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

Previous Chachu's Columns

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http://chachus-blog.blogspot.com        

 

Comments/feedback

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Send your Comments/feedback to chachu321@yahoo.com or Kasera.sumit@gmail.com 

 

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We get what we deserve

Yesterday I saw a dilapidated building that was about to fall down. The roof tilted at an angle leaning on its broken pillars. I wondered how such dangerous structures were not brought down gracefully. And today, I saw a man boldly walking over the top of its roof. Probably it was with some purpose, or probably a flaunt. But it was plain risky.

Another point that deserves merit is how a building was brought down by a group of labours near our office. First the walls were broken. What remained was rectangular beams. Painstakingly, over a month, the beams were broken by a group of labours. There was no help from science for them. Just hammer and chisels. It was in the millenium city. But the techniques were primitive and probably cheapest and riskiest.

In yet another shocking incident, an old state transport bus fell in a canal purported after a broken axle. The bus had run 1.1 million kilometers and was in a poor state. And with the broken axle broke the hopes of 40 parents whose children perished in the accident.

What I conclude from these three incidents is we get what we deserve. Either by choice as the hero walking on the leaning building or by force as the labours breaking old buildings, or by destiny as those unfortunately children in the bus, our safety is to an extent in our own hands. The more we protect, the safer we are. Otherwise, we only get what we deserve.

Speak, shout, demand.

Demand a safer nation...

chachu

Of Bore wells, safety and tamasha..

27-Mar-2008

Yesterday, throughout the day, various news channels kept highlighting the plight of a two and a half year girl Vandana who was stuck in a borewell about 45 feet deep. Apparently, she was playing near an unprotected borewell when she fell and got stuck. As soon as the news leaked out, the reporters thronged the accident site and kept broadcasting the news whole day. It took the army men about 27 hours to get her out.

Now, you see, I and you don’t know who Vandana is. And honestly speaking, we also do not want to know who she is. So why the news channels should keep narrating the life history of a girl stuck in distress for a day or two. Just because she is on verge of life and death, she becomes an ideal candidate to become a "breaking news".

But what about the ordinary people who move around? Move around in cars and motor bikes? Are there any less dangers lurking around? Again yesterday itself, I saw at least three trucks without any tail lights. In the dimly lit city roads, they are moving carriers of death. But there is no reporter breaking its head over it.

There are even more interesting people who drive half-blind truck (at times with the right headlight broken giving oncoming traffic an impression of a two wheeler instead of a four-wheeler). And in the extreme cases, fully blind trucks that too on wrong side wreck havoc on roads.

Even off the road, there are numerous cases where poorly fitted high-tension wires, open manholes, weak fire-safety measures, and many other cases cause damage to life and property.

The dangers are everywhere. Just that the feeble and weak administration either don’t see the problem or don’t want to fix the problem. Breaking the news over a girl stuck in a hole does not solve the problem - Nor writing articles on virtual Internet. Then what?


skasera


ALSO SEE

Two-year-old rescued from borewell after 27 hrs
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Two-year-old_rescued_from_borewell_after_27_hrs/articleshow/2902426.cms

Labourer mowed down at Delhi airport site
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Man_mowed_down_at_Delhi_airport_site/articleshow/2904965.cms

Chachu's Column #33: The broken bonnet

Just few days back, I was on my way to my office. Suddenly, the sedan in front of me applied its brake and before I knew what had happened, there was a loud sound - bang. My last memory of that accident was my car's inability to stop. While I tried to figure out what went wrong, the driver in front came charging out. To my surprise, instead of beating me up (which has become a regular feature on Delhi streets) he charged a lady that was leisurely crossing the street. The whole story was now clear. The lady had dashed suddenly and the car in front had no option but to hit the pedal with all the thrust. I was slightly late to hit the pedal; to add to this, probably, my car's braking ability did not match the sedan's might. The driver ascertained the damage and finding none, left the scene of action. I also moved ahead, lucky to avoid a scuffle with him. But getting down and inspecting closely, I found that the bonnet was completely damaged. Getting the car repaired was definitely an irritant, more so when my car was the only means to reach my work place. But at the garage, I was pleased to know that they were quite willing to offer a replacement car free of cost till my car was brought back into action. They kept my passport and I got their car.

The broken bonnet (like any other problem in life) required some time and cost to be fixed. The cost of the damage here would partially be borne by the insurance company. But I too had to pay - pay in terms of the remaining cost, pay by carrying the fear of driving and hitting someone again (which only happened yesterday when someone banged me again), the fear of using someone else's car that too could get damaged (incidentally, it broke down on new year's eve, the very day I was taking it home) and many other things. But with this cost comes some learning. The wise men do not require broken bonnets. But then, wisdom comes only after breaking a few bonnets.

In the last few weeks, many an events warrant a comment. The massive Tsunami lashed out on many parts of South-east Asia leaving about two lakh people dead or missing. It is being said that it took about three hours for the waves to reach India from the epicentre of the earthquake that caused this havoc. But while the government slept, it was left for the news channel to report the damage when the tragedy had already transpired. Now the president wants a system to detect Tsunami, when it conjectured that Tsunami comes roughly every ten thousand years or more.

Deaths or accidents are not new or uncommon to India. Nor they should be. It is a simple reflection of the way our systems are built. Be it the signalling systems in railways or the traffic movements, or the naked power lines merely few feet away from balconies, the danger is inherent. It is just in our abilities to adapt to these imperfections that cause much lesser damage than the imperfect systems demand.

Daily, I cross a railway crossing. The guard operates through a shabby room. Quite a few times, I have seen red flags blocking the railway tracks, an indication that I interpreted as a faulty signal. Everyday, I wondered what all equipment or signalling systems were there in the room enabling the guard to manage the crossing. The red flags too were an enigma to me. One day, I entered the guard's room only to find that there was no equipment in there except a very old fashioned telephone. I asked the guard how he operated and he nonchalantly said that he had all the things that he required. He further added that someday there would a major accident here as the crossing was officially not a crossing and that it required the station head-master's permission to be opened. The red flags were merely a substitute for the missing signal, indicating that the crossing was open and that the train should tread cautiously. I wondered what all could possibly happen in heavy dew. There were so many possibilities and some times they did materialize. As a train collision took place only few weeks back where two trains hit head on. Train accidents are not new. But what are the lessons from the numerous broken bonnets that every one of us has witnessed so far. I see none that has brought appreciable differences in our lives.

Few months back, Christiano Junior died in the finals of a prestigious national level football competition. Even at that level, there were no medical personnel to provide emergency help to the gasping footballer. The man, who had came all over from Brazil, went back in his coffin with a distraught wife. Since then, there are reports that football matches have emergency medical assistance to tackle situations like these. It still remains to be seen how sincere or effective the steps will be.

At a macro level, certain trends clearly emerge. First of all, there is no premium on anyone's life. Death should be deemed sacrosanct and come under ultimate situation. But in our country, death is cheap and a routine affair. 60 died in Godhra by suffocating inside a burning train. But there were no emergency exits. 1000 more died in the aftermath, and you can see the farcical drama acted in the news channels involving one of the victims who now says she was coerced into making false affidavits. The presence of weak police and an ineffective judiciary makes the act of murder much less risky than it ought to be. This is only one part. The second part is the that makes death trivial is the margin we leave for errors. Our lives are always on the edge. Just like my car. One misplaced nut in the system and my bonnet went kaput. Similar is the case with overloaded buses, lorries and boats whose accidents are routine affairs.

Apart from the margins, there is a wilful violation of laws or norms: Jumping red lights or crossing roads when subways are there; or sending 10 children on a rickshaw that can carry just two people. The outcome is a society that has lost the definitions of right or wrong, the legal and the illegal. Bonnets keep on getting broken. Some are lucky to survive after denting. Some meet their last. What lessons are learnt? Is there any improvement? Or is the urban landscape now fraught with ever increasing danger.

The third angle relates to the theory that we are a poor country. Thus, people may die in absence of medical attention but help may not be forthcoming. But I believe that no way are we a poor country. The notion of monetary weakness allows us to be misgoverned and be convinced that it is due to lack of resources. The poverty is in the minds than at the banks. The foreign exchange coffers are flowing with over 120 billion dollars of reserve. A bulk of financial transactions is in black rather than in white. And the lament remains that we are a poor country.

Among this lament, what is the way out? India's solution and its problems lie in its people. If the 1billion people come together, there is so much that can be achieved. And if each charters his/her own course, there is collision and broken bonnets. Taking everyone together like a battalion in a march past is not easy. It requires great leaders, but none are forthcoming. Then?

What about me? What were my learnings? Of course, changes in the society are not easy to bring about? But at least, I can increase the margins: all types of margin that endanger my life of lives of those around me. That is for starters. The next step is to pay for the increased margin and shun those who are insensitive to it. For example, I may not choose to send my children to school in rickshaws that are not safe. If people start paying for additional safety, then obviously the costs of living would increase but so will the safety levels. In developed countries, there may be lot of wastage, but that allows the shops to serve only the best to the customers. It then boils to increased safety and comfort at an expense. This would avoid accidents like people dying after consuming illicit liquor. The next step would obviously happen at a macro level where institutional changes have a salubrious impact on our lives.

More some other time. Wishing you all a happy and more importantly a safe 2005.


Chachu 14/01/2005
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Chachu's Column #13: Of Roads, Rails, and Safety

As the saying goes - A picture says a thousand words - I found one such picture in the latest issue of Business World (23rd Sep, 2002). It was a picture of the Mumbai-Pune expressway that looked like a giant serpent snaking its way to some place beyond the horizon. At three different glances, the picture evoked three distinct feelings. At first glance, I found the expressway quite awe-inspiring. The expressway was state-of-art six-lane highway. On closer look, I found an over-turned truck right in the middle of the picture. Given the fact that the Business World cover story was meant to highlight the rapid developments of highway in India, the over-turned truck didn't give the right signals. Since the traffic moved at great speeds on the expressway, the truck over-turned was a potential traffic hazard. On even closer inspection, I found that the truck was cordoned off by appropriate signs and roadblocks thereby giving motorists adequate time and space to avoid the truck. The last point was quite satisfying indeed. An adequate proof that India's traffic management paradigms were moving in the right direction.

But Pune is far far away from Delhi suburb where I reside. Around my house, there are no signs of state-of-the-art technological developments. Nor is it visible in my commute to my workplace. This despite the fact that a major part of my route lies within the country's capital Delhi. In fact, the way things are, there seems to be no state government and no art in the madness. Everyday, I encounter a number of potential situations that could lead to accidents, major or minor. While a comprehensive list could run into pages, let me list four important ones:

1. On a long empty stretch of road without any road divider or central verge, there is a speed breaker that extends only half the breadth. This awful design implies that one side of traffic moves without breaking, while other side is forced to cross the ill-designed breaker. Ideally, this is not a bad situation. But, and a big but, as there is no road divider the unfortunate motorists, in order to avoid the breaker, come on the wrong side displaying their headlights seeking permission to cross. This breach of rule is not limited to motorcycles or cars (yours truly included), but also includes buses and trucks. One day, no wonder I found a badly smashed car near the breaker.

2. Another serious breach of traffic rules is overloading by shuttle operators. They have found unique ways of carrying more passengers than the load the jeeps can take. For one, they extend the rear and sides so that people can stand on them and hang around. Then, they also fit a carrier on top of the jeep that is then used to seat around 8-10 people atop the jeep. Seeing people on the train top is not unusual (seeing them dance, like in the song in Dil Se, is exhilarating), but seeing them sit precariously on a jeep is really unnerving. The most bizarre part of this drama is that the overloaded jeeps have to cross the Delhi-Haryana border where police continuously monitor the traffic movement. But I have never seen anyone questioning the errant drivers. In fact, once when we were nine of us were going to office in a Qaulis, we were caught and challaned because the Qaulis had license to carry only 8. While the inspector demanded something for tea, not willing to file a challan, an overloaded jeep carrying around twenty people crossed us. For the inspector, nor the jeep nor the violation existed. His monthly premium was already paid by the jeep driver. Only when he extracted his quota from us did he leave us. Once, tired of being daily witness to the violation, I logged on to the site (http://www.delhitrafficpolice.nic.in/witness.htm) and lodged a complaint. The site did not offer any means for the complainant to track the progress of the complaint. The complaint was lodged by me long time back. Needless to say, the overloading continues unchecked, unstopped, and unseen. And only God or Delhi traffic police knows what happened to my complaint. Given the state of affairs, one day, and the day may not be far, one of the many such jeeps that ply will meet a serious accident and twenty will die. The newspaper will then say - "Twenty killed in an accident due to overloading". And then the routine enquiry followed by routing analysis. And within months, if not days, the file will be dumped in some public office and the soul of the dead will live in peace.

3. As monsoon ends, the roads have cracked and pot-holes have become the order of the day. The methods adopted for repairing the roads is so outdated and abysmal that one wonders whether we are in the twenty-first century or in the early ages. The pot-holes are first left to fester so that water can stagnate and eat the road. When the holes are big enough to cause a flutter, small stones are used to fill them. To hold the stones together, soil is used. It is no-brainer that a fresh spell of rains washes away the soil. What remains is a situation that is worse than one that existed before repairs. When the situation becomes beyond control, the road rollers are brought in. In the process, the height of road keeps rising and comes in level of the footpath.

4. Talking about footpath, the less said about them the better. Suffice it to say that there is no bigger loot than the encroachment of public land by shopkeepers, residents, et al. Even the non-performing assets may pale in comparison to the loss of revenue due to encroachments. It is disheartening that no one bothers to keep the footpaths free for people to walk. The end result is that the poor pedestrians walk on the roads making them vulnerable to the fast moving traffic.

The threats mentioned above are not imaginary. The terrible Rajdhani train accident few days back highlights the utter neglect of safety in public movement. 120 people, supposedly well-to-do, perished in the accident. But the event was taken in a matter-of-factly way. The more accidents happen in India, the more they lose their relevance. It is like listening to news "BSE catches cold as NASDAQ sneezes; Two more die in fresh violence in Vadodra, CM blames Abu Salem who was caught in Portugal early this morning; Death toll in Rajdhani reaches 120."

In an interesting article "Cracks in the Tracks" (see http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/sep/19dilip.htm), the writter Dilip D'Souza highlighted how a small accident in Britain that killed only four people played havoc in the minds of the people. "The accident led to a national soul-searching that went beyond just rail accidents. How had this happened, how could it be prevented, what is the malaise with the rail system the world once envied? In fact, what is the malaise with the British themselves? The unsettling impression grew of Britain as an unsound country, weakly equipped, under-skilled, easily made chaotic and only superficially modern; an incompetent society. It was this, even more than the toll in the accident that got the English talking. What had happened to this advanced country, one that had once been the mightiest industrial and military power the world had ever seen, one that itself took the railway to large swathes of the world? Was it now really no more than an "incompetent society"?"

The bitching and cribbing can continue on and on. But I will stop here and come back to the original topic with which we started. The highway revolution started by PM Vajpayee and monitored by Major General B. B. Khanduri, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways is going to be one of the biggest achievements of NDA government. With a staggering investment of 54,000 crore, India will have 5846km of Golden Quadilateral and 7300km of North-South-East-West built by the end of 2007. And for once, the work is going to finish before schedule.

Chachu (23/9/2002)
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