Anagha Speaks

The most damage happening to Pune's Hill Tops and Hill Slopes is due to the BDP Reservation that came into being as a brainchild of some activists posing as Urban Planners. The 4% development rule in the core city of Pune has also ensured that Hill Tops and Hill slopes have been retained, but the requirement of land acquisition forced by the BDP Reservation actually caused maximum damage to the city's hills on its fringe. Have you seen citizens get divided over an issue of a hilltop or a hill slope in the core city of Pune? No. The reason why citizens and political parties are so divided over the issue is because the BDP reservation has made them unnecessarily take two extreme positions when it comes to hills in Pune. These both warring sides have forgotten that Urban Planning is often about compromised allocation of land resources to meet the demands of various functions in a city. And by compromise I don't mean that we should compromise giving up Open Lands, Riverfr

Every year, year on year, Indian cities and villages and the roads connecting them become hell holes - potholed to such an extent that it is downright dangerous to traverse these. Fatal and non fatal Road accidents, due to pot holes abound, but very rarely is the condition of the road blamed for causing accidents. Much attention is given to over-speeding and non-wearing of helmets as causes of accidents, but very rarely do we say that "if only roads were designed and built better, we would have many of our young population alive"! Its important to understand that the degradation of roads is because of a multiplier effect of various reasons. Roads rarely get damaged due to use (or overuse) only. Overuse along with presence of water, leads to rapid degradation of the road surface. So, a road that's fine over an entire year, rapidly disintegrates with the first showers of rain. So water has a big and important role to play in degrading road surface, particularly when roa

Failure of a building ’s structure leads to collapse. What are the various reasons for a building’s structure to collapse? The most simple reason is that the load on the building is her than the one its designed for, leading to one or more building elements to buckle/crush/bend. This triggers a chain reaction, causing undue stress on the remaining elements, causing failure and thereby collapse.  Similarly, a failure in a building that is under construction can also be caused due to incorrect scaffolding that supports the structure till the concrete gains adequate strength to stand on it own. Over the years, we have seen multiple such failures, the recent one at Pride Park Xpress site at Balewadi being one of the latter kind. Immediately post such a failure, there is, of course, a knee jerk reaction from everybody involved leading to arrests of professionals, while Developers evade this successfully. The primary stakeholders in a real estate are the Developer (project pr

  It has been 10 years since the first EIA notification of 2006 was published by Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF), at that time. This Notification was critical to the Real estate industry as it categorically laid down the requirements of Environmental Clearance for any construction more than 20,000 sq m. The Environmental Clearance (EC) requirement was actually called as the Prior EC, which was to be applied for and granted prior to a project getting constructed on site. Since then, the EC and its process took some time getting in to the construction process, which was already fraught with Building Sanctions from the local authority. However, it can be said that by 2008-2009, most of the medium to big projects started adhering to the requirements of environmental scrutiny. The requirements of a Prior EC created its own problems and the State and the Centre vacillated regarding the interpretation of the 2006 Notification. As a result, we find, particularly in Maharas

On 25 June 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the 14 Smart Proposals/Projects for Pune. This inauguration is gestural and all the first round of Smart Cities will begin the execution phase of their respective Smart Solutions/Projects in their respective areas. As per the Smart Cities Proposal submitted by the Pune Municipal Corporation under the Smart Cities Mission, the single most issue that Pune's citizens had highlighted was the issue of Transport & Mobility. From a city of cyclists, Pune has come a long way to become a City that's stuck in a Traffic Jam. Mobility, one of the most primary requirements of economic activity is seriously affected in the city. Mobility is directly linked to employment opportunities and economic growth. While mobility is linked to pollution, congestion etc, most people do not realise that its impact on economic opportunities is far far greater than the impact on environment like air quality. The second most important issue high

It is very rare that we,in India, hear that the monsoon has been good for successive 5-6 years. With every good monsoon, there are at least 2 failed monsoons in between. Every other year, the Indian economy reels and awaits the rains, all of us looking upwards towards the skies, praying that the heavens will open up, this year. Despite doing this year on year, we in India have not at all given a serious thought to making ourselves water efficient. Be it rural water management or urban, we face a serious drought and when the rains come, we forget to plan for water in the next year. Nitinji Gadkari has recently said that “we are a rich country full of poor people”, which is definitely true of nation’s water resources. I have undertaken the task of putting on paper the various means and methods by way of which we can increase water availability in our cities today. Most of these means and methods are already out there, practiced by hundreds of people, installed in buildings, but

The summer is upon us and the low water availability is causing the arguments for and against the use of water come to the fore. These are the undercurrents, so to speak, even when water is available, but these are pushed further underground then, as water is available and rise to the ground when it's not. A failed monsoon last year is one of the primary reasons for these arguments to surface above the ground. However, a quick glance on the water availability figures and it tells us that India will consistently face a cycle of either failed monsoons or failed capacity of water resources, each decreasing the per capita water availability in the coming future. The global annual average of water availability is 6000 litres per person, while it was 3000 litres a decade ago in India and it has slipped to 1200 litres per person. The reason for writing this article, however, is to bring to the front  valid and and non valid arguments of water use. Particularly, if we are going to see

When the Model Building Bye-Laws 2016 were published this week, there was a certain resistance amongst us Building professionals. The reason was that there is a certain skepticism for any rules that come from the way top. We architects, like to deal only with local level regulation, something that gets our Plans sanctioned as fast as possible from the Municipal body. Also, there seemed to be no involvement of Indian Institute of Architects, a apex body that represents all Architects of this country (at least not mentioned in the document itself). But, after the first reading of the document, I was pleasantly surprised! First of all, I really appreciated that the basic objective outlined in the document was to bridge the gap - where building bye laws to do not exist, this Document will hopefully give guidance in formulating local bye laws. Secondly, where local bye laws and enforcing mechanisms do exist, these are guidelines to streamline the timelines and the overall mechanisms, p

Maharashtra state has been the forerunner in many aspects. From social reform and women's education to Industrialisation and Urbanization, Maharashtra has led India's growth. While there was a nationwide interest in The Union Budget, I wonder why Maharashtra's Budget does not get discussed and debated and tweeted and  whatsapped as much! After all, the successes, the spendings and the fiscal policy of the State of Maharashtra creates a significant impact on India's success & fiscal health. The overall outlay of the budget allocation of Maharashra is about 12% of that of India's, which is significant for one state. In fact, the total outlay of Maharashra this year exceeds the total outlay for India in the 1990s. Further, the total allocation for the Agricultural & allied sector in Maharashtra is about 25000 crores, while in the Union Budget it is about 36000 crores. So the approach of the Central Government to boost the agricultural and allied sector s

The Township dream shown by the Government and the Developers is slowly turning into reality! This supposed panacea of  quality housing, good infrastructure and the benefits of an exclusive mini city to township residents, is lined with a grey and thorny lining. Why? Well, for one, the Government has created and also implemented the Special Township Policy, but there are no clear guidelines indicating how these Townships will be managed? Will they be managed by an Urban Local Body? Most probably, but there are no guidelines on this yet. Will they be managed privately? Well, let's hope not! As per the Special Township Policy, the government has indicated that a Township Management Authority (TMA) will manage the township and till such time that the TMA comes into existence, the Developer of the Township will be solely responsible to managing all the common assets. Of course, at a cost! No denying that fact and in fact, why should anything be free! But what is essentially happenin

Many years ago, I had read an article in a book called Readings on Planning Theory by Scott Campbell and Susan Fainstein (https://books.google.co.in/books?id=t3-5QgAACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions), which made an argument that ad hoc, incremental planning is a valid "planning theory", as this is exactly what governments end up doing, even after they have spent extraordinary amounts of time, money and efforts on preparing master or comprehensive development plans. The article stated that ad hocism (if that is even a word?) is a part and parcel of government working! Well, this is certainly true of Maharashtra Urban Development Department. I just happened to read the Government Regulation (GR) TPS-1815/49/15/13 dated 11 June 2015. which has formally and procedurally inserted 'Zone Change' as a very routine process that land owners/developers can apply to change the designated Zone allocated to the land in the Master Plan (Regional Plan). The whole basis of

This analysis of the Proposed DCR is coming a bit late. The frenzy of voices for and against the DP and the DCR have died down. Nevertheless, as a loyalty gesture to my blog followers (:-), here is a quick Analysis of the DCR that I have presented in various fora: The Proposed DCR are radically different from their predecessor and I am glad of that. In the government, very rarely do we see officers taking a radical approach and this is surely a good sign. The document itself is actually quite well organized, short and to the point, with many issues given clarity, instead of just leaving decisions to the discretion of the Municipal Commissioner. Personally, I liked the shortness and crispness of it. Secondly, a very serious attempt has been made to simplify the FSI equations. This will make the life of architects better (who want to seriously practice & build good buildings), but this will also ensure that the right revenue dues are brought in by the Local municipal government.