urban development

Traffic Jams Overwhelm Africa’s Biggest City, Informal Public Transport May Be a Solution

In 2023, Lagos was ranked the fourth most uncomfortable city to live in in the world partly because of this.

Traffic in Lagos, Nigeria, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing cities, can be a nightmare. Citizens often spend 30 hours a week in traffic jams.

In 2023, Lagos was ranked the fourth most uncomfortable city to live in in the world partly because of this.

Motorcycle taxis (also known as okadas), and tricycle taxis (keke marwa) are popular ways to negotiate the traffic. These operate as a form of informal public transport. But okadas were banned from large parts of Lagos in 2022 by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who has just been re-elected.

Sanwo-Olu was sworn in at the end of May. Part of his agenda for his new term is focused on traffic management. Recent evidence suggests that traffic jams are getting worse, with or without okadas.

A survey we conducted found that the ban was very unpopular. In an ongoing project undertaken with our colleagues Basirat Oyalowo at the University of Lagos and Eghosa Igudia of De Montfort University we surveyed over 1,700 people in Lagos in 2022. Around 72% disagreed or strongly disagreed that the ban was in the public interest. The authorities had announced they had public support from most Lagosians for the okada bans when they were first announced.

When we collected data in August 2022, after the first ban, people surveyed highlighted the lack of transport alternatives, notably for riders to earn money and for passengers to navigate the terrible traffic. Bans tend to be opposed or ignored if they cause inconvenience and disruption, or worsen poverty and inequality.

We are now helping local people develop alternatives to outright bans so that there could be better transport options. We are presenting these ideas to policymakers. These suggestions include establishing a way to get the public more involved in decision making, including a permanent forum bringing together policymakers, security officers and people working in the informal economy, such as okada riders.

Respondents also told us they want the government to create alternative job opportunities for riders before they are affected by any bans or restrictions.

We propose providing adequate and affordable transport alternatives for those previously using okadas to get around; and that politicians regularly monitor the effects these measures are having on citizens.

The continued debate over okadas has created a tension between the everyday lives of citizens and the authorities’ vision for Lagos as a modern city.

Alternatives cause problems

Because of the ban, some former okada riders have turned to driving keke marwa. These are also vulnerable to coming off badly in road traffic accidents, and are not as able to cope with narrow streets as motorcycles. Road accidents remain high generally, despite the okada ban. Meanwhile, the casualty statistics presented in support of the okada ban have been criticised by local journalists for not being accurate.

Lagos state governor Babatunde Fashola had wanted to completely ban okadas in 2010, but compromised on banning them from about 5% of Lagos’s roads. An outright ban was imposed on okadas from six of parts of Lagos in June 2022, followed by bans in a further four areas in September 2022. Discussions with local colleagues suggest that some were areas with particularly bad traffic and dense populations. Others, however, were areas where middle-class voters appear to have lobbied for inclusion in the ban. One motivation for this probably was concern over noise rather than traffic jams or criminality.

To help replace okadas, in May 2021 Sanwo-Olu launched a fleet of 500 minibuses, billed as “first and last mile buses”, with a plan to expand these to 5,000. Even if that figure is reached, these numbers cannot match the number of displaced okadas. And these minibuses don’t have the flexibility of the okadas they are intended to replace to nip in and out of Lagos’s narrow streets and past jams. On a visit to Lagos in April 2023, the UK researchers saw hardly any of these new buses, but the old danfo (private minibus) and keke marwa were still there in great numbers.

Injuries and deaths

Over the last decade in particular, okadas have been a source of injury and death on the roads, with some riders also accused of exploiting the manoeuvrability of the motorcycles to commit crimes. But they have also provided an income to hundreds of thousands of people and enabled millions of citizens to navigate the vast metropolis fairly swiftly.

The ban has hit the riders’ ability to earn money, but also affected the millions who previously were using okadas to get around.

Another of the government’s arguments for banning okadas was their use by criminals. One of our interviewees reported that in an earlier court case, the judge said that the authorities should identify and apprehend criminals, rather than assuming that all riders were criminals or “could-be criminals”.

Criminals cannot simply be identified as those who ride a motorcycle, nor can the authorities ban every mode of transport that criminals exploit. Motorcycles are used widely in sub-Saharan Africa as an integral part of the transport system – the challenge is to maximise their benefits while managing and minimising their downsides.

Our research confirms that okada riders and those who used okadas view such their use as a legitimate source of income, this is particularly relevant in a country with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty in the world (over 71 million). Meanwhile, as Nigeria’s economic powerhouse, Lagos continues to draw in people from across Nigeria and beyond, and informal economic activities such as okada riding have helped to absorb these individuals into the economy of Lagos.

There is little evidence of improvement in the general traffic situation in Lagos because of the ban. Poverty remains widespread, the motorcycle taxi ban has the potential to make that worse as people struggle to find affordable, accessible transport and others are denied the opportunity to provide that.

Robert Ackrill, Professor of European Economics and Policy, Nottingham Trent University and Olasunmbo Olusanya, Senior Lecturer, University of Lagos

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

As We ‘Beautify’ Our Country, Our Children Inherit the Results of Our Sham Green Clearances

While we may not be around to watch our children enjoy or squander what we saved, nature’s wrath will prove to be more or less instant.

While we all rush around buying life insurance and squirrelling away savings in fixed deposits to ensure a brighter future for our children, a nation’s wealth is being squandered away with impunity. Riverine wealth, the wealth of riverfronts and cityscapes, the wealth of pristine primaeval forests and mountains.

We may not be around to watch our children enjoy or squander what we saved but nature’s wrath will prove to be more or less instant.

While our forest dwellers stand negated as troublemaking Naxals in today’s India, as do protesting academics and people of intellect, stories are pouring in from every city and mountain of man-made natural disasters: floods in Varanasi after the recent tampering on the riverfront in the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, ditto in Pune with its own riverfront “beautification” and “re-development” project only half complete. While Ahmedabad is now settling into almost getting used to annual flooding due to its own precursor riverfront redevelopment project inaugurated in 2012, and along which we not so long ago watched the spectacle of India’s prime minister fete the president of China.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Sabarmati Waterfront, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, September 17, 2014. Photo: Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India) via Wikimedia Commons

Landslides in mountainous areas in Uttaranchal have shattered us all and taken lives with their frightening intensity this year – where the fragile and unstable Himalayan terrain lies already scarred by the ongoing heavy earthwork and tampering to broaden roads for every mofussil uncle-ji to be able to access the four Panch Kedar Dhams (that hitherto only stoic and godly renunciants and sages retreated to escape the very same uncle-ji’s ancestors and their ilk, obsessed with kama and amassing dhan in their state of Arishadvarga lust).

Also read: The Char Dham Road Project Is Indeed a Himalayan Blunder

We mango people watch in horror from the sidelines as various watchdog bodies contemplate allowing rampant mining in Assam’s Dehing Patkai forests and “development” of water aerodromes and townships in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We watch as the Chhattisgarh government moves to allow rampant coal mining and forest-dweller displacement in the thick forests of Hasdeo Aranya.

Among a few common threads that run through all these disasters, whether already unleashed or in the making, is a particular schema introduced in 1994 through the concept of the ‘environment impact assessment’, which was precisely to protect the nation’s natural wealth from the inevitable stupidity of human depredations and the cupidity of India’s political elites.

Originally devised to bring the weight of environmental scientists and academics to evaluate every such proposal, expectedly mostly inane ones since such is endemic to India and visible ever since Independence, whatever the current dispensation, and have the power to stop or beneficially modify disasters in the making, as things stand today that watchdog too has been co-opted like most other watchdog Institutions.

Quoting from the Centre for Science And Environment:

“The Indian experience with Environmental Impact Assessment began over 20 years back. It started in 1976-77 when the Planning Commission asked the Department of Science and Technology to examine the river-valley projects from an environmental angle. This was subsequently extended to cover those projects, which required the approval of the Public Investment Board. Till 1994, environmental clearance from the Central Government was an administrative decision and lacked legislative support.

On 27 January 1994, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEF), Government of India, under the Environmental (Protection) Act 1986, promulgated an EIA notification making Environmental Clearance (EC) mandatory for expansion or modernisation of any activity or for setting up new projects listed in Schedule 1 of the notification. Since then there have been 12 amendments made in the EIA notification of 1994.”

Each of the propositions that led to the disasters mentioned above has thus received its own stamp of approval in the form of an Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) clearance.

And the wise Government of India has even moved to further dilute the process of such clearances, exempting many commercial activities from purview, allowing post facto clearances of existing transgressions, and removing the need for public consultations for even grossly polluting and scarring interventions into our nation’s land and water masses.

Also read: India’s National Board for Wildlife Is a Big Threat to India’s Wildlife

Elaborate environmental impact assessment studies and resultant reports have been allegedly prepared; State Pollution Control Boards and forest departments have allegedly studied their accuracy and possible impact; district collectors have allegedly held public hearings; citizens and panchayats have allegedly been given a chance to voice their concerns and misgivings; the inimitable environment ministry has allegedly studied the ‘no objection certificates’ granted at state levels; multidisciplinary expert teams have allegedly prepared environmental appraisals, after alleged site visits and consultations with affected populations; and then constituted environmental appraisal committees of alleged experts who met to ponder and pontificate; allegedly arranging further public hearings to “ensure public participation in developmental decisions” – to finally (!) accord their approvals or rejections.

That each of those tragedies received its own rubber-stamp of ministerial and expert approval is a known fact. But how one would love to now gather the experts of each of the EACs that approved the Varanasi, Ahmedabad and Pune riverfronts, or the Chhota Char Dham access roads, and confront them with the results of their allegedly intelligent and informed approvals.

Like most things in New India, it would be a joke of epic proportions if it wasn’t a tragedy of even more gargantuan dimensions.

Mountainsides being blasted off and cleared to make way for the Char Dham highway. Photo: PTI

While we are quick to rush to WhatsApp to crow with undisguised pride, with an added dollop of wild imagination, about India’s ancient prowess at social organisation, science, medicine and other pathbreaking achievements, it seems to escape the collective national consciousness that as other nations of the world (sometimes even through their leaders of much-vaunted Indian descent) are now ruing the past depredations of wanton ‘development’ of the post-industrialised world and devising protocols and curbs against global weather change, environmental degradation and other ills that have now come to haunt weather as well as habitats, flora and fauna worldwide and especially apparent now in the 21st century. Yes, of course, we clever Indians are so far elevated above such mere concerns and our natural environment immune to all that man may wreak upon it.

Come, let us “develop”, “beautify”, “exploit” to our hearts content.

Just like the hapless person on the street on whom we blithely dump our garbage from our higher-floor balconies, our children and their children can deal with what we relentlessly dump on their future through the mute acceptance of sham EAC approvals.

Narayan Moorthy is merely an architect based in Delhi.

Anchored in the Barren: The Case of Pune’s Janata Vasahat

The slum dwellers of Janata Vasahat, Pune’s largest slum at the foothills of Parvati Hill, have since 1974 undergone a tumultuous journey in retaining their homeland against state-led attempts to rehabilitate them.

Escaping the claws of the great droughts of 1970s, many low income migrating families from different parts of Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh arrived in scores near a small tekri (hill) of Parvati Hill in Pune, in search of refuge and a livelihood opportunity.

The migrating families occupied this barren land located above the Mutha Nadi Bank Canal, laying the foundation of a settlement, popularly known today as Janta Vasahat — a location that comprises multiple slums with a total population of around 60,000. The residents comprising young daily-wage workers, small-scale businessmen, and even a few IT and tech workers.

In what would be legally viewed as an act of encroachment by incoming migrants, the land of Janata Vasahat above the canal, attracted many local landowners to develop the area for low-income affordable living, building kachcha makaan, some flats and residential spaces for rental profit. Under the local municipal corporation-led development programme, the entire region of Janata Vasahat was reserved for a ‘green park’, due to which any major construction was prohibited. Nevertheless, the key landowners of the land, members of the Raut family, began to rent out small portions of their land, attracting more migrants and low-income locals to take possession.

Janata Vasahat settlement above the Mutha Right Bank Canal. Photo: Jignesh Mistry

Janata Vasahat, Pune’s largest slum at the foothills of Parvati Hill, was considered to be an unauthorised settlement and even now remains legally viewed as a disputed space. Members from our Visual Storyboard team, from the Centre for New Economics Studies (CNES) at the OP Jindal Global University, spent a couple of months interacting with locals, state officials and activists working in the area of Janata Vasahat.

Attempts were made by the municipal corporation to demolish the settlement in 1974. However, this process was stalled by subsequent acts of local political intervention, after which it was eventually notified as a slum. Since then, in years between 1974 and 2021, the slum dwellers of Parvati Hill have undergone a tumultuous journey in retaining their homeland and the residing community against various state-led attempts to ‘rehabilitate the slum’. We discuss some of these below.

Over time, the settlement of Janata Vasahat has evolved into a space that provides access to water and electricity to all its residing population. Photo: Jignesh Mistry

Slum rehabilitation attempts

The rehabilitation attempt of 1980s began with the land acquisition project that sought to provide slum dwellers with HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation) housing loans and new accommodation in exchange for their rehabilitations. Close to 50% of residents refused to participate in the scheme. The remaining half faced many challenges due to structural flaws in the implementation of the programme. Protests and lawsuits followed over the terrible execution of the scheme that made the slum rehabilitation attempt unsuccessful.

Also read: After the Pandemic, Will We Rethink How We Plan Our Cities?

In 1987, the head of Pune Municipal Corporation’s slum removal department, Kinkar, proposed to buy surplus land at the rate of Re 1/square feet and allocate that land to Janta Vasahat residents so that the entire population from the slum could be shifted from there. Every family was given a plot of land to move out and evacuate the land at Parvati Hill where eventually a park could be built.

Trouble brewed when instead of handing over their property to the government, residents called in their relatives to settle in their houses in Janata Vasahat. With distant families now living in their homes, the old residents moved to these newly acquired land given by the government. Hence, another rehabilitation attempt failed.

The failures of such schemes have led to a strong call for re-evaluating the terms of initiating rehabilitation. It is important to acknowledge and understand how Janata Vasahat (and many settlements like these) are not just ‘slums’, or exclusionary settlements lying outside the ‘planned model of urban development’. It is a representative composition of a tightly knit community of migrants who have created a spatial identity for themselves within the urban landscape of Pune.

Not only is this residential-social network a solace – and a land of opportunity – for all migrant workers who come from all across Maharashtra and other states to Pune, but their livelihoods are deeply entrenched to the habitat itself. Most of our respondents (including more women) said how they opened up shops and other small-scale retail businesses inside this big settlement and make their ends meet from what they make from these businesses.

Many families migrated to Janata Vasahat from their villages to make a better living for themselves and Vasahat became that place where they had an opportunity to lead a relatively more comfortable life with access to housing, water, electricity, public transport etc. No rehabilitation project or development has been able to provide them with these ‘public’ goods in all these decades because of which many residents of Janata Vasahat refuse to move, when any step to displace them takes place.

Many residents own shops in the area that support their livelihoods. Photo: Jignesh Mistry

Rafiq Maniyar*, a bangle seller living in Janata Vasahat, says, “We have access to water, electricity, the bus station is very close from here, the train station is nearby…we have access to all these facilities, so why will anybody settle anywhere else? Builders keep trying to take us out but even according to the law they need 70% of the people in Janata Vasahat to agree to their proposal of rehabilitation, so any such measure always falls apart.”

Also read: When It Comes to Urban Planning, India Suffers From a Poverty of Imagination

From a broader context

The urbanisation process in developing urban economies has undoubtedly been accompanied by significant rural-to-urban migration. Trends of these migratory waves have of course changed across decades. The early 1960s and 1970s (as seen in Janata Vasahat) witnessed an exodus of low-income rural families relocating to nearby urban areas due to natural disasters or simply due to a lack of better employment opportunities.

This migration increased urban population levels and promoted urban growth by providing industries with cheap labour for work in construction and real estate. However, the spatial impact of such migration changed the modern topological complex for good, as many metropolitan areas contain massive slum pockets in the form of low-income settlements.

Amid rising population levels, the demand for affordable housing, especially in cities, has remained unmet. Low-income families often resort to living in squatter settlements and slums. With time, such temporary settlements have transformed into labyrinths of semi-pucca houses and jhuggis. Amid tall skyscrapers and four-lane roads in the urban utopia, the presence of slums is paradoxical, to say the least. As a result, the migrants and their large settlements that were once integral to the urbanisation process are now perceived as roadblocks that prevent urban planning.

At the same time, the Indian government’s concern with slums is a complex, multi-layered issue. Most slums, according to state authorities, including those in Pune, represent the ‘wasted potential of urban land’ — as settlements occupy large areas that can be used for other purposes during urban planning. As officials told us, this space can be used for expanding public road networks, constructing public offices and buildings etc. Most officials acknowledged how in the absence of ‘good affordable housing development schemes’, illegal possession of land and encroachments have become major issues in cities like Pune.

On top of this, there is also the much cited ‘aesthetical motivation’ to remove slums from metropolitan areas. In accordance with the projected standards of modern civilisation and modernist aesthetics — of straight lines, open spaces and visible order — urban planners consider slums as aberrations in the current urban landscape. Hence, quite often governments and local agencies – as seen in Vasahat too – direct their efforts towards re-constructing these areas and imposing new local orders via slum rehabilitation programs, without the consent and consensus of local residents (or their participation). In the past, many such schemes have been curated to allow slum-dwellers to voluntarily rehabilitate themselves in the government-provided, planned housing spaces.

However, the efficiency, ethics and legalities of these programmes – in context to the rights of people – have often been brought into question. The case of Janata Vasahat highlights these conflicts between interests and rights.

Also read: ‘An Order Against the Poor’: Thousands Now Homeless After Khori Gaon Demolition

Spatial conflict of interest and rights

Even though Janata Vasahat has now evolved into a more developed low-income settlement whose residents do not wish to rehabilitate, the concern of illegal occupation of land remains unresolved. In such a case, how does the law – by its own nature – protect the rights and livelihood of the urban poor?

Needless to say, those residing in Janata Vasahat do possess certain legal rights which cannot be denied by authorities. At the very basic level, it is a settled position of law that the right to housing and shelter is an integral component of the Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. This means that slum dwellers ought to receive a hearing and the right to notice prior to evictions.

Furthermore, residents do possess the right to be rehabilitated in a similar or adequate manner. Effective resettlement has thus been stressed upon by the courts time and again.

Besides shelter, there is also long-standing jurisprudence regarding the right to livelihood. In Olga Tellis v. Union of India, the Supreme Court held that the right to livelihood is an important facet of the right to life which cannot be denied by evicting people except according to the procedure established by law. Therefore, residents of slums – like Janata Vasahat – are protected against arbitrary and unconstitutional actions of authorities that occurred during the rehabilitation project of 1984.

The issue, however, is the lack of awareness amongst communities about these ‘rights’ and to claim them through a legal process. There are hardly any legal activists or legal aid centres accessible for such population – not just in Vasahat, but in most slums across the city – which could help local, low-income migrant groups against ‘interest groups’ like big capital builders, working in nexus with municipal corporations.

The atmanirbhar residents of Janata Vasahat. Photo: Jignesh Mistry

Rehabilitation attempts of the past have come at the cost of livelihoods and well-being of the communities being displaced. Those living in Janata Vasahat may consider themselves lucky. Going forward, as the ‘state’ and ‘residents’ battle, considering more inclusive, and deliberative, consensus -led plans for urban re-development and upgradation might be the prudent choices rather than a complete rehabilitation.

In the spirit of community living, it is important to re-evaluate slum rehabilitation programmes to ensure that the programme is benefitting those who need it most — the silenced, often ‘voiceless’ urban-poor.

There is now a provision for this under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) — Housing for All’ mission, as part of the “In-Situ” Slum Redevelopment Program (ISSR) which aims at unleashing the locked potential of the lands currently under slums while bringing slum dwellers into the formal urban settlement.

While this policy might seem more promising, it is imperative that the residents are provided with the needed legal, economic, social and even psychological support to come to terms with such policy programmes. Housing policies need to be fair, just, reasonable, and according to the principles of natural justice. The reality, unfortunately, seems far from this.

*Note: Name of the respondent has been changed to protect his identity.

This study was undertaken as part of a Centre for New Economics Studies (CNES) Visual Storyboard initiative. Please check all video essays and photo essays on this storyboard to know more about the team’s work and its visual archive. Authors would like to especially thank professor Aneeta Gokhale Benninger, executive director, Centre for Development Studies and Activities (CDSA), Pune and the research team at MASHAL, an NGO in Pune, for all their kind support and assistance provided during the project’s fieldwork.

Deepanshu Mohan is associate professor of Economics and Director, Centre for New Economics Studies (CNES), Jindal School of Liberal Arts, OP Jindal Global University. Jignesh Mistry is a senior research analyst and the Visual Storyboard team lead with CNES. Advaita Singh, Vanshika Shah, Sarah Ayreen are senior research analysts with CNES. We thank Ada Nagar and Vanshika Mittal for their assistance in producing the video essays.

Delhi’s Multi-Modal Transport Hub Lacks an Integrated System to Connect Passengers

The coming together of five different transport systems will involve the movement of large numbers of commuters passing through this hub, with an average footfall of over 3.5 lakh by 2031.

Following the development of the high-speed rail link on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited has now been entrusted to plan and execute the second bullet train project which will connect Delhi to Varanasi in 2.5 hours. It is proposed that the starting point will be at Sarai Kale Khan. With this, the multi-modal transport hub at Sarai Kale Khan is set to become substantially larger than what was proposed two years ago when the Delhi-Alwar rapid transit system was first announced.

With the extension of the pink line of the Delhi Metro Rail to Mayur Vihar via Hazrat Nizamuddin, and the announcement of the first phase of the Delhi-Alwar regional rapid transit system, now five different transport systems will come together at Sarai Kale Khan. Here, within a short distance from each other, is the Nizamuddin railway station which is being upgraded to handle double the number of passengers, the underground Hazrat Nizamuddin metro station, the proposed Sarai Kale Khan rapid transit system station, the proposed Sarai Kale Khan bullet train station, and the existing Sarai Kale Khan interstate bus terminal.

In terms of connection to long distance destinations, the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station is already the third largest railway station in the city, with major railway lines connecting to cities in the south, which include Bengaluru, Chennai, Madgaon, Mumbai, Secunderabad and Thiruvananthapuram. The Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) offers bus services to different parts of Haryana and Rajasthan.

The Delhi Metro has been steadily expanding its network across the city, and with the pink line passing through Hazrat Nizamuddin, it will connect across the river to Mayur Vihar. The under construction first phase of the Delhi-Alwar regional rapid transit system will provide an effective connection from Sarai Kale Khan to the Delhi airport in 15 minutes and onwards to Gurgaon in another 15 minutes. The proposed Dehi-Varanasi bullet train travelling along a high-speed rail corridor will have a length of about 800 km and will connect the national capital with major cities in Uttar Pradesh such as Mathura, Agra, Etawah, Lucknow, Raebareli, Prayagraj, Bhadohi, Varanasi and Ayodhya.

It will provide travel to Varanasi in 2.5 hours, and will also connect with the proposed Jewar International Airport. It is estimated that the project will be completed within a time frame of five years. The exact location of the bullet train station at Sarai Kale Khan is currently being worked out. Indian Railways is working towards upgrading the entire complex with higher passenger holding capacity and better facilities.

Representative image. Photo: PTI

A major challenge – integrated system of the movement of passengers

It is interesting to note that the individual authorities responsible for each of the transit systems have systematically worked out the details of functioning within each transport node, but are oblivious of the scale of problems that will arise outside, as commuters move from one transport node to another. The coming together of five different transport systems will involve the movement of large numbers of commuters passing through this hub as they connect to different parts of the city, to several adjoining towns, as well as to major cities across the country. By the year 2031, it is anticipated that the average footfall at the interchange will be more than 3.5 lakh.

It would have been better if these five different transport systems had been integrated to ensure seamless interchange between each other, but this has not been possible as each of them has been developed separately over the years. The Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station was the first unit that was developed many years ago, on the existing railway line that extended from Delhi to Mathura and beyond. It was expanded as a terminal in order to relieve the pressure on the Old Delhi and New Delhi stations.

A map for the Sarai Kale Khan Multi-Modal Transport Hub. Photo: author provided

The ISBT came up some years later on the other side of Sarai Kale Khan village on the Outer Ring Road. Although it was quite clear that there would be a large number of passengers carrying or pulling luggage as they moved between the two facilities, no attempt was made to plan for ease of movement as commuters walked down the central village road, and then entered the railway station, where depending on the platform they had to reach, and it was also necessary to negotiate flights of stairs on the overbridge.

Also read: Why Multi-Modal Public Transport Is an Important Part of India’s Climate Action

The Hazrat Nizamuddin underground metro station which opened a couple of years ago has further improved connectivity, and made it easier for residents from several parts of the city to get to the railway station and the bus terminal. This has also considerably increased the number of commuters that come together at this point.

The first phase of the rapid rail transit connections starting from Sarai Kale Khan is currently under implementation and is expected to become functional within the next few years. This will provide rapid connectivity within 15 minutes to the Aerocity airport terminal, and in another 15 minutes to Rajiv Chowk in Gurgaon. It will also link Delhi-Gurgaon, Delhi–Alwar, Delhi-Meerut, and Delhi-Panipat by separate trains. The station located close to Ring Road will have an underground connection to the Hazrat Nizamuddin metro station.

For the proper functioning and integrated development of this large transport hub it is important that a safe and integrated system of the movement of passengers connecting all the different nodes be implemented within this major communication hub. Movement from the bus terminal to the furthest platform of Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station will require passengers to walk over a distance of over 250 metres. Careful planning of both internal and external passages will need to be worked out to ensure that different movement routes do not cross in order to avoid confusion and chaos.

In addition, it will be necessary to plan for the movement of traffic around the entire complex, along with the proper location of convenient drop-off points for cars, rickshaws, light motor vehicles etc. to station entrances.

A traffic planning exercise needed

As part of the redevelopment of the ISBT, it is proposed that a road diversion and subway will be implemented to connect the traffic directly from across the Ring Road, but there is no connectivity planned as such to go past Sarai Khan village and across the railway line to the front of the Nizamuddin railway station. An underground passage with travelators would be good to provide safe connection between the different transport systems.

A policeman walks towards Nizamuddin Railway Station in New Delhi on Thursday. Photo: PTI

A detailed traffic planning exercise needs to be carried out for the large surrounding area around the hub in order to ensure that all forms of traffic are properly coordinated, and moves smoothly in all directions without obstruction. This is not a simple exercise, and is likely to call for a sophisticated solution as it would involve the need to ensure that traffic on the Outer Ring Road (a major traffic artery) is not obstructed, as well as to plan for traffic connections to the areas across the river, as well as connecting to the areas across the railway line to the Nizamuddin village and beyond.

For the detailed planning of traffic and effective linkage to all the different transit stations, active involvement of traffic planners and urban designers is absolutely essential.

As per earlier plans, it was recognised that pedestrian movement in the complex would need to be separated from vehicular traffic. As such it was proposed that there would be a skywalk with travelators connecting the regional rapid transit station to the metro station and lead directly to the footover bridge at the Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station.

This has not been implemented till date and the situation has become much more complicated with the proposed development of the rapid rail transport system and the bullet train which will lead to a substantial increase in the number of passengers at this mega transit hub. It is difficult to understand how the concerned authorities have not addressed the basic need for the safe movement and security of such a large number of commuters as they move between different transport systems.

Also read: Ranjit Sabikhi’s Reflections on Evolution of Delhi’s Space Offer a Window Into Urban Design

Lack of expert advice

Other than the ISBT, several authorities involved in the development of the city’s largest multi-modal transport hub have not appointed any urban designers, architects or traffic planners to seek proper professional advice to work out an integrated system for handling the movement of passengers and vehicles connecting to the different terminals. The government is anxious to implement the latest rapid transit movement systems, but fail to realise the consequences that may result in the adjoining areas due to lack of proper planning.

At the 66th convocation address to students of IIT-Kharagpur a few days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the need to anticipate tomorrow’s problems and come up with indigenous solutions today. He drew attention to the need for an improved ecosystem for start-ups, and the corporate and administrative process. He suggested that the Indian Institutes of Technology become Indigenous Institutes of Technology that concentrate on research and the development of homegrown solutions for the various complex problems that the country is currently faced with.

Urban development issues are some of the major concerns of growth that call for efficient innovative solutions but have so far received little attention. The prime minister’s observations stand in sharp contrast to the reality of how major projects like the Sarai Khan Mega Transit Hub are being implemented without the involvement of professionals.

There is no shortage of qualified architects, town planners, urban designers, traffic planners, landscape architects, demographers, etc. available in the country. Despite this, government organisations like NITI Aayog, DDA, CPWD, NBCC and others, do not involve them in development projects. These same organisations however, do not hesitate to invite professionals from abroad to design and implement major projects.

It would be good if the prime minister could take note of this serious situation and suggest corrective action. Left to the choice of our administrators and IAS officials, they would prefer to ensure that the current situation be left unchanged. It is unfortunate that multiple agencies responsible for urban development across the country fail to address civic problems on a systematic and comprehensive basis. They wait for conditions of chaos to actually happen, and then ad hoc solutions are worked out on an arbitrary basis.

This process of addressing major urban development projects in fragments instead of a consolidated holistic basis has become an established system which seems to yield maximum benefit to all involved. If such situations are not corrected, there is no possibility of successful indigenous research, and the development of innovative solutions in the area of urban development.

Ranjit Sabikhi is an architect and urban designer. He was formerly a Professor of Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi.

The Importance of Balanced Urban Development Has Been Ignored for Far Too Long

The return of migrant workers from cities to their home states during the COVID-19 lockdown once again highlighted the need for the large scale development of India’s small towns and rural areas.

Almost four decades ago, in 1973, after a survey of schools of architecture in South East Asia on behalf of UNESCO, I had recorded in a report that in the developing countries of the region, political independence had brought about a consciousness of the need to develop the countries on a holistic basis, not concentrated on the building of cities.

As such, the report recorded the need for a broad-based professional training programme to design buildings in urban situations, which also addressed the basic human problems of social welfare and the economic betterment of the country as a whole. It was recognised that the bulk of development was controlled by the public sector in most countries and it was here that the trained ‘architects’ needed to be fitted to make an effective contribution to environmental development. It was suggested that such professionals be designated as ‘development managers’.

In a more detailed assessment of the Indian context, the report recommended that a two-tier system of training architectural professionals be introduced. This involved splitting the five-year course into two tiers, with the first tier being a three-year course leading to a BA degree – a course based on the humanities and environmental sciences, which would provide trained specialists capable of addressing the social and environmental problems of our villages and small towns.

Also included in the report was the need for an organised framework for the growth of the building industry across the country, along with the setting up of a number of craft training institutes to develop construction-related skills.

The report, however, was not seriously considered by the government at that time and was largely ignored by politicians and bureaucrats involved with urban development.

More than a decade later, in 1986, the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi recognised the extensive changes that were beginning to happen across the country with the steadily increasing population and the shift of people from rural to urban areas. In order to study and evaluate these changes and their implications, he appointed the National Commission on Urbanisation, headed by architect Charles Correa, with M.N. Buch as vice chairman and a mix of architects, planners, industrialists, economists, environmental engineering experts and administrators. This group of experts from different backgrounds prepared a comprehensive report on the possible trends of future urban development in the country – a report that is significant and still has meaning and relevance today.

Rajiv Gandhi. Photo: PTI

Control migration to existing cities

Between 1947 and 1987, the population of the country grew from 350 million to 800 million. The urban population quadrupled from 50 million to 200 million and was mainly concentrated in the large metropolitan cities of Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune. These had huge financial, business and industrial establishments and their infrastructure was under increasing pressure because of steadily increasing migration from the rural areas. The commission recognised that there was a need for the balanced growth of industry across the country and that employment potential needed to be distributed around a larger number of smaller towns and cities that had a definable localised hinterland, which would ensure a rural-urban continuum.

In order to provide positive growth of the economy, an active urbanisation policy was suggested. The Commission stated:

“Instead of remaining isolated centres of economic activity, with weak linkages with the rural hinterland, the cities must become vibrant centres, making the best use of the natural and human resources in the region where they are located, and over time, expand their economic base to enable them to assume economic functions which transcend their rural boundaries.”

Over the next two years, the commission carried out extensive surveys across the country and identified 329 urban centres which had high promise of both demographic and economic growth. Out of this, 109 small towns were selected that were located in districts where more than 90% of the population was still rural and which had the highest number of people likely to migrate to urban areas. The development of these centres would help decentralise and widely spread urbanisation and also improve the infrastructure of small and medium towns. The investment that they would attract would help take advantage of the huge pool of surplus labour available in these rural areas. In addition, the provision of vital urban links would enable entire regions to develop and grow.

Also Read: COVID-19 Reverse Migration Calls for Long-Term Rural Development Planning

The proposal to invest in small towns which had a potential for growth and develop them to provide a market for the products of the rural hinterland was well considered and meaningful. Investment in urban settlements in such areas would help fund the improvement of agriculture so that urban and rural growth was in tandem.

By the time the final report was submitted in August 1988, Rajiv Gandhi had lost political support and the recommendations of the National Commission on Urbanisation were shelved. The governments that followed ignored the report and embarked on a series of isolated development proposals, like the townships along the industrial development corridors and the much publicised smart cities, all of which called for massive investment and were not linked to the development of larger surrounding regions.

The real work from home scheme

The movement of over 10.4 million unskilled workers back to their homes in rural areas as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has now drawn attention to the need for the serious re-evaluation of a plan for balanced urban development across the country.

For the growth of rural areas, an initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana was launched in June 2015 for the building of a large number of pucca houses which would also generate employment for a number of workers. The programme called for individual pucca houses of minimum 30 square metres carpet area, each with a toilet, water supply and electric connection. However, after more than five years, there is a shortfall of 3.12 million between the number of houses sanctioned and the number actually built.

Another programme to provide a toilet in each and every rural home, although implemented and much publicised, has given rise to serious doubts about its success. Surveys in November 2019 showed that toilets had been built in only 71.3% of all rural homes and a number of the toilets are not being used or are non-functional.

Both these programmes have been implemented without the preparation of plans extending over larger areas and without the active involvement of qualified professionals. It is pointless to spend large sums of money building toilets in each rural house without preparing a plan for water supply and a connected system of sewage, along with a proper arrangement for sewage disposal. Just dumping sewage in pits only ends up polluting large areas.

In order to effectively plan for all such items including the building of pucca houses, access roads and the provision of a fibre cable network connection to each dwelling unit, a Geographic Information System (GIS) aerial survey of the entire area is important and proper plans need to be prepared by qualified professionals. Comprehensive aerial GIS surveys help to prepare accurate plans, recording all existing structures, as well as the layout of existing services above and below ground. Although this method of survey has been available for over a decade now, most government agencies still rely on primitive instrumental land surveys which do not have the same level of accuracy and detail.

All plans for development need to ensure that different systems are effectively coordinated and organised for the proper connection and distribution of services and for ongoing maintenance. The involvement of architects, town planners, services consultants, landscape consultants, horticulturists, engineers, fibre cable network engineers and other concerned specialists is essential. At present the implementation of these programmes is being done by state level engineers, bureaucrats and local politicians and apart from the absence of planning, there is no proper evaluation of the spending of the large sums of money that have been sanctioned. Many of the prime minister’s ambitious programmes for the development of rural areas lack proper professional input.

Migrant workers walking in Mamallapuram, May 31, 2020. Photo: PTI

A scheme to train village youth in rural areas in a variety of craft skills was started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship was set up in November 2014 to focus on enhancing the employability of youth through skill development. The skills ministry was entrusted with the task of training 1,50,000 workers under the short term training programme and another 1,50,000 in recognition of prior learning skills.

In 2016, under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, a further programme for training workers in craft skills was launched, in which trainees were attached to specific industries and paid a wage during the training period, which varied from a few weeks to six months. A sum of Rs 12,000 crores was allotted to train 10 million villagers by March 31, 2020. As of now, it is estimated that 9.2 million workers have been trained and a process of evaluating and mapping skills has been started.

Also Read: How China Reduced the Urban-Rural Economic Chasm – and How India Can Do it Too

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the return of a large number of migrants, the programme is being extended for another four years and the responsibility for the cost of training is being shifted to the states, with increased focus on entrepreneurship, digital technology and skill development. For this skill certification scheme, a budget of Rs 12,000 crores has been allocated to benefit 10 million youth. The intention is to further focus on the training of quality manpower to attract companies who are looking to relocate from countries like China.

On June 20, 2020, a scheme called the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan was launched to provide 50,000 crore jobs to help migrants, providing 125 days of employment in 116 districts in six states where large numbers of migrants had returned. The states were Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkand and Orissa. Jobs were provided in 25 categories of public infrastructure, including the laying of fibre optic cables for rural internet, railway work, sanitation and waste management, poultry and farm ponds, and training in horticulture.

PM Modi during his address on June 30. Photo: Video screengrab

A holistic vision

All these different schemes have been promoted as the prime minister’s special individual projects. No attempt has been made to coordinate these different projects together into a unified system for overall rural improvement. Imagine how much more effective these schemes would be if, on the basis of a regional plan, they were linked to the actual development of an entire region in the state, where a new road system was being laid out simultaneously with a fibre optic cable network, an electrical connection network, water supply, sewage and drainage system in each village along with the development of community facilities like schools, health centres and meeting halls.

As part of the regional plan, the location of new work centres could be planned for agro-based and other small scale industries at suitable locations, which would take advantage of the local craft skills available. Based on a holistic vision, the entire development would help bring about a new approach to the development of large areas, which would include the active participation of workers within their home states.

The development of such a concept calls for the active involvement of a team of professionals consisting of architects, urban designers, town planners, demographers and landscape architects to plan for the proper development of all aspects of the entire regional hinterland. State governments need to wake up to the importance of this broader visionary concept instead of continuing with the current narrow fragmented approach to future growth. There are at present over 1,49,000 qualified architects in the country and 573 approved institutions from which, after completing a five-year programme of study, approximately 30,000 students graduate every year. In recent years, a large number of fresh graduates have been unable to find suitable employment and there is increasing frustration.

Also Read: The Steady Decline of Architecture in India Points to an Increasingly Chaotic Future

The Council of Architecture, the body responsible for approving professional courses in architecture, has recently made a proposal that a BA degree be awarded after three years of study, after which students could perhaps get involved in the development of rural areas. While the proposal makes a lot of sense, it needs to be backed by active support from the Central and state governments which could create a cadre of ‘development managers’ who would be involved in the planning and implementation of the large scale development of entire rural regions. The three-year degree course could be supplemented by fieldwork in the rural areas and the addition of subjects concentrating on environmental issues to help them play an effective role. NITI Aayog, along with the Council of Architecture, needs to plan a framework for regional development in all states and help set up a cadre for the employment of such professionals on a long term basis.

Some 22 years after the National Commission on Urbanisation submitted a report that was ignored, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought back into sharp focus the need to shift in a holistic manner from the further densification of urban areas to the balanced large scale development of rural areas.

Ranjit Sabikhi is an architect and urban designer. He was formerly Professor of Urban Design at the School of Planning & Architecture, Delhi.

The Council of Architecture Needs to Honour its Commitment to the Profession

The council must prepare professionals in the industry for gainful employment whilst tackling the infrastructural requirements of rural India.

The Council of Architecture (COA) was constituted under the provisions of the Architects Act, 1972, which came into force on September 1, 1972. The Act provides for the registration of architects, standards of education, recognised qualifications and standards of practice to be complied with by the practising architects.

The Council of Architecture is charged with the responsibility of regulating the education and practice of the profession throughout the country. The council has, at present, a total of 149,000 registered architects. All registered architects are bound by the Code of Conduct prescribed in the Charter of the Council of Architects as below:

The Council of Architecture has prescribed the Conditions of Engagement and Scale of Charges under the Architects (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 1989. The documents stipulate the parameters within which the Architect is required to function. These define the responsibilities, the scope of work and services, and prescribe the mandatory minimum scale of professional charges with a view to making the Client fully aware of the duties and services which he may expect from the Architect.

Over the last twenty-five years, various governmental organisations have chosen to ignore the Code of the Council and have steadily reduced the payment of professional fees to architects on an arbitrary basis. This constitutes a blatant flouting of the charter of the Council of Architecture – an Act approved by parliament.

Most registered architects today are deviating from the mandatory minimum scale of professional charges prescribed by the CoA, and the council has not taken any corrective action. As a result, all major private clients like institutions, as well as major developers have also followed the government’s lead and are now asking for bids and appointing architects for major projects at unreasonably low professional fees.

This trend reached its lowest point of professional humiliation when an architect from Lucknow quoted a total fee of one rupee for Comprehensive Integrated Consultancy (CIC) or Project Monitoring Consultant (PMC) Services for the construction of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University of Lucknow on a 50-acre site as per the scope of work and terms and conditions of the Bid and contract document including the GST.

Also read: The Steady Decline of Architecture in India Points to an Increasingly Chaotic Future

It is obvious that the architect, if appointed to execute the project, will not be able to recover the cost of the professional services involved, and will have to resort to dubious means to recover expenses. Any reasonably sized firm of architects would go bankrupt if they had to design and implement the complex of an entire medical university of this size on a no-cost basis – a project which would involve specialised skills in the planning of a hospital. The Ministry of Education in Uttar Pradesh, under whose domain the project falls, needs to take necessary steps to prevent such blatant fraud.

We have reached a stage where the CoA needs to review and acknowledge the purpose for which it was created – to safeguard and protect the interests of those in the profession. Over the last couple of decades, the council has let down the profession, and it is now necessary to make amends. It is rather unfortunate that the 45 architects, who are members of the council, have allowed the profession to be degraded to its present state. In order to stop any further decline, the Council of Architecture should take preventive action immediately. They have an obligation to the members of the profession and junior architects in their states to help create a more meaningful future for those practising in this field.

A student climbs a scaffolding at an outdoor classroom at the Larsen & Toubro (L&T) construction skills training institute in Panvel, in the western Indian state of Maharashtra November 18, 2014. Photo: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui

It is quite clear that politicians and bureaucrats who have a comfortable stranglehold on the system will resist any change. The implications, however, are much larger. However, not only will change bring about a better environment for architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, traffic planners and politicians, but it is also pertinent as, in this fast-changing world, to ignore reality is to be mired in a state of perpetual neglect and to be subject to conditions that will steadily get worse over time.

In August 2020, the Council of Architecture published the Perspective Plan – a collection of facts relating to the number of architecture schools approved by them, their location, the current status, and the total number of students and faculty – for the growth of architectural education in India. All this was presented with a series of charts, graphs and maps. The report, however, made no mention of the quality of education in these institutions or the current state of the profession.

It recognised the fact that there was an excess of schools and that a number of students were leaving them midway due to poor prospects of jobs after graduation. In relation to this, the CoA has made a proposal to grant a B Sc (Arch) degree to students who had completed three years of the five-year B.Arch degree course and would like to leave and pursue work in related fields. A number of possible alternative options were listed.

In the current situation, it would be good if a number of students were directed to focus on rural development as this is an area that urgently calls for professional intervention on a large scale. Students could be trained to plan and oversee development in a large number of small towns and villages in their native states. Students who have completed a basic three-year program of study in architecture with a BSc (Arch) degree could adapt well to play a meaningful role in the planning and improvement of villages and the surrounding rural areas.

Also read: When it Comes to Urban Planning, India Suffers From a Poverty of Imagination

The ‘Housing for All’ initiative under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (AWAY) was launched in June 2015. Under this program, it was anticipated that, by 2022, a complete change would take place in rural areas with the addition of a large number of pucca houses for the homeless, which would also generate employment for large numbers of workers. However, currently there is a shortfall of 3.12 million between the number of houses sanctioned and those that have been completed.

Niti Aayog’s projection that 50% of the population will live in cities by 2050 is not likely to happen, as major changes are taking place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the return home of a large number of migrants who may choose not go back to cities. A change in the approach to future development is therefore called for.

The construction industry, the largest employer of unskilled labour, now needs to be completely overhauled. Although the total volume of construction work will increase, the availability of unskilled labour will go down. The industry should therefore adopt up to date mechanised systems that would improve quality, cut down construction time, and reduce dependency on unskilled workers.

In the long run, this will lead to better and more economical construction. Along with this change, the industry needs to set up a number of training centres in each state to improve and update construction skills. The implementation of building work needs to be systematically organised with proper time and cost control, proper wages for skilled workers, as well as the provision of proper security and hygiene facilities for workers on building sites.

Individual states should consciously involve professionals in the planning and development of rural areas. To date improvements in villages has been restricted to the provision of a toilet in every home. In many cases, these toilets are not functional, or are not being used. The provision of toilets should really be part of a plan for the comprehensive improvement of health and hygiene facilities in the entire village.

Water supply for each household, a sewage and storm water network, along with a system for the disposal and treatment of sewage and storm water needs to be properly coordinated. Plans should also be made for the removal and treatment of garbage. The aim should be to have a comprehensive planned services system in each village.

With the help of aerial surveys and digitisation, plans recording plots and ownership details should be prepared for all rural areas. With proper digital survey maps, it will be possible to plan roads and access systems within and around each village. Plans would include the clear definition of the extent of vehicular penetration, the demarcation of pedestrian lanes, and the location of meeting places, as well as linkage to the development of new areas. The distribution of electricity along with the layout of a cable network for artificial intelligence connecting to every household should also be part of the plan.

Also read: Why the Future of the Building Industry Is Circular

Plans for development need to extend beyond village boundaries to allow for growth and change over time. The proposals should include the location of new community facilities, schools, health centres, halls and meeting places, police stations, parks and open spaces with adequate play space for different age groups. Shopping centres, space for weekly markets, and mandis for the sale of agricultural products need to be located. All proposals should be planned and implemented with the active involvement of the villagers and the local panchayat, and a system of regular interaction set up to ensure proper maintenance with long term improvement and growth.

The planning of rural areas requires careful evaluation of the topography and landscape of each location, the need to preserve existing trees and forests, and to conserve and protect water bodies, streams, rivers and lakes. It is equally important that all proposed development be in sync with the existing architectural character of the area. What is called for is a degree of sensitivity, instead of adopting mass-produced standard solutions, presently common in housing built under the Prime Minister’s AWAY housing for the rural homeless.

A woman worker in the construction sector. Photo: Reuters/Adnan Abidi

In order to achieve meaningful development, young architects who opt for involvement with rural growth should perhaps be required to undertake a six-month course which would help them understand the limitations and nature of intervention required for future rural improvement.

The CoA should help design such a program of study in coordination with concerned officials in each state. The CoA should also ensure that these young professionals, upon the completion of their course, are respected for their professional contributions and are duly compensated. If appointed on a contractual basis, the fees payable should be in accordance with the CoA charter.

With the help of the state government, a framework should be established to allow them to interact directly with the local panchayat, to enable the proper implementation of development proposals and regulations. More than anything else they will need protection from undue pressure and exploitation by local politicians and bureaucrats, who despite all their public statements of intent, are the real obstruction to long term development and growth.

Ranjit Sabikhi is an architect and urban designer. He was formerly Professor of Urban Design at the School of Planning & Architecture, Delhi.

How the Govt Is Spinning Its Dysfunctional Nagpur Water Project as a Success Story

The Indian government’s PPP database indicates that infrastructure projects worth Rs 15,960.66 crore are listed under the ‘water’ sector, as of December 2019.

Nagpur: The issue of water privatisation was once a hot potato across India, at least until 2014. But in the last five years, there has hardly been any critical analysis or public discussion around the theme even as the government has been handing out scores of projects in the water sector to private parties under the garb of public-private partnerships (PPP).

The most important among them are the ones designated to supply potable water to municipalities. Many academicians and civil society groups that were once staunchly opposed to PPPs in drinking water, citing issues like equitability and affordability, have fallen silent.

The reforms policymakers had first touted were motivated by funding criteria drafted by the World Bank, which aggressively promoted the PPP model for infrastructure projects. A quick look at the Indian government’s database of PPP infrastructure projects indicates that of the 1,824 government infrastructure projects until December 2019, 191 – worth Rs 15,960.66 crore – are listed under the ‘water’ sector. Twenty are for water supply and seven are for water treatment plants.

In 2011, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), signed an agreement with Orange City Water Ltd (OCWL), a joint venture between France’s Veolia Water (India) Private Ltd and Nagpur’s Vishwaraj Infrastructure, to supply water 24×7 to the city after a pilot project in one of Nagpur’s 10 zones. The NMC handed over operations of its water treatment plant, operations and maintenance of the entire supply network, billing and collection by 2012. Initial funding was drawn from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM).

Representative image of a water treatment plant. Photo: Flickr/Michal Janček CC BY NC ND 2.0

The project quickly faced several hurdles at different levels but the government treated it with sympathy on every occasion. But eight years down the line, the project is neither partly functional nor complete.

And the government has been showcasing it as a success.

The Administrative Staff College of India had prepared an assessment report for the pilot project; it was previously available at this link but the whole website has since been taken down. There is almost no data about the project in the public domain that is critical of the project. The Centre’s database of PPP projects also shows certain details ‘not available’ for Nagpur’s 24×7 water-supply scheme, the Nagpur Kanhan Water Supply Scheme Augmentation and Nagpur Pench water supply scheme.

Also Read: Can Cities Like Nagpur Continue to Be Lucky With Climate Change?

The Government of India hasn’t undertaken any objective evaluation, even as some reviews exist in the academic literature, such as this dissertation.

The last formal review – if that – of the project was a 2014 World Bank report entitled ‘Running Water in India’s Cities: A Review of Five Recent Public-Private Partnership Initiatives’. It makes many critical observations, including that “the linkages between performance standards and operator revenue is weak”. An extended excerpt:

Investment commitments from the operator are not significant compared to the committed revenue flows to the operator. The operator receives revenue from the city four times greater than its investment obligations in the first five-year period, and so the operator’s financial risk is effectively minimised. The performance requirements begin only at the end of the performance improvement project period (first five years) and are further phased during the first twelve years. The operator is required to finance 30 percent of the initial capital investments.

Sometime ago, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group clarified that IFC wasn’t involved with Nagpur’s water sector. “While IFC was previously a shareholder in AMI, a subsidiary of Veolia, which had invested in Nagpur’s water sector, IFC divested in July 2014,” it said in a statement while clarifying its position on the PPP model in the water sector.

As it happened, the statement also said, “Despite reports to the contrary, the World Bank Group does not in any circumstance require governments to privatise water supplies, pressure governments to take this step, or include the privatisation of water as a condition of financing.”

An international campaign for corporate reform, called Corporate Accountability, welcomed the statement and said in April 2015, “Through its investment in and promotion of private water, the World Bank helps enable corporations to take over and profit from municipal water systems – to the detriment of people’s access to this vital public good.”

Gaurav Dwivedi, an activist who was with Manthan Adhyayan Kendra earlier and had extensively tracked the PPP in water sector in India, said, “Several World Bank documents, including loan agreements, promote privatisation and PPPs in water, but when it comes to taking responsibility, it pushes the blame onto local governments for not implementing them properly.”

Arun Lakhani, the CEO of OCWL, also rubbished speculation that the JNNURM stopped funding Nagpur’s 24×7 PPP project after the IFC’s withdrawal from Veolia. “The Modi government scrapped JNNURM and decided to replace it with AMRUT. So the last bit of funding was stopped,” he told The Wire.

A resident in Nagpur. Photo: Nivedita Khandekar

However, in response to an emailed query, a World Bank spokesperson said, “Nagpur’s 24×7 PPP model for drinking water supply was not supported by the World Bank. The five cities analytical review was a technical review of several models being implemented by various entities.”

In 2012, the BJP’s alma mater Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) moved a resolution against water privatisation, especially through the PPP model, and criticised the then draft National Water Policy, at its principal policymaking meet that year.

The BJP leadership is believed to have tried to salvage the situation considering NMC had already commenced its agreement with OCWL by then. But the RSS passed the resolution anyway: “As suggested by the World Bank, attempts at handing over the control of water distribution in the hands of private monopoly in the name of public-private partnership, indicates the intentions of handing over this vital basic necessity of life totally in the control of private ownership and to a large extent foreign multi-national corporations.”

However, the act has had no effect on either Nagpur’s PPP plans or on any other PPP projects since 2014, when the BJP assumed power at the Centre. If anything, the party has only pushed several other infrastructure development projects towards the PPP model, including in the water and sanitation sectors.

Nothing apart from political patronage seems to be holding up the Nagpur project at the moment, so it’s worrying that no less than the NITI Aayog has been championing it as a success. NITI Aayog first showcased Nagpur’s example in the urban water management category in its August 2017 report, ‘Selected Best Practices in Water Management’, and then in a two-volume 2018 report of the ‘Composite Water Management Index’. The second volume of the latter showcases Nagpur in a case study and promotes its “lessons for other states”.

Also Read: Is Nagpur Really a Smart City When It Comes to Water?

Kunal Kumar, the mission director of Smart Cities at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, first trivialised the criticism that Nagpur’s 24×7 water supply project has attracted as just a matter of opinion. But when The Wire pointed out that even the World Bank has no good words for the project, he quickly said, “We are not aware of it, but we are not claiming or telling the states that Nagpur model is ‘the’ model. It is a process; the models are evolving. It is for the states to customise models according to their needs.”

But why do municipalities need a PPP model at all? “We only suggest, we don’t force the states in a federal structure. It is the states’ prerogative to decide,” Kumar said.

However, this freedom to choose may be an illusion: local urban bodies are financially frail and depend on scores of Union government schemes to finance urban infrastructure work.

Nivedita Khandekar is an independent journalist based in Delhi. She writes on environmental and developmental issues. She tweets at @nivedita_him.

This report was possible due to the WaterAid India’s Media Fellowship ‘WASH Matters 2019’ on the theme of ‘Urban Water’.

World Wetlands Day: What Is a Wetland, and Why Does India Need so Many?

Wetlands are typically shallow so sunlight can penetrate the surface to facilitate subterranean photosynthesis, making these ecosystems one of the most biologically productive areas on the planet.

The bad news is that India’s cities have lost 25 ha of wetland for every one sq. km’s increase of built-up area in the last four decades.

The good news is that 10 more wetland sites around India have been added to the Ramsar Convention, rendering them sites of ‘national importance’.

Does this mean India gained in net or lost?

The country has over 757,000 wetlands with a total wetland area of 15.3 million ha, accounting for nearly 4.7% of the total geographical area of the country.

A wetland is an area of land that is saturated with water – either through the year or for varying periods of time during the year. Wetlands are typically shallow so sunlight can penetrate the surface to facilitate subterranean photosynthesis, making these ecosystems one of the most biologically productive areas on the planet.

India has 37 Ramsar sites now, covering an area of 1.07 million ha. After the announcement earlier this week, the Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar called the addition to the Ramsar Convention an acknowledgement of the government’s commitment to conserving and sustainably using the country’s important wetlands of the country.

The latest additions include Maharashtra’s first Ramsar site, the Nandur Madhmeshwar bird sanctuary; three more from Punjab (in Keshopur-Miani, Beas Conservation Reserve and Nangal); and six more from Uttar Pradesh (in Nawabganj, Parvati Agra, Saman, Samaspur, Sandi and Sarsai Nawar).

The Ramsar Convention

Wetlands provide a wide range of important ecosystem services, such as food, water, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control, microclimate regulation, landscape aesthetics and, of course, livelihood opportunities. They are in fact a major source of water and the principal place from which India’s cities receive their freshwater.

However, increasing urbanisation has significantly reduced the amount of area under wetlands. A rapid assessment undertaken by Wetlands International South Asia (WISA) indicated that nearly 8% of India’s wetlands area was likely to be situated within an urban sprawl. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana account for over half of all urban wetland area.

WISA’s most alarming finding from 22 cities was that between 1970 and 2014, cities have rapidly degraded wetlands, to the tune of 25 ha per sq. km of built-up area. The biggest offenders were the metropolitans of New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad, which treat wastelands as their private dumping grounds.

According to the study, Mumbai has destroyed 71% of its surrounding wetlands, followed by Ahmedabad, 57%; Bengaluru and Greater Bengaluru, 56%; Hyderabad, 55%; and Delhi-NCR, 38%.

Also read: Simple Road Maps Show India’s Cities Are Snaking Towards Ecological, Social Chaos

The 2011 edition of the National Wetlands Atlas of India classified India’s wetlands into 19 categories. Common ones include river, stream, reservoir, barrage, intertidal, mud-flat and natural lake; the more unique among them are lagoon, mangrove, coral, riverine and high-altitude lake wetlands.

Adding endangered wetlands to the Ramsar Convention is expected to help because it “mandates contracting parties to adopt National Wetland Policies, produce wetland inventories, conduct wetland monitoring and research, raise public awareness of wetlands and develop integrated management plans for wetlands sites” (source). It was signed on February 2, 1971; as of today, nearly five decades on, 171 countries have added 2,375 wetlands to the convention, covering 253.6 million ha.

Indeed, India isn’t alone in ceding wetlands to urban projects and uncontrolled urban expansion. A Global Wetland Outlook report published in September 2018 noted that the world had lost 87% of its wetlands since 1700:

“We lose wetlands three times faster than natural forests. Between 1970 and 2015, inland and marine/coastal wetlands both declined by approximately 35%, where data are available, three times the rate of forest loss. In contrast, human-made wetlands, largely rice paddy and reservoirs, almost doubled over this period, now forming 12% of wetlands. These increases have not compensated for natural wetland loss.”

Threatened wetlands

At the same time, the problem’s prevalence doesn’t mean India or any other country isn’t blameless. The Indian scenario is especially bad because wetlands and water bodies are often the first recipients of municipal solid waste. For example, data collected by the convention’s administration indicate that the 4,000-ha Deepor Beel near Guwahati is threatened by pollution due to pesticide and fertiliser runoff, infestation by water hyacinth and – alarmingly – a state government proposal to dig a sewage canal directly from the city into the wetland.

“Many Ramsar wetlands such as Deepor Beel, and Kolleru Lake in Andhra Pradesh, are doing very badly,” Neha Sinha, a conservation biologist with the Bombay Natural History Society, said. The new Ramsar site additions “should be an opportunity to revisit their problems. Most wetlands are not notified as wetlands by the government. The new Wetland Rules 2017 say only those that are notified as wetlands will be protected. There is a great need today to notify and identify more and more wetlands by the states.”

(Disclosure: Neha Sinha is also The Wire Science‘s contributing editor for environment.)

Cities Don’t Have to Copy Hipster Trends to Prosper – They Can Embrace What Makes Them Unique

Coventry will be the third UK City of Culture in 2021 – a title designed to “use culture as a catalyst for economic and social regeneration”.

London, New York, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong – these famous cities dominate the world economy and are home to millions of people, as well as internationally renown arts, culture and educational institutions. But they are hardly representative of the rest of the world’s cities. While 54% of the global population lives in cities, around half of those live in cities that have 500,000 inhabitants or fewer.

These “ordinary” cities can be overlooked by politicians, investors, researchers, and big businesses. But they are dynamic places with many layers of social, cultural and economic significance. After experiencing a period of post-industrial decline, many such cities are looking to change their fortunes, through urban regeneration programs.

But that doesn’t mean they have to follow the same path as other urban areas. In fact, my research into urban development has found that ordinary cities can avoid some of the ill-effects of regeneration, by embracing what makes them unique.

The creative city

At the turn of the century, city leaders became increasingly fixated on the idea of the “creative city”, championed by academics-turned-advisers including Richard Florida and Charles Landry. The idea was to encourage a “creative class” of talented workers to make their homes and businesses in cities, by creating urban spaces that are open, inclusive and diverse, as well as attractive and technologically advanced.

“Regeneration” became a buzzword associated with these types of strategies, which seek to repurpose seemingly disused or rundown spaces to support an economy led by creative and technological industries. The apparent success of creative city policies was seen in post-industrial centres such as Detroit, the US, following investments in cultural, artistic and musical urban renewal.

Also read: Without an Overhaul, Smart Cities Won’t Fulfil Urban Needs

Such policies swiftly became the go-to strategy for seemingly “ordinary” post-industrial cities around the world, even resulting in new rankings that pit cities against each other, based on criteria including entrepreneurship, urban leadership and “liveability”. Having plenty of former industrial spaces that can be adapted for new uses, and a desire to be noticed on the national or global stage encourages investment in urban regeneration from both public and private sources.

The downsides

Yet regeneration programmes inspired by the creative city agenda can cause problems. Property developers and foreign investors have recognised the economic potential of real estate in “creative” cities. This has led to rocketing land costs, and many low-income residents have felt the effects of being displaced from their homes.

What’s more, creative city policies can lead to similar development techniques being applied to dissimilar places. For example, accusations of “artwashing” are now common in cities across the world, as authorities or developers commission artists and cultural institutions to run creative projects in an area, to help it become more appealing to tourists and young people – sometimes at the expense of those who live there.

But “ordinary” cities can champion their individuality to avoid this fate. Take my home of Coventry, UK, for example, a post-industrial city looking to modernise. Located in the West Midlands, with a population of around 360,000, Coventry will be the third UK City of Culture in 2021 – a title designed to “use culture as a catalyst for economic and social regeneration”.

During my PhD fieldwork there, I’ve investigated how Coventry has drawn on its rich history and culture to resist generic creative city policies. Though the residents I spoke to have not always felt included in regeneration efforts, there is still much to be learned from the city’s approach to urban renewal.

Sent to Coventry

Coventry’s City of Culture bid sought to show how the regeneration programme would be local, personal and inclusive of the city’s diversity. And in some ways, it has been successful. As the home of bands including The Specials and The Selecter, Coventry was a launchpad for the anti-racist, two-tone music scene in the 1980s. The 2Tone taxi project celebrates the ska scene, as well as Coventry’s role in manufacturing London’s iconic black cabs; while touring the city in a taxi, passengers can find out more about the people and places of Coventry, as well as adding their own suggestions for the itinerary.

Also read: What the Last Five Years of Urban Policies Reveal About Our Cities

Another inclusive project which has been part of the lead up to City of Culture 2021 is the Foleshill Mile Map, co-created with local communities to pinpoint the multicultural offerings in one of Coventry’s neighbourhoods. Not only does this champion local input through collaborative working, but it also reflects Coventry’s identity as one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the UK.

Yet as more cities seek to emphasise their cultural assets, city leaders and policymakers must be aware of the negative impacts that can arise if local residents are not central to the decision-making process. For example, in Lisbon, Portugal, the arrival of the Time Out Market and LX Factory creative village have increased tourism, leading to anti-gentrification protests and even laws being enforced to avoid displacing long-term residents, as rents continue to rise. This highlights the need to consider local contexts and communities before implementing copy cat creative policies.

As witnesses of vast social and cultural change over the past century, Coventrians can offer a new outlook on an often-overlooked city, and prove that being “sent to Coventry” need not be a punishment. Culture-led regeneration processes, such as the UK City of Culture title, can offer opportunities to attract investment and increase civic pride among citizens. And Coventry shows how other “ordinary” cities can approach urban renewal, with local stories and communities at the heart of the process. But authorities and leaders must be careful to maintain this priority throughout the journey – or risk repeating the same mistakes.

Emily Hopkins is a PhD Researcher at Royal Holloway

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Is AIIMS the Latest Victim of Commercialisation of Public Property?

Protesting doctors and administrative staff highlight that the decision to commercialise AIIMS campuses would worsen their space and public infrastructure shortages and lead to the loss of urban ecology and heritage.

On January 17 2017, an MoU was signed between V. Srinivas, the deputy director of AIIMS, and the NBCC at an event called the “signing ceremony”. The then director of AIIMS, professor M.C. Misra, invited the AIIMS community to this event. Also present were Venkaiah Naidu (then Union urban development minister) and Shri J.P. Nadda, the Union health minister.

But some staff members of AIIMS decided to mark their protest at this event. The previous day, the Resident Doctors Association of AIIMS had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying they would observe this event as a “black day”.

Why did the doctors of AIIMS to protest? And why should it matter to the people of Delhi?

For those who have been closely following the two cases in the Delhi high court on East Kidwai Nagar (EKN) and the seven government housing colonies, “redevelopment” would suffice as the one-word answer to the aforementioned questions. This word has come to signify the worst of environmental and urban planning and governance and public loot by government agencies.

It strikes fear and anger in the hearts of citizens who deal with the air, water, housing and traffic crises in Delhi on a daily basis. The projects involve the commercialisation and privatisation of high-value public lands, the loss of urban ecology and heritage and an increased burden on public infrastructures like roads and groundwater.

Project documents such as the MoU, the cabinet papers and approval letters reveal the extent of collusion between NBCC – the project proponent of EKN – and 7 GPRA and Central government agencies, expert bodies, consultants and senior MPs in pushing through these projects. Both projects, costing over Rs 37,000 crore, are now stuck in courts.

Also Read: India’s Urban Redevelopment Is in the Hands of One Monopolistic Company

Redevelopment at AIIMS

The proposed “redevelopment” of AIIMS purportedly aims at the “augmentation of AIIMS Housing pool”. It involves two parcels of land belonging to the institute: 28.3 acres in West Ansari Nagar and 49.4 acres in Ayur Vigyan Nagar. These are residential colonies of AIIMS containing 1,444 single or two-storeyed houses of type I to type IV.

The MoU for the project states that these and other structures in the sites such as garages, Dharamshalas, schools and temples are to be demolished to make way for 4,505 houses of type II to VI and “other infrastructure”. Once constructed Ayur Vigyan Nagar next to Ansal Plaza and opposite Uday Park will have towers of 67 metres and West Ansari Nagar – opposite AIIMS and adjoining Safdarjung Hospital – will get structures 39 metres high. In comparison, the East Kidwai Nagar complex, which is already partially constructed, has towers 46 metres high.

But riding on this genuine need to increase housing for the AIIMS staff is the more contentious objective of “optimum utilisation of land, a scarce resource”. As per official documents, the built-up area (BAU) in West Ansari Nagar is proposed to increase from 28,550 sq. m to 3,31,371 sq. m and, in Ayur Vigyan Nagar, it will go up from 72,766 sq. m to 5,99,810 sq. m.

NBCC’s plan for East Kidwai Nagar. Credit: NBCC website

In redevelopment vocabulary, optimisation of land is synonymous with the monetisation of public assets through clause 3.3.2 (x) of the MPD 2021. This clause allows redevelopment projects to commercialise upto 10% of the permissible floor are ratio (FAR). NBCC, the project proponent, eyes the construction and sale of high rise towers on AIIMS land by maximising the FAR norms and the commercialisation clause allowed by the Delhi Masterplan.

Autonomous decision?

The AIIMS expenditure finance committee gave an in-principle approval in October 2015 to increase residential housing at AIIMS through this form of “self-financing”. The cabinet secretariat approved it on October 13, 2016. But strangely, this decision undid earlier decisions of the institute.

Also Read: Is There a Method to Delhi’s Re-Developmental Madness?

Clause 1.6 of the MoU between AIIMS and NBCC states “CPWD would be asked to stop tendering work of 352 housing of Type IV to Type VI at Ayur Vigyan Nagar”. NBCC offered to reimburse the expenditure incurred by AIIMS towards the cost of engaging an architect as well as the costs borne by CPWD to wrap up the work it had initiated and leave the site on an “as is where is” basis.

If indeed the decision to pursue the project in this form and shape was taken independently by the highest officials of the Institute, then the question that begs asking is why this decision is so unfavourable to AIIMS. The project involves large-scale commercialisation.

As per NBCC’s own admission at least 1,17,756 sq. metres of high-value commercial apartments are proposed to be built. 63% of this to come up at Ayur Vigyan Nagar. In addition 37, 530.908 sq. meters will be built as a “transit hostel” in place of the existing modest 3784 sq. metres of Dharamshala in West Ansari Nagar.

The proceeds from the sale of the commercial components are meant to cover the cost of the housing construction for AIIMS. In addition, it will also service the NBCC’s costs in the form of 12% return on its investment of Rs 200 crores, 8% project management costs and 1% marketing expenses for its role as a sale agent.

The remainder would go to the Consolidated Fund of India as revenue. Thus, for the project proponent and the central government, AIIMS redevelopment is a revenue generator.

At its end of the bargain, AIIMS may no doubt have the housing it presently needs, but it would lose the opportunity to use the available land for its future needs, the commercial exploitation of the newly created space could lead to congestion, water scarcity and other problems and soon this premier medical institute servicing large populations may have the move out of this area altogether.

NBCC’s plans for 7 GPRA. Credit: NBCC website

Approval authorities misled

In January 2019, the environment ministry’s expert appraisal committee (EAC) recommended the environment clearance for both Ayur Vigyan Nagar and West Ansari Nagar projects. These projects were approved by the Central ministry only because the Delhi State Environment Impact Assessment (SEIAA) authority’s term had expired in April 2018. Since then neither the Centre nor the GNCTD has pushed for its reconstitution.

Also Read: East Kidwai Nagar Should Serve as a Warning, Not Model, for Delhi’s Redevelopment

These projects have been approved based on incomplete assessments, “copy-paste” EIA reports and assurances of future approvals for critical resources such as water. The EIA reports of both the sites carry an identical description of the study area and population estimates listed in Table 3.21.

They state that West Ansari Nagar is located in “Ayur Vigyan Nagar Tehsil –Hauz Khas, of South Delhi District”, which is actually the location for the Ayur Vigyan Nagar project. A wrong description of the study area is not just a gross legal violation but would also lead to an improper assessment of impacts. As per law, such false and misleading data can make projects liable for rejection, and clearances, if granted, could be recalled.

As in the case of 7GPRA, there is also a major question regarding the legality of these approvals, which treat the AIIMS housing project as two separate ones for the purpose of environmental approvals showing reduced impacts and consider them as one to maximise the commercialisation clause of the MPD. These projects should have been treated as one integrated project with a combined EIA as is required by the Office Memorandum dated No. J-11013/41/2006-IA.II (I) dated 24 December 2010.

As per the information available on the DUAC website, in September 2018, the Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC) rejected approval to the Ayur Vigyan project on grounds of the loss of tree cover in these colonies. The application submitted to the DUAC mentions only 1,687 trees in this colony out of which 700 would need to be cut.

However, the tree numbers disclosed in the applications for environment approval give different figures. It says that the total trees in question are 325 out of which 217 are to be cut and 108 to be translocated. These contradictory numbers also appear to a major underestimation. The Delhi forest department has not carried out a mandatory tree census for at least four years, and the public data on the department’s website is incomplete.

It would be a gross injustice to take the NBCC’s numbers of tree cover in these colonies at face value. Both West Ansari Nagar and Ayur Vigyan Nagar are very green residential areas with well laid internal roads lined by shade-giving and flowering trees, large playgrounds and parks that provide open space for community interactions of children, women and the aged.

Also Read: Despite Violations, Delhi’s Redevelopment Projects March On

Flowerbeds and well-tended kitchen gardens with fruit trees surround many houses. Both these green areas provide much needed ecological services not only to the residents but also to those living and working in nearby congested areas like South Extension and Sadiq Nagar.

The DUAC has also asked for details related to the overall traffic management around the site. These are missing in the project EIA documents. The traffic burden is one of the major questions in the East Kidwai Nagar and the 7 GPRA citizen’s protests and court cases. This issue has a very limited reference in the EIA reports of the AIIMS projects based on which environment clearances have been granted.

East Kidwai Nagar concept art. Credit: Facebook/Redevelopment of East Kidwai Nagar

The EIA report for West Ansari Nagar calls the site “a highly traffic intensive area because three National Highways; NH- 24, NH-2, NH-8 are located in 6 km range and more than 11 roads.” But the environment clearances granted to both the projects in February 2019 state that “Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) shall be carried out engaging services of an organisation”, establishing that these approvals have been granted without this study or any management measures being in place.

Dissent against commercialisation

A note by the institute states that the decision to go with this proposal was “firmed up after wide consultations and deliberations by a broad-based committee of faculty whereafter consensus was arrived (at) in a meeting chaired by the director, AIIMS in the presence of heads of departments, faculty association, the officers union, the nursing union and the karmachari union.”

However, this claim by the institute flies in the face of open dissent and protests by doctors and administrative staff. Their concern has been that this decision to commercialise AIIMS campuses would worsen their space and infrastructure shortages rather than solve them.

The AIIMS OPD, for example, is built to cater to less than 2,500 patients per day but in reality, it attends to over 30,000 patients every day. The roads surrounding AIIMS are already heavily congested with traffic.

The institute issued show cause notices to these doctors who have questioned this decision of the administration and there are reported threats of termination of their jobs. The doctors have continued their efforts to bring the attention of parliamentarians to this major issue of turning AIIMS land into commercial establishments.

Also Read: In the Shadow of Delhi’s Redevelopment

They have suggested alternatives such as using government budgets to build staff housing rather than this form of “self-financing”, providing housing at East Kidwai Nagar as well as easing the pressure on AIIMS land by relocating other administrative bodies such as Indian Council of Medical Research and National Board of Examination from the campus.

These solutions are proposed with the aim of protecting the assets of AIIMS so that it may continue to provide public health and medical facilities to the poorest patients and conduct state of the art medical research that benefits the nation. These letters have gone unanswered.

Urban collapse

The MPD clauses that permit monetisation and privatisation of public lands is socially and ecologically indefensible. The AIIMS redevelopment is the latest in the line of projects that grab the public lands of Delhi. These resources are important for the public purposes they serve today and in the future such as housing, accessibility, ecology and heritage. But the Centre seems bent on approving these projects one by one.

Table 1: Changes in the built-up area

Site	Existing (in sq meters)	Proposed (in sq meters)
West Ansari Nagar	28,550	3,31,371
Ayur Vigyan Nagar	72,766	5,99,810
Total	1,01,316	9,31,181

Table 2: Information in the Environment Approvals for AIIMS Housing Redevelopment Ayur Vigyan Nagar and West Ansari Nagar sites

EC details	Ayur Vigyan Nagar	West Ansari Nagar
Date of EC	Feb 7 2019	Feb 7 2019
Date of proposal for EC	Nov 15 2018	Oct 18 2018
TOR issued on	June 6 2017	June 6 2017
EIA done by	Aplinka Solutions	Aplinka Solutions
EAC meetings to discuss the proposals	Nov 2018 and Jan 2019 (36th and 37th meetings)	Nov 2018 and Jan 2019 (36th and 37th meetings)
Plot Area	1,99,914 sq. m	1,13, 433 sq. m
Proposed BAU	5,99,810 sq. m	3,31,371 sq. m
Type of construction to be done	Type 2,3,4 Service apts Shopping and local amenities etc	Type 4,5,6 Service apts Dharamshala etc
Ht of buildings	67m	39.4 m
Car parking	6367 ECS	4375 ECS
Trees affected	217 to be cut, 108 to be translocated	2 to be cut, 69 to be translocated
TOTAL COST OF PROJECT	2631 Crore	1148 Crore
Water requirement (construction phase)	45 KLD	45 KLD
Water (ops phase)	Total: 2166 KLD 1120 DJB 1046 recycled	Total:917 KLD 473 NDMC 444 recycled
Wastewater	1295 KLD STP of 1100/350/50 will be used Treated water: 1046 will be used for flushing (399 KLD) and horticulture (647 KLD)	546 KLD STP of 650 will be used Treated water: 444 will be used for flushing (156), horticulture (263), HVAC cooling (15) and filter backwash (10)

Manju Menon and Kanchi Kohli are with the Centre for Policy Research.