Chachu's Column #42: Of Lavasa and Future Cities

[Wishing all readers a very happy new year.]

In the IT industry, when companies want to gather information about latest technological developments free of cost, the most convenient option for them is to send Request for Proposal (RFP) to the interested parties. When responses are obtained, the companies ponder over the material and formulate the solutions and the next steps. The Lavasa Future Cities contest (http://www.lavasafuturecities.indiatimes.com/) was on similar lines where the Lavasa Corporation in association with Times of India invited opinions to certain important questions pertaining to the way cities in India are governed.

Picture taken from http://www.lavasa.com

Now Lavasa is a newly build hill city and as per the website (http://www.lavasa.com), “Lavasa is thought and grandeur in symphony. It's a place where futuristic human technology and pristine nature play hide & seek”. Lavasa is located within 80 minutes from Pune (approximately 50 km) and 3 hours from Mumbai (approx 180 km). Set over seven hills, this city spread over 100 sq km is all set to have the first hill ready by 2010. However, dig a bit deeper and there are allegations of how farmers were forced to surrender their farmlands at throwaway prices to build the tourist hotspot and how the promoters were favoured by granting licenses and approvals in a jiffy (see web reference [4]).

Keeping the controversies aside, the future cities contest organized by Lavasa Corporation in association with Times of India was directed towards citizens of 7 cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore) where each participant had to answer four questions. The answers had to be city specific whereby the problems of that particular city could be addressed.

The first question was “1. How can the transportation system in your city be made more efficient?” I thought Delhi’s issues were elementary and the basic tenets of good transportation system were utterly missing. The simplest example was the leftmost lane segregated by the yellow line to the left of which Public Buses needed to ply. However, given the mix of slow moving vehicles, wrongly parked vehicles and encroachments, it was impossible to do so. Thus, my suggestions for the question were as follows:

1. Clear all pavements from impediments for free/safe movements. These include rectifying poorly designed zebra crossings.
2. Modern & reflective lane markings across all roads which control movement and parking of vehicles on roads (e.g. as in UK).
3. Parking on pavements/major roads should be banned. Huge increase in parking costs as well as parallel thrust in multi-level parking.
4. Major increase in fuel costs as well as car registration charges. These should be put back into Metro/DTC. Major fleet increase for A/c and modern buses.
5. Dedicated lanes for buses without interference from poorly parked vehicles and slow moving rickshaws/cycles.
6. Developing shopping and entertainment zones near major metro stations.
7. Have subsidized electric powered vehicles in colonies that connect to nearest metro/bus stops.
8. Entry tax for non-commercial vehicle at Delhi borders.
9. Strict monitoring of overloaded/poorly maintained vehicles.

Picture taken from http://www.lavasa.com

 

The second question pertained to “2. How can your city be governed better?” I strongly felt Delhi was not governed at all. There was complete ad-hocism where a plethora of bodies tried to run the city as per their whims and as per the per capita income of those living in a particular area. So, you had the Lutyens Zone where the roads were clean, footpaths were well made and round-about had proper signage. In contrast, some of the outer areas were completely ignored with poor roads, no footpaths and complete apathy. Given this, my response was simple. This city needed an interface with the government machinery whereby its citizens could raise their concerns, concerns which were tracked/ escalated/solved and if necessary - reopened. This should have interface via physical presence (citizen kiosks across Delhi), phone (backend manned by call center) and online (internet). Complaint should have a Ref. #  and its SLA should be based on nature/seriousness of complaint. With single window to citizens, the backend should link public services i.e. MCD, DJB, Police, Hospitals, Ministry, etc.. The Forum should permit issues, complaints, feedbacks, policy suggestions, etc.” One forum where complaints can be lodged in Delhi is the Public Grievance Commission (http://www.delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/pgc1/Public+Grievances+Commission/Home/Public+Grievances/Lodge+Complain). This site openly tells that one should approach it only when all other doors have been closed. And I could not see many doors (or many effective and efficient doors). As a side note, our company too has this helpdesk mechanism all service departments with automatic escalation mechanism. Given this, my observation is that no one likes his/her name being highlighted to the supervisors. The consequence of this is that people have typically become more responsive and efficient in resolving complaints.

Picture taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavasa

The third question in the contest was “3. How can technology be used in your city to make your life better?“. To this, I shared some comments but Lavasa website had some interesting points to make.

1. Lavasa's infrastructure is supported by new-age systems and processes. The hill city enjoys uninterrupted power and energy.
2. Lavasa also plans to build facilities to harness wind and solar power, apart from miniature hydro dams for additional electrical supply to ensure self-sufficiency.
3. Lavasa is also the first Indian city to be fully-mapped on GIS, coupled with an optic fibre network - thus conforming to cutting-edge telecommunication standards.
4. Lavasa also has a Water Supply System which is backed by water supplied from the lake to a Water Treatment Plant that meets current international health standards. This ultra-modern Water Treatment Plant will cater to the need of potable water within the town. The Water Supply System, too, meets European Health Standards as far as quality and purity of water is concerned.
5. Lavasa also has a state-of-the-art optic fibre cable network and telecom infrastructure that'll promote e-governance initiatives to fulfill the needs of everyone at Lavasa. The e-governance initiatives are planned using advanced technologies and trends, which include utility services, facility management, security enablement, on-demand services, tele-medicine, home entertainment, traffic management, online communities, voice and video services, and a lot more. A digital elevation model has also been developed, which allows for 3D visualisation and analysis.
6. Minimizing soil erosion and facilitating ground water recharge by setting up a plantation of fast-growing shrubs, and 20000 running meters of continuous contour trenches (CCT), covering 33 hectares.
7. Implementing hydro seeding (which has been applied successfully for the first time in India) has resulted in a 44% germination rate over 12000 square meters of area.

Picture taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavasa

 

The last question of the contest was “4. How can you improve the cleanliness and the look of your city?”

Again I think the city has many facades: beautiful, historic, dirty and at times, even ugly. The city had been encroached by the immigrants and the residents alike. It was a matter of convenience and connivance. And different civic bodies took different view of the situation differently. For Delhi to be beautiful, again some basic steps had to be taken:

1. Removing all encroachments from footpaths (e.g. Hawkers, Tea shops, goods, shop signs, etc.)
2. Having effective Lane marking system and proper parking policy to avoid chaotic traffic movements.
3. Complete ban on use of polythene bags.
4. Decentralized waste management systems where recycled waste is consumed at colony levels. The left over waste is charged as per the waste generated.
5. Making rain harvesting mandatory.
6. Capturing grey water generated across localities and using it to increase green cover.
7. Controlling the level of suspended particle, including dust and soil by allocating small tracts of public land for general maintenance by corporates in return of adv. rights.
8. Develop low cost and ultra cost housing on mass scale to avoid slums.
9. Use GPS to monitor every inch of public land to ensure proper usage.

 Lavasa being a new and a private city was most likely to face less of such a problem. Thus, the hawkers and slums could be a distant possibility. And in all probability none of the problems mentioned above would be faced by it. But then, the key question would be at what cost? Would it mean that all those people including the maid servants, drivers, dhobis, the milk wallahs and the news paper wallahs would disappear. And if not, would such spanking cities catering to the needs of the rich and the ultra rich find affordable homes for the lowest strata in our society?

 Chachu, 

1^st January, 2010

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Edited Comments on Chachu's Column Chachu's Column #41: From Chachu’s Unwritten Diaries

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1. Web Logs (a.k.a. Blogs) are the new age diaries.  For many like me, the charm of writing the diary is double if there are hoards of readers for it.  The blogs does just that. Thanks for the article. (Courtesy Gautam G)

 2. I like your new mantra for the new year...to reduce your TPS (thoughts per minute).... (Courtesy Karuna)

  

Web Resources

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[1] http://www.lavasa.com         

[2] http://www.lavasafuturecities.indiatimes.com/

[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavasa

 

Also see some not so pleasant information

[4] http://purefriendship.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/08/know-our-political-leaders-courtesy-pil-on-sharad.htm

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