Strategy for a Livable & Sustainable Kolkata - Need for effective policies and urgent actions
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Analyzing the present
conditions of the
city of Kolkata in an
attempt to make it
more habitable
URBAN PLANNING
Strategy for a Livable &
Sustainable Kolkata - Need for
effective policies and urgent actions
K.P. Bhattacharjee
32 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People March 2011
K
olkata is a city of contradic- India’s largest cities has become a me- tasks that lie ahead of Kolkata’s Mayor
tions. Chaos prevails all around tropolis without the benefit of industri- to make Kolkata a top class “livable
you, and perhaps this chaos alization. city” in Asia. with arts, culture, parks
gives ideas for creation; development However, political leaders from the and playgrounds. Singapore and Hong
of many creative minds are stunted. north of India were not charitable to Kong are ahead of Kolkata as a livable
About two decades ago an US Am- Kolkata with their comments. Jawaha- and sustainable cities in Asia.
bassador to India compared Kolkata rlal Nehru called Kolkata a “city of pro-
to New York in the field of destruction cessions” and when his grandson Rajiv 1. Change of city’s image:
and creation while speaking at a forum Gandhi called the city “a dying city”. Kolkata can no longer live in its past
in Kolkata. Kolkatans did not like their comments images; it must build a new brand im-
Kolkata has been showered with on their own much loved city, a peo- age highlighting its strength in tech-
names, inspired by the city’s beauty ple’s city- a, city which led rest of India nology- being the hub of the east,
and grandeur at earlier times- ‘A city of with its thoughts and actions prior to leading education centres; the nation’s
Palaces” and ‘Second best city within the independence of India. biggest commercial and trading centre
the Commonwealth”. However, since independence, the and as well as nation’s cultural hub and
However Geoffrey Moorhouse has city overburdened with people mov- the biggest entertainment hub of the
not showered praises in his book “Cal- ing in from erstwhile East Pakistan and east. In the past two decades kolkata
cutta: The city revealed”; he writes “The Punjab and the city being deprived of has made substantial development in
truth is that almost everything associ- financial support from the central gov- social sector too; particularly; many
ated with Calcutta is highly unpleasant ernment, its service and infrastructure new hospitals and educational institu-
and nasty indeed. It is bracketed in the deteriorated. The city was neglected tions have come up in the city; apart-
“The truth is that almost everything associated with Calcutta is highly
unpleasant and nasty indeed. It is bracketed in the Western mind with
distant rumours of appalling disaster, riot and degradation”
Western mind with distant rumours of during the first 3 decades after inde- ments and as well as group housing
appalling disaster, riot and degrada- pendence and subsequently during for middle and lower income groups
tion”. But in another page of this book the last 3 decades only a fraction of in the joint sector (public private part-
he quotes praises on Calcutta show- the money was invested in improv- nership) have been constructed. Local
ered by Indian civil servant recruit ing roads, transportation and services government has improved living con-
William Hunter, who writes “Imagine for a city of 10 million population in ditions in slums which are no longer
everything that is glorious in nature greater Kolkata. and rest of the money unhygienic. These issues, economical
combined with all that is beautiful was diverted. development, employment oppor-
in Architecture”. A visitor to London on his/ her re- tunities and social progress, must be
William Bentinck, who ruled India turn would find many similarities be- highlighted by the national and inter-
from the Governor’s House in Calcutta, tween London and Kolkata starting national media and the state govern-
said that Calcutta is the richest city from roads, parks, Victorian architec- ment needs to act now.
that he had seen after London and “the ture, Gothic Churches and business and However, being the biggest com-
spectacle altogether was most curious commercial establishments. If an artist mercial and trading hub of the east; it
and magnificent I have met with”. could brush away the pot holes from provides job opportunities for the un-
Author and well known anthropol- Kolkata’s roads, shanties and hawkers skilled youth of the eastern region; they
ogist Nirmal Kumar Bose in his article from the pavements, and paint the old move to Kolkata and engage them-
‘Calcutta - A Premature Metropolis’ (Al- buildings, Kolkata could still be a top selves in informal services or hawk and
fred A.knoff, 1965) writes that one of city Asia. Let us look closely at major live on the pavements and in the pro-
March 2011 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 33
cess cover the pavements with tempo- again the city is burdened with bro-
rary shelters with plastic sheets, creat- ken road surfaces which are difficult to
ing ugly visual images along some of drive on.
the major roads of the city and such an But the worst roads are on the
image highlights poverty only. There is fringe of inner city, and such major
poverty in almost all major cities of the roads as Circular Garden Reach Road,
world, but the local authorities do not Taratala Road, Diamond Harbour Road
permit visual display of poverty; con- in the south and parts of BT road, APC
sequently the Mayor needs to act and Road on the north and the roads be-
remove visual poverty in all forms. yond E.M. By-pass and near Kalikapore
People arriving at the airport, Indi- and R.N.Tagore Cardiac Research Insti-
ans from other cities and foreigners as tute along the east.
they drive in to the city from Park Street Poor maintenance of roads affects
rotary and move by Nirmal Hriday, with traffic flow, wastes fuel and creates
shanties on the edge of the road, or chaos in the daily life. KMS says it main-
drive through Phulbagan, Kakurgachi tain and repair roads and other utility
they witness series of ugly bamboo departments, CESC, telephone dig up
structures covered with plastic sheets roads and take no step for their repair:
spoiling the visual image of the streets Coordination between different de-
and giving a totally wrong image of the partments is very much essential.
city. Steps should be taken to relocate It has been also observed that
these informal shops and shelters from just before Puja repair work is car-
the pavements to a suitable location ried out quickly in order to please the
and give a cleaner image to the city. public; most of these repair work is
A month back BBC reported done poorly. And do not even last 6
that in one of the round-about on months. What is required is that one
the roads of London, protestors should plan in advance and complete
were camping in tents, but with the repairing of roads during 3rd and 4th
court’s order in hand the local ad- quarter (October to March) in order to
ministration removed them. Disci- avoid monsoon. Strict supervision is
pline and complying with the law is essential; but frequently supervision is
very much essential for the migrants not done.
as well as for the locals. Police and Proper design of roads is essen-
administration must not look the tial to have good quality roads. Roads
other way to save their skin. must have proper slope/ grade so
that storm water drains off after each
2) Improvement of Roads. Water shower, otherwise water logging is wastes. In many areas drainage pipes
supply & other Services: there and roads get damaged, which are unable to carry excess storm water,
It is unfortunate for the people of Kol- frequently happen in Kolkata. The E.M. may be because drains are silted or they
kata that the conditions of roads, ser- By-pass has water drainage problem; have not been designed for present
vices and infrastructure during the last Southern Avenue has drainage prob- outflow of storm water; it may be also
30 years were neglected, in spite of the lems and water logging takes place on that pumping stations are not working
fact that central fund was provided. many roads of the city. in order. KMC should ensure that Behala
However improvement of some of Water-logging and flooding of roads and adjoining areas as well as the Lake
the inner city roads have been carried takes place for many reasons, but the Town and adjoining areas do not remain
out, but they are not annually main- main reasons are- poor slope for water flooded for days.
tained; after each monsoon, pot holes to run off; clogging of storm water out- The Trinomul Municipal Board is yet
and cracks on road surface occur and let gully traps by plastic bags and solid to treat this matter of water logging of
34 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People March 2011
“Imagine everything that is glorious in
nature combined with all that is beautiful
in Architecture”
table water must be made available in wastes should be collected from the
the shortest possible time. city during 6 to 8 in the morning, be-
It is recorded that during 2006-07, fore the rush hour traffic and pedestri-
KMC has commissioned a number of ans crowd the streets.
water treatment plants cum pumping More facilities are to be created for
station and among them the promi- re-cycling of wastes and for separation
nent ones are- at Watgunge-Khidirpore of wastes at source in 3 categories- re-
areas and at Bib Began (Bib Bagan – D.C cycle-able materials, organic materi-
Dey Road area). als and trash, and then these can be
KMC’s on-going projects are for dispatched to respective plants Local
setting up a 15 million gallon wa- low income residents can be engaged
ter treatment plant at Garden Reach to separate the garbage and provide
Works and Dhapa Water Treatment them with ration coupons/ travel cou-
Plant. More water treatment plants are pons as incentive. . . Intensive recycling
in planning stage. It is expected water of garbage is now followed in many
supply will improve. countries, and by this process land re-
Moreover, it is seen daily that a quired for garbage dumping is much
huge quantity of water is wasted from reduced. Singapore already recycles
the water outlets on public roads and 75% of its solid waste and in a decade
streets all over the city. There are thou- all solid waste will be re-cycled; no
sands of non-residents who do not pay land-fill would be required.
any tax, but uses water; and those who
are engaged as service providers dur- 3) Tax collection, Water Tax and
ing the day, use water outlets for bath- Power to raise money:
ing and washing clothes and utensils KMC’s major source of earning is from
without paying any tax. This wastage collection of property tax. There are
of filtered water costs the tax payers major problems in property tax collec-
dearly. One can think of erecting stalls tion; starting from households paying
roads in a war footing since the mon- “To Pay and Bathe” where floating pop- less taxes, some paying more taxes,
soon is on and already whenever there ulation can pay and take shower. other paying no tax annually; corrup-
is heavy shower, roads have been flood- Solid waste management is an- tion within the department and its
ed. Though so far there has not been other important area where the city staff members who solicit speed mon-
prolong shower within the city. There needs to do much planning and devel- ey from the house owners in lieu of re-
should be a special team to check on opment work. On an average the city ducing their property tax and annually
water outlets, pumps and other facili- generates about 2,500 tons of solid still prevail; this causes loss of crores of
ties daily; but this is not happening. waste and majority of it is dumped in rupees to the KMC.
Augmentation of water supply is Dhapa land fill. The proposed Unit Area Tax system
another important area where one has This is an area where the new board will rationalize tax on households and
to give priority. The added municipali- has to find more efficient ways to col- is expected that fair tax will enable the
ties do not get adequate water and po- lect solid ways and recycle them. Solid house owners to pay the tax. However,
March 2011 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 35
“More facilities are to be created
for re-cycling of wastes and for
separation of wastes at source”
it looks it will take time to implement population of 13 million as in 2006-07
UAT as reported in the papers. It is for and by 2015 the population is likely to
the best interest of the KMC and the be 15 million. Where as Singapore has
home owners that Unit Area Tax is population of less than 4 million; and
implemented by the new KMC board Hong Kong may be lesser. Kolkata Ur-
without any delay. ban Agglomeration will be on of the
However, the issue of water tax 10 big metropolitan cities of the world.
has become a major issue since it was Population pressure and lack of invest-
promised that Water Tax will not be ment in services and infrastructure are
imposed before election and it is still the primary reasons for city’s decay.
not implemented. However, the KMC The city requires monumental invest-
has to repay the loan it has taken from ment and implementation on war foot-
the Asian Development Bank for water ing; there is scope for involvement of
augmentation programme for the city; the private sector here.
so if Water Tax is not imposed, then Only during the last 3 years the cen-
KMC will have to arrange fund from tral government has provided funds to
other sources to repay the loan. the major cities in India under Jawa-
harlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission
4) Making Kolkata Livable and (JNNURM). to improve roads services
Sustainable: and infrastructure. However, progress
Very often the people of Kolkata who of work is slow in most cities, particu-
have traveled abroad and return to larly in Kolkata; efforts must be made
this city compare Kolkata with Singa- to complete the works of all roads, ser-
pore or Hong Kong. Why can’t Kolkata vices and then maintain them; mainte-
be like them? They often forget that nance is very essential.
Kolkata’s population is about twice However in order to make Kolkata
that of Singapore and Hong Kong, and Livable and Sustainable, the Kolkata
area-wise too, kolkata is much bigger Municipal Corporation in collabora- logue with the West Bengal Pollution
(Kolkata Municipal Corporation cov- tion with other utility and service Control Board, Motor Vehicle Depart-
ers an area of 71 Sq. Mile, while the providers must initiate steps on the ment and Kolkata Police to coordinate
Kolkata Urban Agglomeration covers following areas:- their pollution test system, since now
an area of 676 Sq. Mile). Moreover To substantially reduce air pol- each body carries out tests in its own
and investment in roads and ser- lution within the city. Kolkata is said way and causes harassment to the ve-
vices is much less than Singapore & to be the most polluted city in India. hicle owners.
Hong Kong. Automobiles are one of the biggest One must encourage the use of fuel
Kolkata Municipal Corporation has polluters. Annually thousands of new efficient vehicles. KMC needs to intro-
population of around 5 million and cars are added and level of Carbon di- duce vehicle congestion pricing for
Kolkata Urban Agglomeration has oxide rises. KMC must be in close dia- those traveling to congested parts of
36 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People March 2011
dispatching letters to owners, where to get gas; the government oil
readings taken by a machine located companies must come up with
at a distance, indicate car’s exhaust’s more gas stations or else public
Carbon Dioxide level is higher than will suffer. Very recent reports said
the minimum permissible level and land is a problem for erecting new
a case is initiated against the alleged LNG pumps and war of words is
defaulter. The present system is a to- continuing between the state gov-
tal harassment for the vehicle owners ernment and oil companies while
and when the concerned officer was public suffer.
given suggestions to operate efficient- iii) Solid waste management within
ly, he declined. the city continues to be inadequate
a) All efforts must be made for peo- and in efficient.
ple to use public transport; metro In many areas within the city
must acquire modern cars and the garbage is not collected daily and
latest equipment in order to make allowed to decay and pollute the
traveling comfortable and in short air that people breathe. Daily col-
time. Efficient operation of metro lection of solid waste must be
can reduce air pollution by 10 to made from all wards of the city and
15%. Proper inter-connection be- the counselors of each ward must
tween different routes is essential. verify this. Moreover, people must
Proposed expansion of new routes be educated to produce less waste
must be carried out systematically and package companies must be
and technical problems must be told to use recycle-able materials.
given top priority. Re-cycling of solid waste after sep-
b) Operation of bus within the city arating the trash must be done in a
must be efficient and pollution bigger scale in order to reduce land
free; energy efficient buses must required for land-fill so that in 10
be used and partial fleet of buses years land required will be reduced
can be operated by electricity to to 1/10th the present large tracts of
reduce pollution. Already actions land. Such a program requires col-
have been take to remove the old laboration between the citizens,
buses and new buses are plying on packaging industries, retailers and
the road under JNNURM projects; the local municipalities.
though some of the private bus v) Energy Efficient industries are to
owners agreed to purchase new be allowed in industrial belts; and
buses, other operators are reluctant energy efficiency must be intro-
to buy these vehicles since they are duced from the planning stage
cities (BBD Bag/ Esplanade) and bring expensive and they will not be able of industries and check must be
in laws to permit use of vehicles on al- to repay the loan; here the state carried out during operation. Pref-
ternative days. .Singapore and Beijing government must advise the banks erence should be given to IT and
have introduced such laws and have to provide loan. ITES industries.
found them to be successful. c) Local autos (three wheelers) have vi) Energy Efficient Buildings: It is said
Checking of pollution of vehicles been compelled by the High that the buildings within cities
must be carried out scientifically and Court’s order to turn green and consume 16 to 20% of total elec-
vehicle owners must not be harassed. use LNG fuel. However there are tricity consumed by the city. This
Recent drive by the Motor Vehicle very few fuel stations supplying energy consumed can be reduced
Department to arbitrarily take pho- LNG, and consequently autos are if the buildings are made energy
tographs of running vehicles and wasting a lot of time and money efficient by using energy efficient
March 2011 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People 37people to use cars on alternate days
and on other days to use bicycles or
motor powered bicycle cabs; they ex-
pect this system would reduce carbon
emission. Chinese authorities are con-
sidering make Beijing’s Central Busi-
ness District (CBD) ‘global city’ which
attracts about 180,000 people in to it
daily and will cover 84 square kilome-
ter with high quality buildings, offices,
commercial and entertainment cen-
ter; while the ‘old city’ would remain
represented by beautiful and historic
Forbidden city. In the new city there
will be green park covering 100 acres
to absorb carbon dioxide emitted by
vehicles. More roads will be built in
this CBD and along with energy effi-
cient cars and public transportation
system (sub-way), it is expected car-
bon dioxide level will be reduced.
2. Curitiba in Brazil;
Curitiba is medium size city in Brazil
with a population of about 3 million.
It is now known as the Ecological city.
However about 3 decades ago the city’s
pollution level was rising and transpor-
tation system was not efficient.
The City Planning and Architecture
departments of the city then devel-
oped master plan linked to land use
and zoning. After implementation of
the detail plan, based on the master
electrical fittings and fixtures in Learning from other cities in plan, including good roads and trans-
existing buildings. Moreover new developing countries (how to portation system over last 3 decades.
buildings designed and construct- make cities livable). the city’s pollution level has reduced
ed following Green Building Coun- 1. Beijing plans to become green and people from all over the world vis-
cil’s specifications and also using and global city by 2050. What are it this green city. The city has achieved
renewable energy (solar/wind) the city’s plans? green city status because it has a very
would be certified under different Beijing is working hard to become efficient bus transit system; efficient
category, as ‘Platinum’/ ‘Gold’ or more energy efficient and eco-friendly solid waste management system and
’silver’ building. In order to encour- against all odds. Beijing is experienc- the Mayor involved in city’s develop-
age builders and developers to ing explosion in cars that is contribut- ment projects.
construct green buildings, proper- ing to increasing in carbon emission.
ty tax incentives could be provided In the earlier decade 60% of people The lessons which other cities can
so that more builders build energy used bicycles and today it is 30%. learn from Curitiba are as follows:
efficient buildings. Chinese authorities have restricted (i) People can be moved faster on dedi-
38 ARCHITECTURE - Time Space & People March 2011cated bus routes, if the routes are co- of 20 to 25 KM per hour because of gestion; they also allow autos to park
ordinated with buses on other routes congestion on road, which the Traffic at major street corners and create cha-
and if the roads are not congested. Police are unable manage. From all re- os, besides hawkers encroaching on
Curitiba solved the problem of moving ports in the papers and studies made, the pavements.
people by efficient bus system and not it has been established that poor man- The new municipal board can make
constructing expensive sub-way. (ii) To agement of vehicular traffic (includ- Kolkata a livable and sustainable city for
purchase ticket at the bus stops be- ing autos) is responsible for slow and healthy living, hassle free movement
fore entering the bus and (iii) to have irregular traffic operation in the city; by safe transport with good roads, ad-
a single fare for all destinations within congestion delays journey and creates equate water, reduced level of pollution
the city for the day. These measures more air pollution. and cultural facilities along with more
would reduce running time for buses, Encroachment on pavements by parks, playgrounds and a good conven-
halt times and in turn would reduce hawkers compels pedestrians to move tion centre for organizing annual book
carbon emission. (iv) Efficient re-cy- on to the road carriage-way and this show, music and dance performances.
cling of solid waste by involving local in turn slows down speed of vehicles; Can the citizens of kolkata expect a liv-
unemployed people to segregate gar- that is why buses and cars cannot able kolkata within next 2 years from
bage and provide them with coupons move faster on the roads. It has been the new Mayor?
for food or travel as an incentive. reported by city planners that Traffic
Kolkata, with its metro, more than Police is totally responsible for poor Prof. K.P. Bhattacharjee, Architect
1,500 buses, on an average plying on traffic operation and management. & Planner, Executive Director, Centre
the road, has a struggling time moving Of course one must not forget traffic for Human Settlements (CHS),
people (on an average about 200,000 police permits trucks to ply on roads Professor, Jadavpur University (Retd.),
Member National Habitat Committee,
people) to their destination; moreover during ‘no entry’ time in lieu of speed
Govt.of India
buses cannot move beyond a speed money and encourages further con-
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