arbitrary physical boundaries defined by polotical and economic factors. Cities need to be seen in the larger context of the region and accordingly planned and devloped in the larger context of peri-urban araes/regional context, to stay safe, rational and sustainable. Neglecting rural areas at the cost of promoting urban development can be both irrational, illogical and fraught with danger of having lopsided developmnet of the urban areas. in the developing countries. Making cities carbon neutral will be possible only if the urban / rural areas and peri -urban areas are integrated within a unified planning, devlopment and management framework.
Planning and development options for Peri-urban areasJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper is an attempt to look into periphery, its role and importance in planned development, roadblocks facing its development and suggesting options for rationalising its growth
Strategy and Options for Planning Inclusive CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation looks at the context of inclusive cities, its relevance in the Indian context, problems faced by Indian cities and what are the options to make cities inclusive, and sustainable
Indian Options for Managing Global Warming Through Ruralisation and Rationali...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper looks at the option of adopting dual strategy , revolving round not only rationalising the development of cities but also promoting ruralisation through effective planning. New option will look at making villages more self-contained, self-sufficient, providing basic amenities and services besides generating employment for the rural inhabitants, creation of synergy between rural and urban settlements, rationalising planning, promoting accessibility, minimising mobility, planning for people not for vehicle and creating green built environment..
Planning Smart cities- Concepts and Practices.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Planning remains universal for making cities growth rational and logical. In the absence of planned development, cities cannot be made to grow in an orderly manner. Planners have been making cities different and distinct using different agenda for planning and development of cities. Currently planners are making cities safe, resilient, sustainable and livable. Many nations are vouching to make cities smart. Smart city is not a new concept .It has been followed globally to improve the quality of living and promote operational efficiency and productivity of the cities. It is an attempt to make cities more livable, sustainable and for creating a brand image to attract investment and make them a tourist destination. Globally , smart cities are characterized by high degree of environmental consciousness; using information technology to promote energy/ resources efficiency; creation of knowledge infrastructure; promoting sustainable economic development and high quality of life; ensuring wise management of natural resources through participatory action. According to Forbe, the structure of smart cities will have to be built on eight pillars involving: ‘smart governance, smart energy, smart buildings, smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, smart healthcare and smart citizens. Based on detailed studies and in depth analysis made of the most successful case studies globally, as how to transform cities into great places to live and make a city great, Mckinsey’s suggests three pronged strategies involving, achieving smart growth, do more with less and win support for change. Considering the entire gamut of urban settlements , a city can be made Smart only if it is planned smart, developed smart, operated smart, financed smart and governed smartly .
Presentatio tries to bring out context of the cities in the overall development of communities and nations, and the manner cities are being subjected to devlopmental and population pressure. As engines of economic growth cities are known to have environmental, ecological and infrastructure implications besides becoming the major propeller of global warming and climate change. Looking at the role and importance of cities in alleviating poverty, pollution and numerous other growing dualitues and contradictions, presentation focusses on how to make growth and development of cities more rational, sustaianble, inclusive, safe abd resilient.
Issues and options for raising Resources for Financing infrastructure in Ur...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Considering role and importance of infrastructure, Paper makes an attempt to bring out the options to raise resources to make available urban infrastructure to all in urban India
-Redefining and Rationalising Development Controls - Copy.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Globally recognised as engines of physical, social , economic growth and development, cities have been valued to be the future of humanity and communities. Housing major proportion of population, generating large employment; making major contribution to the economy; and providing quality infrastructure besides supporting and innovating state of art technologies, cities remain relevant and important for defining the agenda for growth and development of any state and communities. However, despite having large number of positivities; cities are also known for its dualities, contradictions, positivities and negativities. If cities have been promoting prosperity, they have also been at the forefront of promoting poverty, pollution, unplanned, haphazard, sub-standard development, climate change and global warming. Looking holistically, problems related to climate change , global warming and rising carbon footprints, environment and bio-diversity, can be largely attributed to the manner in which cities are being planned , manage and governed and buildings are being designed, constructed and operated. In the process, cities, as manmade entities, are fast emerging as embodiment of unplanned , haphazard and sub-standard development.
Globally ,it has been recognised that majority of urban ills have genesis in the typologies of Development Controls , made applicable at the local level for regulating the sub-division of land, determining land uses ; planning of the cities and designing, construction and operation of the built environment. In order to promote planned development, cities have been trying to experiment, invent, revise, review and rationalise the Development Controls periodically.
Capital cities like Chandigarh have clearly demonstrated the role and relevance of Development Controls in ushering an era of state of art urban development and creating quality-built environment. Chandigarh has also showcased that if Development Controls are not reviewed and revised periodically, they can prove to counter- productive and become a perpetual liability for the city and its development.
Considering the role , relevance and importance of Development Controls in making urban development rational and sustainable, there is an urgent tp look critically, objectively and holistically, at the context, genesis, intent and contents of different Development Controls made applicable in the urban settings in general and Capital city of Chandigarh in particular.
Providing a rational, realistic, effective and efficient framework for making Development Controls, more transparent, objective, community focussed, effective , efficient, rational and productive will remain critical to promote planned development and make cities more sustainable and better place to live and work.
Strategies for Planning Smart and Sustainable CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Smart city remains a misnomer. No city on planet earth can claim to be smart. Experts are still searching the soul of smart city in order to precisely define it .Unfortunately smart city has become a money spending/spinning exercise for few individuals/agencies. Entire concept of smart city has been made technology centric, minimizing the role and importance of human beings. In addition, role of Town Planners in smart city has been totally marginalized. How can a city be made smart without intervention of planning and planners. Smart city as a concept has been copied globally to promote operational efficiency and productivity of the cities , with minimum concern for human growth and development. Addressing issue of poverty and making city livable for all should be the agenda of urban growth and development. In the face of homeless people , absence of basic amenities and facilities essential of human living, making city’s smart will be a fallacy and prove to be counterproductive. Cities do not exist in isolation and require the support of rural hinterland. Dealing cities alone by excluding villages will invariably lead to lopsided growth of cities because genesis of majority of urban ills has roots in the neglect of the rural areas. Urban areas must do handholding for the rural areas for synergizing mutual strength and to usher a new era of rational growth. Smart city concept must focus on empowering human being/ living, making them more skilled, create options for meeting the basic human needs and removing the curse of poverty and unemployment.
Strategies for Planning Smart Cities in IndiaJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper critically lookS at prevailing planning, development and management practices; re-define new order of urban planning, ; leveraging technology; rationalising travel; promoting governance and re-defining design strategies for built environment to make cities more humane, just, efficient, sustainable and happy place to live and work.
Comact City as an Option for Making Urban India more Sustainable and LivableJitKumarGupta1
Cities and towns remain critical in chartering and scripting the development trajectory of any community/nation. Structural transformation of the economy, sustaining high rates of economic growth and realization of economic potential is largely contingent on the efficacy and efficiency of urban settlements and rationalization of the process of urbanization. Well-managed, urbanization is known to fosters social and economic advancement and improved quality of life. However, cities are globally facing greater threat and challenges in terms of growing number of urban residents living in informal settlements , inadequate urban services, climate change; global warming; exclusion and rising inequality and poverty; rising insecurity; growing migration, rising global carbon emission. The current models and framework/approach to urbanization and urban planning remains highly unsustainable. Majority of Indian cities lack planning, capacity and preparedness to manage and counter effectively the challenges associated with rapid and massive urbanization. Accordingly, new agenda will be essential and critical to defined /effectively address the emerging challenges and take advantage of the opportunities offered by urbanization. The new urban agenda should promote human settlements that are planned, designed and managed to be environmentally sustainable; socially inclusive and economically productive. Compact city, as a role model of urban planning and development, offer enormous opportunities and options, to make cities more effective and efficient intense dense, efficient. Compact city is also known for its distinct quality of offering enormous opportunities to make cities more sustainable, socially interactive, walkable , cost-effective, land -efficient, productive, socially and environmentally, easy to develop/maintain. Accordingly, appropriate urban planning, development and management framework needs to be put in place and made operational on priority to make compact city model a distinct reality.
All cities remain unique and distinct. No two cities are similar. Each city has its strength , weakness , threats and opportunities. Each city has a different and distinct gene, fabric and social structure. Cities are manmade entities, always evolving and devolving, never defined never finite. They are anti-thesis to nature and natural environment. Rapid urbanizations remain the greatest threat to environment and ecology. From the narratives given, it can be visualized that making cities great places to live and work, remains both complex, difficult and daunting task, requiring out of box thinking, adopting multiple` approaches and innovating state of art options for planning , development and management of cities. Rapid pace and massive influx of population in the urban areas offers enormous opportunities and challenges to innovate, experiment, evolve and devolve to the planners, architects, engineers, professionals, developers, administrators, politicians, urban local bodies, parastatal agencies, private sector and other stakeholders to make cities great entities and best place for living and working; meeting all basic human needs; promoting ease of doing business; promoting sharing; creating enabling environment and spaces for all human operations. How effectively and efficiently we meet these challenges and make best use of opportunities offered in the urban domain, shall hold the key to the sustainability, growth and development of the communities and nations. All cities can be made great places to live and work, depending upon how residents, local communities and all stakeholders commit, involve, innovate and experiment to achieve the objective. Planners hold the key to make cities sustainable but they need to empower themselves , innovate and find out of box solutions and work with people/stakeholders based on the prevailing ground realities. Planning and designing cities and villages will require working on the same platform, synergizing their potential and marching in the same direction. Without involving and planning villages, cities will have little chance to become livable and productive for all.
Compact city as an Option for Making Indian Cities Smart and SustainableJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper, written jointly with Ar Anoop Sharma from SMVDU Jammu, tries to look holistically at the prevailing pattern of India urbanization and planning and designing of Indian cities. Paper tries to underline the problems faced by cities in terms of environment, pollution, land , slums, traffic& transportation, housing,services etc and tries to suggest solutions looking at the advantages offed by the compact cities in terms of optimizing land, minimising travel/pollution, making cities development cost-effective, efficient and promoting walking instead of using fossil fuel propelled mechanical transportation. to make cities more livable and sustainable, resilient, safe and inclusive
Policies and Planning for Making Cities Net Zero Carbon - Copy.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Operational and development complexities of cities call for new state of art agenda to be defined for planning, development and management of cities in this era of globalisation and liberlisation of economies. Looking at the enormous population growth and large count of people marching and opting for cities, growth and development of urban areas is emerging as the major issue. Cities known for positivity and negativity can be major source of disasters- both physical, social and environmental. Cities will and are likely to pose major threat to global sustainability. For making planet earth more sustainable and livable ,planning , development and governance of the cities have to be redefined both by professionals, communities, people and parastatal agencies. Planning for sustainable cities must include and involve poor and meeting the basic human needs of living of the poorest of the poor. City planning, development, governance and mobility needs new definition.
Time to Think Urban UN-Habitat Brochure 2013UN-HABITAT
"There is a need for a holistic approach to urban development and human settlements which provides for affordable housing and infrastructure and prioritizes slum upgrading and urban regeneration. Governments task for UN-Habitat is to promote an integrated approach to planning and building sustainable cities and urban settlements, support local authorities,increase public awareness and enhance the involvement of local people, including the poor, in decision making." Joan Clos, Executive Director UN-Habitat, 2013
Urban planning and urban governance invariably remain people centric having prime concern/focus on looking at/ promoting the welfare of the people, improving their social, physical, economic and environmental conditions besides improving quality of life. Both are mandated to create supportive/enabling conditions and environment to help people to perform their basic functions involving living, working , care of body & spirits and circulation, in a most effective / efficient manner. Accordingly urban planning and urban governance remain interlinked /integrated, and have close relationship. No good urban governance can exist in isolation/ without the input of good and rational planning. Looking at the entire context of good urban governance, it can be fairly concluded that effective urban planning holds the key to good urban governance. Poor urban governance has its genesis in poor urban planning. For enabling urban planning to play its desired and designated role in urban governance, it will be essential that operational mechanism of existing pattern of urban planning is critically looked into, reviewed, revised and re-defined to made it more responsive to the emerging urban dynamism/challenges. Unfortunately, in India, role of urban planners has been diluted and marginalized and has never been given appropriate recognition. Limited numbers of planning institutions have contributed to restricting the number of qualified professionals. With urban centres holding the key, future growth and development of the cities will be contingent largely upon the proficiency, efficacy and efficiency of ‘Planning Profession and Professionals’. However, , for planners/planning to play its ordained role, they have to be made more responsive , professionally competent, having capacity /expertise to understand /appreciate the complexities of urban growth and development, based on prevailing ground realities, and evolving appropriate options. .Planning tools will also require review and redefining to make them more effective and efficient.
Redefing planning starategies for promoting sustainable Urban DevelopmentJitKumarGupta1
Looking at the way cities are being planned and developed, existing planning options need review and redefinition by adopting innovative planning solutions to make planning profession more responsive to emerging new realism (Nick Devas). New urban realism must invariably involves, evolve and revolves around; Urban growth must be planned to be inclusive; Recognition that form of cities is determined largely by the decisions of individuals and organizations, rather than by governments; Recognizing limited capacity of the government to intervene effectively in the urban system; Realism about resource constraints which government faces at both national and local level; Realism that people can afford to pay for improved urban services and shelter; Realism about standard of services to be adopted, priced and shared between competing claimants; Recognition that planning process cannot be a tidy, linear sequence of survey, plan-action but need to be pursued concurrently; Recognizing that plans need to be flexible and incremental; Realism about limited capacity of institutions in terms of technical skills, management capacity, institutional efficiency and inter-agency conflict; Realism about limited ability of planning authorities to enforce regulatory system of development ;Realism about seeing’ politics’ not as an obstacle, but as a framework, within which an implementable plan / program must be developed
What are the objectives and need for urban planning.docxShaariq Dotcom
Urban planning is an essential process that shapes the development of our cities and urban areas.
See this article from Shaariq.com for an explanation of urban planning's goals and potential effects ⬇️
https://shaariq.com/what-are-the-objectives-and-need-for-urban-planning/
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Strategy for Promoting Sustainable Cities in IndiaJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper is an attempt to look at the options to make cities more livable, sustainable, productive, effective, efficient and inclusive in the face of rapid, massive,unplanned and haphazard urbanisation.
Paper tries to look at the planning, growth and development of cities and the manner in which they can be made sustainable in the context of 17 SDG. It tries to define agenda for their planning and governance while considering the new urbanism.
Strategies for Promoting Urban SustainabilityJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper is an attempt to define agenda for planning sustainable cities using different options of planning, transportation, green buildings, ruralisation etc
Similar to Redefining master plans for smart and sustainable cities (20)
Role and Relevance of Architects and architecture in SustainabilityJIT KUMAR GUPTA
This brief text on Role, Relevance and importance of Architects and profession of Architecture in making this world and human settlements more livable, climate responsive and sustainable has been prepared as commitment of the professionals and profession of Architects on this World Environment Day ; June 5th , 2024 , with the hope that profession would be understood, valued ,appreciated and empowered in the right context for enabling it play its designated role in making built environment qualitative, cost-effective, energy-efficient, eco-friendly, safe and sustainable.
Bridging gap between resources and responsibilities at Local level.JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Text refers to need, role, relevance and importance of empowering urban local bodies by bridging gap between resources available and responsibilities bestowed, for enabling ULBs to operate and function as institutions of local governance more effectively and efficiently.
Construction Industry Through Artificial Intelligence -.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Considering the role, relevance and importance of construction sector in promoting economy, generating employment and creating wealth besides providing infrastructures and amenities, there is need to make the sector more effective, efficient, productive and sustainable. Driven manually, construction sector remains in the slow lane of creating quality built environment which are cost-effective, energy efficient, least consumers of resources and generators of waste. Artificial intelligence can help and empower the construction to make it more valuable, productive and qualitative besides supportive of environment and ecology. However, construction sector must be ready to co-operate and collaborate with IT industry to look for options and opportunities to make construction sector more qualitative and productive. Majority of urban ills and climate related issues can be resolved if Artificial intelligence can be embedded as integral part of the construction industry right prom planning, designing, construction, operation and management of the built environment and infrastructures. Communities and nations will save lot of valuable non-renewable resources if the construction sector is transformed from human led to technology led by the induction of Artificial intelligence. However, Construction industry has to search the areas where Artificial intelligence can be used effectively and intelligently.
Making Urban India a Role Model of Planned Urban Growth a.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Known for productivity, promoting economy, employment and innovations cities, when properly planned, rationally developed and professionally managed, have been labelled and recognized as engines of economic growth. Prosperity and urbanisation are known to have positive co-relation with rational urbanisation, leveraging growth and development of any community, city, state and region. In majority of developing countries, where urbanisation remains unregulated, forced largely by rural push and less by urban pull, cities invariably remain in crisis, crisis of population, crisis of poverty, crisis of development and management. Cities need to be cared ,incentivized, empowered and made more productive, effective, efficient and humane.
Redefining Globalization, urbanisation and LocalisationJIT KUMAR GUPTA
If cities are to made more livable, humane and productive, it is time that intent, contents and scope of globalization must be revisited and reviewed, both critically and objectively. Globalisation would need redefinition for promoting universality and inclusiveness among people and nations to have basic amenities and quality of life for all its residents , including poorest of the poor to lead a dignified life. Failure to redefine globalization, rationalise urbanisation, restore localization empowering poor and promoting universalisation and inclusivity; will invariably lead to making SDGs merely a paper exercise. In addition, making the world, cities and communities sustainable, livable, safe and inclusive, would remain merely a dream and a mirage, for future generations and communities, making planet earth as their preferred place of residence.
Knowing, Understanding and Planning Cities- Role and Relevance Physical Plan...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Cities are known for its complexities and operational inefficiencies. cities remain dynamic ,ever evolving, ever devolving, never static and never finite.
All cities remain different, distinct, unique and universal. No two cities are similar. Each city has its own strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Accordingly, problem faced by any city cannot be viewed, dissected, analyzed and enumerated, while sitting within the four walls of the air-conditioned rooms and by the so called intellectual sitting in the so called offices determining the future of cities and towns. Neither the cities can be made more rational by limited knowledge agencies providing consultancy to cities , states and nations.
For realistically and rationally understanding, analyzing the cities and having simple, cost-effective and quality solutions to the problems and challenges faced , Cities have to be walked through and concerns of the various communities have to be properly understood and appreciated.
Prime reason for inability and lack of capacity on the part of majority of physical planners, engaged in the art and science of planning, designing and developing the cities, to address the issues and challenges faced by cities , realistically and rationally, has genesis in the lack of understanding of the origin, growth and development of cities.
Lack of capacity in majority of town planners, has roots in the quality of education imparted and seriousness and commitment on the part of both teachers and taught involved. As it stands today, majority of institutions involved in imparting education in planning are being run on an ad-hoc manner and by proxy. Only few institutions have regular teachers and regular students. Majority of planning institutions are being run on proxy with proxy students and proxy teachers. Education system including curricula used for teaching, needs, review, revision and redefinition to make it more relevant to rational for addressing the issues and challenges faced by the cities and towns.
Land as a Resource for urban finanace- 24-1-23.pptJIT KUMAR GUPTA
PPt tries to brief Land, as a gift of nature, is being grossly misused, abused , manipulated Land is globally used for providing platform for all human driven activities, based on living, working, culture of body/ mind and travel.
Limited availability, coupled with large number of human beings trying to source land, has invariably created large demand for land resource for human consumption. Land, in urban context, is required for meeting the specific needs of urban dwellers for residential, commercial, institutional, recreational, travel& traffic purposes besides providing space for infrastructures , amenities, services, trade and commerce etc. Land in urban context remains under large demand and command high price due to concentration of large population in small physical area, with stakeholders making competing claims.Rapid and uncontrolled growth in population experienced by urban areas has adversely impacted and generated considerable pressure on land resource in cities and towns , leading to large scale conversion, sub-division and illegal occupation of urban land. Unregulated and regulated pressure on land has largely been met by means of both formal/informal sub-division and development of land. Growth of the urban settlements and entire mechanism of urban planning and development remains land based/ land focused. In order to make optimum use of land resource on 24x7x365; making city planning, growth, development and management ,both rational. realistic, orderly and promoter of quality living, it will be critical and essential, that all ULBs are made to focus on eliminating culture and practices promoting un-authorized/ illegal sub-division of land for ushering an environment and era of planned urban development in the cities. Land needs to be effectively leveraged to generate resources for ULBs to make cities vibrant.
COST-EFFETIVE and Energy Efficient BUILDINGS ptxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Built environment is known for its capacity, capability, role, relevance and importance to change the quality of life of the occupants and communities. Presentation focuses on options which need to be leveraged to make buildings sustainable, cost-effective, energy efficient, resource efficient, qualitative over its entire life-cycle through designing, construction, operation. It calls for making buildings green and sustainable.
Making Buildings cost-effective , Energy Efficient ptxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation focuses on options which need to be leveraged to make buildings sustainable, cost-effective, energy efficient, resource efficient, qualitative over its entire life-cycle
Ppt briefs about role, relevance, importance of the rating systems applicable in India, criteria used in assessing
greeness, weightage allocated, , brief of how these rating systems are applied, parameters involved; weightage granted, levels of rating granted , incentives given by states for green rated buildings and brief of suggestions, how to make rating system more effective, efficient, objective and transparent.
The phenomenon of global warming remains more pronounced in the urban areas, for the reason cities house large concentration of people and activities in a small/compact urban space.Densely-built downtown areas tend to be warmer than suburban residential areas or rural areas.. UHI not only raises urban temperatures but also increases ozone concentrations because ozone is a greenhouse gas whose formation will accelerate with the temperature. Tokyo, an example of an urban heat island. Normal temperatures of Tokyo go up higher than those of the surrounding area. However, it needs to be understood and appreciated that climate change is not the cause of urban heat islands but it is causing more frequent and more intense heat waves which in turn amplify the urban heat island effect in cities. Major reasons for ever growing global warming and climate change can be attributed to the; Nature and natural; Human-Driven; population; Rapid Urbanisation; Irrational Urban planning; High Density; Inefficient Transportation ;Large generation/consumption of fossil fuel based Energy; Unsustainable Buildings; Polluting Industry & Manufacturing; Unsustainable Agriculture; Irrational Development; Large scale Deforestation; Lack of open spaces and individual life-choices;
Making and Unmaking of Chandigarh - A City of Two Plans2-4-24.pptJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation is a narrative of a
capital city- known for its innovative planning, designing, construction and management of a new capital . It briefs about the principles used in the planning and designing of city -by the first team of planners led by Albert Mayer and Mathew Nowicki-- followed by the second team led by Le- Corbusier, P Jenerette, Jane B Drew , Maxwell Fry. It also details about the various aspects of the city planning, planning of the sector as a neighbourhood, typologies of
various developmental controls used for regulating the construction of buildings. Innovations used for regulating the growth and development of periphery; redensification of city in case city exceeds its planned population of half a million, creating a narrative of city and periphery, innovative landscaping, defining an edict for the city to educate the future citizens of the capital city to safeguard the future growth and development besides lessons learnt from planning and designing the new cities.
Planning and Designing Green buildings-.issues, options and strategiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Affordability and sustainable development are considered anti-thesis across the world. Generally there exists conflict between the approach to sustainable built environment and affordable buildings. Sustainable development is considered more expensive. According to Middleton, ‘Sustainability and affordability aren’t mutually exclusive goals. It’s not about adding extra, but thinking more carefully about the design of buildings and incorporating technologies that can offset the rising costs of energy, water and other services. Affordability and sustainability are known to fit together perfectly’.
Through excellent design, buildings can be made more sustainable and affordable. Smaller the footprint of buildings, lower will be the upfront costs and embodied energy and lower shall be the running costs of buildings. Looking at the entire context of health, rising cost of amenities/services; Sustainable/Green designs are now being increasingly adopted, to make built environment more cost-effective and affordable. Considering the enormous amount of built environment to be created, India will have no option but to tread the path of sustainability and sustainable development in the built environment. Sustainable built environment would also help in and go a long way in achieving the majority of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the reason, built environment is known to be the largest consumer of energy, avoid wasteful use of resources and minimise generation of waste. Global sustainability will be largely contingent upon how effectively and efficiently we can make our buildings sustainable and qualitative through innovative/green design solutions based on local climate and culture, valuing site planning, embedding orientation, cross ventilation, using renewable/waste materials and involving state of the art building technologies.
_Neighborhood Planning in Capital City of Chandigarh- An Appraisal (2) - Copy...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Neighborhood as an idea, concept, option and strategy has been extensively used locally and globally by the Urban Planners to plan and decentralize cities, create cities within cities, promote self-contained communities and to make cities more humane, safe and socially vibrant. Neighborhood has also been used recently to define the city in terms of travel time - making 10/15 minutes city
Accordingly, large typologies of NH ,in terms of planning and designing , with varying shapes, sizes and contents have emerged in the urban context. Americans have used superblock and French using Sector for defining the neighborhood. Despite distinct advantages, holding high degree of relevance in urban and local area planning , NH planning has not been able to deliver the envisioned objectives of safety and social vibrancy. Cities in the process have been socially, economically and physically fragmented, leading to clear division of cities into different communities with little economical and social connectivity. Variance of planning and designing norms followed at NH and sub-neighborhood levels have promoted more dichotomy and contradictions with varying quality of life inducted at local level. Differential population and infrastructures have divided the city into the categories of high/low end NH units. Fabric and morphology of cities, in large cases, has been distorted with urban settlement emerging as a distinct social map of communities graded economically and socially,on the basis of area/location . In the process, the way NH planning concept has been used, neighborhood planning has emerged as an instrument of social and economic segregation/division. In fact in number of cases, concept has been used, misused, abused in intent and content to divide the cities into distinct social and economic layers. Instead of unifying , concept has led to division of cities.
Genesis of modern application of NH can be found in the planning and designing of Chandigarh where entire city fabric of capital city was woven around Sector as the basic unit of planning, concptulasied as self-contained and self-sustaining unit at the local level. However, the way sectors have been planned, it has led to dividing the cities into different and distinct communities. Individual status in Chandigarh can be judged from his/her residence. Concept of Sector has done more damage than good to the fabric of the city. Chandigarh is likely to face considerable problem in making city socially and economically cohesive/vibrant,. Sectors in Chandigarh remain anti-thesis to the basic concept of NH planning of safety, involving walkability, vehicular movement, putting commercial space in the centre. Considering role, relevance, importance and usability , NH needs to be planned, designed with care and caution, in order to make cities socially and economically vibrant, inclusive. NH planning deserves a new definition and approach to make it relevant and rational.
Reviewing, Revising and Redefining Master Plans and Development Plans to Ma...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Looking at its efficacy and efficiency, it can be seen and observed that Master Plans/ Development Plans have done more damage than good for the planned growth and development of the cities to which they have been made applicable. These plans have been violated with impunity both by the people, communities, cities and parastatal agencies; for the betterment/welfare of which these plans were prepared. These plans have been visualized as controller of development rather than promoters of development. Instead of planned development , these plans have been usherers of the unplanned development. These plans are known to be responsible for promoting large number of slums besides making quality of life poor for majority of the urban inhabitants. Cities under Master Plans are also known to promote exclusion rather than inclusion. Master Plans/Development Plans are known to promote prosperity for few and marginalize the large proportions of the local community by making them poor. Instead of catering to urban dynamism, Master Plans/Development Plans try to freeze the city, for next two decades, to which it is made to serve. Accordingly, these plans need to be reviewed , rationalised, revised and redefined to make them better Master Plans/Development Plans
Rationalizing the Planned Growth of Urban India- paper.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Rapid and uncontrolled growth in population experienced by urban areas has adversely impacted and generated considerable pressure on land resource in cities and towns , leading to large scale conversion, sub-division and illegal occupation of urban land. Unregulated and regulated pressure on land has largely been met by means of both formal/informal sub-division and development of land. Growth of the urban settlements and entire mechanism of urban planning and development remains land based/ land focused, based on a strategy of sub-division of the land, dictated by the economic forces prevailing in the market. Irrational and ineffective public policies of urban planning and land sub-division, devoid of prevailing ground realities, have turned out to be incompatible with the demands of urban expansion, leading to large scale un-authorized and illegal sub-division of land. In the process, valuable land resources, gift of nature, has been misused, abused and mutilated in this race of uncontrolled and irrational urbanisation. In order to make optimum use of land resource; making city planning, growth, development and management ,both rational. realistic, orderly and promoter of quality living, it will be critical and essential, that all urban centres are made to focus on eliminating the culture and practices promoting un-authorized/illegal sub-division of land for ushering an environment and era of planned urban development in the country.
Suggestion and Options for integrating villages. within the framework of the...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Preparing Master Plans/Development Plans for any urban settlements, basically and essentially, involves declaring a planning area for which the said long term plans are prepared. Planning area invariably includes and involves, number of rural settlements, which comprise of the planning area besides the urban settlement. It has been observed that in majority of cases, while detailed studies and analysis are carried out of the urban settlements but villages in the study and analysis remain marginalized, diluted and muted. Despite the fact, villages have critical role in the rational development of the urban settlement, but in preparing Master Plans their role and relevance is not made part of the said plan. Accordingly, this text tries to bring out the typologies of villages falling in the planning area and the suggested framework to develop these villages in making Master Plans, better Master Plan. In order to improve Master Plan qualitatively, quantitively, both in intent, contents and scope, It will be appropriate that all the villages falling in the planning area must be studied , analyzed and made integral part of the final outcome of the proposals of Master Plan. In-fact one Chapter must be exclusively dedicated to detail out the issues faced by the Villages and options which can be leveraged to promote the rational growth of villages ,as an integral part of the long term development of the urban settlement , for which the Master Plan is being prepared. This will help not only in integrating the urban- rural settlements falling in the planning area, but would also go a long way in promoting and ensuring rational growth and development of the urban settlement, for which the Master Plan is being prepared.
Making cities Climate Responsive and SustainableJIT KUMAR GUPTA
“Decarbonization” of cities ,as an issue ,as an option and as a strategy , has been gaining currency in the parlance of; making planet earth livable and sustainable. “Decarbonization has been globally valued for keeping the global temperature below 1.5C, and achieving the agenda and goals defined in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, defined by UN for achieving universal sustainability. Despite distinct role and relevance, criticality and importance of decarbonization of cities has neither been properly understood and appreciated nor made integral part of the architectural practice and art and science of designing and construction of buildings. Consuming one -third of global energy (33%) and generating 39% of greenhouse gas emissions buildings have been considered as the major player in the domain of climate change and global warming. Since Architects and Architecture are
actively involved in the making and unmaking of buildings, accordingly it becomes important that planners and architects must play a significant role in making
cities and buildings least consumers of energy and generators of the minimum greenhouse gas emissions. This objective can be achieved if decarbonizing cities/buildings is made a distinct reality . Issue of decarbonizing the cities/buildings assumes importance for the reason, that world’s building floorspace is likely to be become double by the year 2060, with the addition of large number of newcities/ buildings due to rapid urbanization, population growth and economic development ; required for catering to
to the needs of additional population opting for urban living.
Managing Planning and Development of Citie- 26-2-24.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Cities in India are known to be in perpetual crisis; facing numerous crises in terms of; crisis of rational growth, crisis of orderly and planned development; crisis of effective and efficient urban management; crisis of making provision of basic infrastructure and services; crisis of climate change; crisis of global warming; crisis of poverty, pollution and population and crisis of making human living and prevailing environment qualitative. These urban crises have genesis in the fact that cities in India, lack ownership, command, authority and lack of willingness to run and manage cities professionally and objectively. In majority of cases, cities in India are run by proxy. In terms of physical growth and development; large cities are marked by multiplicity of agencies claiming right/ownership of development over the urban areas, whereas smaller cities face absence of such ownership and are made to run, operate and function like orphans
Agenda, Approach and Options for Rationalising and Redefining Future Indian ...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Government of India/state policies, programs, mission and agenda must move providing basic essentials to all its citizens through an efficient, objective and transparent system of governance. For making cities livable and empowering people; right to basics/essential of human living including; Right to shelter, food, clothing universal access to healthcare, education, employment , infrastructures, amenities and mobility; should be made integral part of Indian Constitution by embedding it as Fundamental Rights/Directive Principles of state policy besides making them integral part of planning, development and management/governance process of all human settlements.
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Redefining master plans for smart and sustainable cities
1. REDEFINING MASTER PLANS TO PROMOTE SMART AND
SUSTAINABLE CITIES
*Jit Kumar Gupta
Abstract: Urban planning, globally and locally, has been dictated by the Master plans to
make city growth and development more rational, orderly and logical. Studies made and
analysis carried out, have shown that mechanism adopted for preparing master plans ,based
on pure land use planning, has made these plans both rigid and time consuming besides
unsustainable. Master plans have been found to be largely ignoring the dynamism of urban
growth and development besides promoting dualities and contradictions in urban setting. By
defining land use of all parcels of land, cities have been virtually frozen. In the process,
majority of cities have been suffering from illegal, sub-standard, haphazard and unplanned
growth. Master plans have accordingly, emerged as the major road block in promoting
planned urban development and making cities sustainable .In search for appropriate
solutions for promoting planned development and making city growth both rational and
dynamic, paper focus on redefining and putting in place a new order of urban planning,
development options and management strategies besides suggesting new format of Master
Plans to make cities smart, more humane, equitable, just, efficient, productive, sustainable
and providers of assured quality of life to all existing and future urban residents including
poorest of the poor.
Key words: Compact cities, Regional planning, Energy efficiency and Green transportation,,
INTRODUCTION
Last two centuries have witnessed rapid transformation of countries and societies in terms of
way of living, distribution of population, pattern of employment, means of productivity &
mobility, pattern of income, distribution and consumption of wealth and resource etc. These
patterns are largely marked by both speed and concentration of population, activities,
resources and infrastructure. All these changes and transformations have their genesis in
urbanisation, which has reshaped and redefined the entire fabric of human settlements.
Starting with industrial revolution, the process is gaining high degree of currency across the
globe ushering a new era and regime of population growth, prosperity, development and
rapid expansion of human settlements besides promoting poverty, pollution and exclusion.
Globally twenty first century has been called century of urbanization, with larger proportion
of population, living in the urban centres. Studies made by United Nations about the global
trends in urbanization, has concluded that world is urbanizing rapidly, with year 2007
marking a historic milestone in the human history ,when for the first time global urban
population exceeded the global rural population. Following the global pattern, India is also
fast treading on the path of rapid urbanization. Rapid increase in urban population coupled
with in-migration from rural hinterland is making cities grow larger and larger. Accordingly,
metropolises, megalopolises and ecumonopolises are fast emerging on the urban canvas.
With recorded urban population standing over 377.1 million (31.16 per cent) residing in 3
2. super- metros, 50 metropolises and 7935 towns (Census 2011), India has emerged as the
second largest urban system in the world after China. Cities like Mumbai (185lacs), Kolkata
(158 lacs) and Delhi (125 lacs) are assuming monstrous proportions. Under this process of
rapid population growth, cities are fast melting to encompass larger and larger rural
hinterland within urban fold, increasing distances between basic human activities of living
and working, asking for larger transportation network to keep the city moving. Energy and
resource consumption levels are rising, making cities more polluted and grey.
Cities are known to be propeller of rapid growth of economy, generators of large scale
employment, providers of basic and essential amenities & services besides quality of life as
compared to their rural counterpart. This makes urban centres important and vital when the
issues of employment, economic growth and development are considered as priority.
Globally, urbanisation and prosperity have been found to have high degree of positive co-
relationship. However, despite distinct positivity of urban centres, cities have been growing
in an unplanned and haphazard manner with urban growth marked by chaos, disorder,
dualities and contradictions. . Cities are facing the greatest challenges of meeting the basic
needs of shelter, healthcare, education, water and sanitation for its residents. In the process,
majority of urban residents are being marginalised. Quality of life in urban India is fast
becoming nightmare for migrants. Population, poverty, pollution and exclusion have emerged
as the hallmarks of Indian urbanisation. With urban population projected to reach 590 million
out of 1.4 billion in 2030, greatest challenge before urban planners, architects and policy
makers would be, how to harmonise the growth and development of urban India and make it
smart and rational. This calls for making process of urbanisation and urban settlements more
effective, efficient and sustainable, Productivity of urban centre largely hinges on their
planned and rational development, which makes urban planning vital and important for
rationalising the entire process of economic and physical development.
DEFINING MASTER PLAN
Master plan , as a planning tool, has been extensively and religiously used by planners,
locally and globally, to understand and analyse the basic fabric of the city; genesis of its
origin , growth and development; its culture and heritage; changing demographic profile;
defining status of the city in terms of infrastructure , services and amenities; existing land
utilization pattern and distribution of housing, work centres, trade and commerce, industry,
leisure etc; developmental and environmental issues and challenges faced by city . Based on
the studies made and analysis carried out, Master Plan tries to lay down and define agenda for
future growth to launch cities on the path of planned development; to make city more
sustainable and to ensure that it overcomes all its existing problems; provides basic amenities
of life to all its existing and future residents including poorest of the poor, to lead a dignified
life. Premise of Master Plan is used extensively to make city economically vibrant, socially
just and environmentally sustainable place, through the mechanism of planned development,
using land use as the basic tool and strategy. It is long term document which defines the city
in a futuristic context generally spread over a period of two decades.
Considering its role and importance, Master Plans have been viewed differently by Planners
in different counties. Master Plan has also been called Comprehensive Plan, considering the
3. comprehensive approach adopted in its visioning, formulation and implementation. Master
Plan has also been named as Development Plan by redefining its intent, content and scope in
order to make city growth more flexible and less rigid, to effectively respond to challenges
unleashed by urban dynamism and fast changing technologies impacting the urban areas,
urban living and urban working. Difference in approach has its genesis in the fact that Master
Plan has been used both as a policy document to guide the future development of a city and a
document detailing precise shape and size of the city in terms of land use and allocation of
uses to different parcels of urban land. Approach to Master Plan, as a policy document, has
been used extensively by developed world countries to bring flexibility in future planned
development whereas majority of developing nations have adopted the mechanism of
defining land use for different land parcels to control and regulate the planned development
of urban centres.. Indian planners have adopted the land use planning as the approach for
preparing Master Plans of the cities. In order to understand the genesis , contents and scope ,
it will be relevant to look at how Master Plans have been defined by different experts/
planning agencies.
Delhi Development Authority defines Master Plan as: ‘A long term perspective plan, for
guiding the sustainable planned development of the city. This document lays down the
planning guidelines, policies, development code and space requirements for various socio-
economic activities supporting the city population during the plan period. It is also the basis
for determining all infrastructure requirements’.
Division of Planning, City of Trenton, NJ has defined Master Plan in terms of; ‘A
comprehensive plan providing a long-range vision for the built environment of a community.
It guides the appropriate use of lands within a municipality in order to protect the public
health and safety and to promote general welfare. Among other issues, the Master Plan can
identify:
Suitable locations for commercial, housing and mixed-use development;
Locations where the city should increase density, use redevelopment, or intervene in
other ways;
Opportunities to extend and/or improve open space, recreational areas, and civic
facilities;
Strategies for increasing economic development;
Environmental, historic and cultural resources that need conservation; and
Strategies for solving congestion and improving transit services.
Master Plan has also been defined as, ‘A plan that shows an overall development concept that
includes urban design, landscaping, infrastructure, service provision, circulation, present
and future land use and built form. It consists of three dimensional images, texts, diagrams,
statistics, reports, maps and aerial photos that describe how a specific location will be
developed. It provides a structured approach and creates a clear framework for developing
an area.
4. Looking at the above definitions, it can be safely concluded that Master Plans are mandated
to be definer of physical environment, social environment and economic environment and are
supposed to have all the ingredients which can make a city people centric, more liveable,
sustainable, productive and sustainers of quality human living besides making it an attractive
investment destination. Considering its focus, approach, context and importance,
governments and city development authorities have adopted Master Plan as the mechanism to
promote planned development. Accordingly, state governments have put in place
comprehensive legal framework defining objectives, intent, scope and contents besides
methodology for preparing Master Plan to ensure that these plans are prepared for the
existing and proposed urban centres, in order to launch them on the fast trajectory of rational
growth and planned development.
ISSUES
Despite the fact Master Plan showcases distinct advantages in terms of promoting planned
development, capability of ushering an era of quality development, capacity to leverage
economic development and making urban development both inclusive and equitable, but the
past experience of development of cities in the post- independence era, for whom Master
Plans have been prepared and made operational, has been found to be marked with dualities
and contradictions. Instead of planned development, majority of the growth in these cities is
dotted with haphazard and sub-standard development with unplanned development emerging
as the order of the day. Despite Master Plans assuring quality of life to all the residents, even
to the poorest of the poor to lead a dignified life, majority of urban dwellers have been
observed to face a life of deprivation and poverty, living in slums and shanty towns. As
engines of economic growth, Indian cities showcase large scale poverty rubbing shoulders
with prosperity and slums existing besides sky-scrappers. Basic amenities of life including
shelter, water supply, sanitation, electricity, road network, healthcare, education etc are
eluding majority of urban residents. Cities are found to be fast emerging as island of
prosperity in the sea of poverty. This clearly shows that Master Plans, in its present shape and
approach, have not been able to promote, achieve and deliver the objectives for which they
were put in place. Instead they have created dualities and promoted contradictions, making
cities less attractive and less preferred destination. Instead of promoters of development,
Master Plans have emerges as role model of controllers of development. They have frozen the
cities through rigidly defining their land uses, making these plans emerging as major
roadblock in the process of development. Master plans, in majority of cases, have been found
to promote and follow policy of exclusion instead of inclusion by focussing more on physical
aspects of city planning ignoring the environmental, economic and social aspects. This
approach has caused enormous damage to city fabric and its growth and development. By
excluding majority of urban population, consisting of poor, informal sector and lower section
of societal pyramid from the process of planning, Master Plans have ushered an era of
unplanned growth and mushrooming of slums. In this process, these plans have emerged as
instruments of serving the interests of elite at the cost of poor and have-nots. With
cumbersome legal framework, large resources and time frame is required for preparing and
approval of Master Plans. This invariably delays the preparation of such plans leading to a
situation where planning is found to be invariably chasing the development. Mumbai Master
Plan once took 17 long years for approval leading to largest city and economic capital of India
growing without a plan during these 17 long years. Plan preparation in the present context is
5. considered more as an official business ,carried out within four walls of town planning
agencies with minimum involvement of stake holders including people, communities,
institutions, industry etc, to whom this plan is supposed to serve and whose needs and
interests it is supposed to cater. Master Plan thus prepared, does not reflect the ground
realities and people aspiration leading to its non- implementation and rejection by majority of
urban residents. Absence of latest technologies makes planning process both time consuming
and inaccurate which invariably delays the plan preparation and negates its implementation.
Existence of multiple agencies of urban planning and development in majority of Indian cities
leads to conflict of interests and non-implementation of plan besides duplication of works,
leading to overlap and wastage. Lack of ownership of Master Plan has emerged as the main
factor for non-implementation of these plans. Lack of focus on energy, sustainability and
ignoring villages as partner in city planned growth in the Master Plans have made these plans
highly energy inefficient, unsustainable leading to mushroom growth by speculators and land
mafia. Process of declaring large planning area, enlarging urban and urbanisable area in the
successive plans has lead to making city not only energy inefficient but also consumer of
large area of land and resources. It also increases the length, breadth and depth of network and
services making city development and maintenance cost-intensive besides creating large
number of problems related to mobility, traffic, transportation and pollution. In the words of
Ishar Judge Walia, ‘Indian urban planning needs major overhaul—it is overly top down and
controlling, not providing much needed guidance, coordination and integration’. Considering
all the above issues, it becomes critical that the intent, content, scope along with entire
process and procedure of preparing/approval of Master Plan is, objectively and critically,
reviewed and reframed to make it an effective instrument and role model of promoting
planned growth, rational development and good governance .
REDEFINING PLANNING
In order to rationalise the urban development process in the country, Government of India has
launched a Smart City Mission covering initially 100 selected cities. Creating smart cities
would require new order of Master Plans, considering the contours and complexity of urban
settlements. New order of Master Plans would involve making planning people centric,
transparent, community oriented and flexible. Its focus shall be to minimize prevailing urban
dualities and contradictions and to promote development based on equity, inclusiveness and
providing opportunities to all. Contours of Master Plans,will have to be redrawn /redefined
with appropriate innovations/changes made in the intent, contents and scope of such plans.
New order of Master Plans will not be merely land-use plans, defining/freezing the city future
once for all for next two decades, indicating the use of every parcel of land in the city. They
will take a ‘whole city’ approach to planning and will focus on the urban form, shape and
typology of the city. Since cities are dynamic entities, ever changing, ever shaping, evolving
and devolving, they will require plans which provide inbuilt flexibility to cater to urban
dynamism. The Master Plans would accordingly be dynamic in nature, growing and evolving
with the growth of towns. New breed of Master Plans would be based on state art
technologies and a distinct vision, evolved after detailed study, analysis and understanding of
the city fabric and its growth potential, duly supported by detailed planning and development
guidelines. The vision shall be achieved through well defined missions for different facets of
city involving planning and development. Each development project shall be evaluated in the
context of defined vision and guidelines, by a multi-disciplinary team of experts by involving
6. stakeholders before accepting. The city planning shall not be dictated exclusively by planners
but will involve larger set of experts representing different shades of city planning, growth
and management to rationalize decision making. Architects, urban designers, landscape
experts, service providers, environmentalists, transport experts, conservationists, art and
culture historians and sociologists etc will have major role in planning the smart cities.
New order of planning will be geared to make the city compact to reduce travel and extent of
service network to bring economy and operational efficiency in the city. In this context, the
focus of the city shall be people. Planning shall also promote better relationship between
living and working by adopting the mechanism of transit oriented development. In this
pattern, the focus shall be to provide housing, offices, work areas, commercial and institutions
along the mass transport network provided within walking distance. Green spaces on the
defined norms shall form integral part of urban living and working in order to promote highest
order of environment and ecology. Smart cities will be planned on the basis of inclusiveness,
self-reliance and self-sustainability, having minimum impact on local and global environment
and ecology. Considering the major implications of urban areas, being largest consumers of
energy and resources, generators of waste and emitters of green house gasses , largely due to
transportation and built environment, the new regime of planning will focus on minimising
travel and create buildings which are least consumers of energy and resources. Smart planning
will focus on creating cities which are highly energy efficient. This would be made possible
by adopting shape and size of the city which involve minimum travel and services. In
addition, to looking inward, new regime of urban planning will also be looking outward so as
to link the city with its surrounding areas/settlements. No city exists in spatial isolation. Every
city has its periphery/area of influence to support it. This zone of influence varies with the
size, location, primacy, accessibility, population, nature of specialisation, administrative
status, amenities, services etc. Existing pattern of urban planning ignores the critical role and
importance of periphery in sustaining/rationalizing the city growth and development. In fact
majority of prevailing urban ills have their genesis in ignoring the planning, growth and
development of surrounding urban/rural settlements. Accordingly, new regime of Master
Planning will be based on the approach which would involve inward and outward looking at
the cities. Most efficient cities in the world have adopted Regional perspective and not just
looking at cities growth. The Regional approach/model has helped them in minimizing local
competition and conflicts, over/under investment in infrastructure and overcoming confusion
over role and responsibilities of various agencies and making city smart. In the process, it has
promoted higher order of co-operation and growth, of not only of the city but of the region.
Looking outward can also help in achieving the objectives of integration and decentralized
planning, enshrined in 74th Constitutional Amendment Act,1992.
WAY FORWARD
Despite the fact that urban India is placed as the second largest urban system in the world,
only about 30 percent cities out of a total of 7935 urban settlements in the country have
completed master plans even after seven decades of independence and completing twelve five
year plans of growth and development. In order to ensure that urban centres become smart
and engines of economic growth besides usherers of new era of rapid and equitable growth,
we have to put in a place a new order and system which leads to preparing Better Master
Plans of cities on a time bound basis. This calls for changing our existing approach, intent,
7. contents and scope of preparing Master Plans. Cities must be made to live, breathe and grow
freely. They must provide supportive environment to promote orderly development, attract
investment and ensure quality of life besides providing opportunities to all its existing and
future residents to lead an optimum and quality life. Options for preparing new order of
Master Plans to make cities smart and sustainable should essentially revolve around:
Defining a realistic and achievable Vision for the city based on in-depth study, and
analysis including SWOT analysis, through a consultative process involving all
stakeholders, experts and parastatal agencies
Defreezing the City by changing our approach from defining land uses of all parcels
of land to providing a developmental framework within which city should grow for
meeting its ever changing needs and people aspirations due to emerging technologies
and ever changing urban contexts.
Making city Compact by redefining shape and size of the city and adopting high rise
and high density development mechanism to optimise land, minimise travel, reduce
carbon footprints and make city development cost and energy efficient.
Promoting Green Transport by changing our approach from planning for vehicle to
planning for people with order of priority for travel placed as pedestrianisation,
cycling, mass transportation and personal vehicles in that order of preference to
minimise congestion, lowering environmental pollution and avoiding traffic blues.
Making city energy efficient through preparing Master Plan with minimising energy
consumption as the focus by adopting mixed land use, avoiding pure land use and
redefining living-working-leisure relationship and adopting transit oriented
development approach
Promoting Regional Context by viewing and planning city in the larger context by
linking cities and towns as well as linking urban areas to rural areas
Making urban villages integral part of planning process by defining a well laid
down policy framework and agenda for the planning and development of villages
falling in urban/ urbanisable/ planning area.
Making informal sector integral part of planning process by earmarking
appropriate and dedicated space for their living and working
Creating Ownership of plan by avoiding multiplicity of agencies and designating a
single agency for co-ordination and implementation of master plan
Using latest, state of art and innovative technologies for preparing, approval,
implementation and interpretation of Master Plan besides using it for public
consultation and receiving suggestions , views and communicating status of planning
Using a Group approach comprising of architects,planners engineers, urban
designer, transport planner landscape expert, sociologist, geographer,
environmentalist, conservationist to prepare Master Plan and evaluate all projects
presented for approval and implementation in city
Planning city on a set of well defined parameters of open spaces, services, mobility,
sanitation, services, energy etc to ensure the provision of services, amenities, services
on a defined scale to all the residents.
8. Addressing issues like poverty, employment and economy by redefining approach
from merely land use planning to planning for economic development, environment
promotion and employment generation
Making city Smart by preparing Master plan with focus on people, energy,
environment, employment, sustainability, services, mobility and shelter to create zero
car, zero energy, zero slum, zero waste and zero carbon city.
Preserving heritage, both natural and manmade, to showcase and preserve past glory
and cultural values for posterity
Adopting a participatory approach by actively creating forum and institutional
framework for involving people, communities, NGO’s, CBO’s, industry, trade &
commerce, academic institutions etc to create local ownership
Making Master Plan promoter of development. rather than controller of developing
by providing space for inclusion of all people centric development activities which
promote public and city interest
Promoting use of land 24x7 to minimise diversion of land under agriculture to non-
agricultural uses, making cities more compact, ensuring optimum utilisation of
infrastructure and to make urban development highly cost-efficient.
Generating resources for plan preparation, implementation, revision and reframing
besides creating/maintaining city/local level infrastructures, amenities and services
Redefining the legal framework for preparing the Master Plan in a time bound
manner by making it simple cost/ time efficient and more participatory.
Ensuring effective implementation of Master Plan by creating/designating a
dedicated agency, duly equipped with appropriate level of resources both manpower
and financial, having adequate legal backing to punish violators
Bibliography
William Harris, ‘How Urban Planning Works;
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/urban-planning.htm
Delhi Development Authority, Master Plan Delhi-2021
Division of Planning , City of Trenton, NJ, ‘ Trenton 250’
https://www.reference.com/education/master-plan-5c6df9f53b18033f#,” What is a
Master Plan’
http://www.citylab.com/tech/2012/08/master-planning-7935-indian-cities-and-
towns/2835, Master Planning 7935 Indian Cities and Towns
Isher Judge Ahluwalia , ‘Planning for Urban Development in India’,
http://icrier.org/Urbanisation/pdf/Ahluwalia_Planning_for_Urban_%20Development.
pdf
Government of India, ‘Census of India,2011’
Gupta jit kumar , ‘Planning for Sustainable Cities’, published paper International
Conference
Author:
*Ar. Jit Kumar Gupta
9. Former Advisor (Town Planning), Punjab Urban Development Authority
Former Director, College of Architecture, IET Bhaddal , Punjab, India
Email: jit.kumar1944@gmail.com