Anagha Speaks

महाराष्ट्र बजेट २०१७ मध्ये मूलभूत किंवा पायाभूत सुविधा विकसित करण्यासाठी बऱ्याच मोठ्या प्रमाणात तरतूद केलेली आहे. महाराष्ट्र राज्य भारतातील सर्वाधिक शहरी विकास असलेले राज्य आहे आणि त्यामुळे ग्रामीण व शेती बरोबरच शहरी सुविधा किंवा अर्बन इन्फ्रास्ट्रक्चर साठी कशी तरतूद होईल ह्या वर लक्ष केंद्रित होते. मुंबई सारखी आर्थिक राजधानी असलेला व मोठा शहरी पट्टा असलेल्या महाराष्ट्राने, शहरीकरण व त्या मधून उत्पन्न होणाऱ्या आर्थिक विकासाला पुरेसे महत्व दिलेले दिसते. श्री. मुनगंटीवार ह्यांनी रस्ते विकसन व पुनर्बांधणी ह्यावर लक्ष केंद्रित केले आणि रु. ७००० कोटींची तरतूद केली आहे. रस्त्यांच्या विकसनातून संपूर्ण महाराष्ट्र जोडला जाईल आणि त्यामधून आर्थिक विकास होईल हे सूत्र ह्या बजेट मध्ये वापरलेले आहे. गेल्या २ वर्षात जवळ जवळ १०००० कि.मी रस्ते विकसित केले त्याच वेगाने पुढील २ वर्षे रस्ते विकसित होतील असा अंदाज आहे.  तसेच वाढीव रु. ३५ कोटींची तरतूद रस्त्यांवरील होणारे अपघात टाळण्यासाठी लागणाऱ्या यंत्रणेसाठी केलेली आहे. मुंबई - नागपूर हायवे जसा महाराष्ट्राला जोडू पाहतो आहे, त्याच तत्वाच्या आ...

The Maharashtra Budget for 2017-18 has a significant allocation for basic infrastructure development, to cover Energy, Transport & Urban services like Water supply, Sanitation etc. Being a very urbanized state, the focus on road connectivity by developing good road network is highlighted by the fact that 7000 cr is allocated for Road development & Improvement. In next two years 10000 km of roads is expected to be completed. Plus an additional 35 crore if allocated for gadgets and equipment that will reduce road accidents. Notable amongst the infrastructure projects in the Nagpur-Mumbai expressway. This is an important project to connect Maharashtra’s hinterland with Mumbai-Pune region. This will bring prosperity to areas that are affected by drought. The allocation for Airports  and Metro projects (710 crore allocation) is made in the Budget. This is an important aspect for a state that has maximum urbanization in the country and has a significant contribution to its rev...

Much has already been said about #PuneMetro. In fact, so much has been said and debated upon that Pune citizens are quite frankly tired of all naysayers & doubting Harry's and carry a hope now that the #PuneMetro will actually see the light of day...and possibly in record time! We see Dr Brijesh Dixit and his team at #MahaMetro working full steam ahead. The required sanctions are in, most of the geo-technical survey is done and the good news is that Pune has a solid bedrock which will make foundations fast & easy to construct. So most of the common people are left wondering, what has happened now that was not there 10 years ago, when the Metro should have actually arrived in Pune? My opinion on this is as follows: Any infrastructure project is proposed by the government. It is the responsibility of the government to prepare all the reports/ studies etc that credibly show that such a project is necessary and the government has the right intentions and the technical ba...

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 con...

  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 Mah...

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...