Healing Cities-Leveraging Urban Planning

Healing Cities-Leveraging Urban Planning

                                                                                       Jit Kumar Gupta*

                                                                               jit.kumar1944@gmail**

Abstract; Globally, cities are being misused, abused, bruised, manipulated, mutilated under the adverse impact of rapid, uncontrolled and unregulated growth of population, uncontrolled expansion of physical space and massive rural-urban migration. Haphazard, unplanned and sub-standard development are becoming pattern of urban growth. Globally, cities are being treated as commodity, used , traded and speculated for generating more money and large wealth for individuals, communities, states and nations for making them rich and prosperous. Despite creating large space for human living, working, care of body & spirit, mobility and employment, cities are made to reel under enormous stress bordering on deficient infrastructure and services. Despite consuming minimum land for housing large population in a limited area, cities are being made places of large land speculation. Considering the major implications of cities in promoting sustainability, economy, productivity, employment, quality of life ;urban spaces need care and healing on priority. It is not the city which are culprits for all the social, economic and environmental ills, it is in fact the way cities have been treated and made to grow, develop and expand. Cities need care and focus to understand the genesis of their problems and evolving appropriate solutions to heal them. Cities need appropriate empowerment, supportive planning, enabling resources and state of art technologies which enable them create happy and healthy spaces for human living. Cities need to be treated like organic/ living entities, requiring appropriate environment, infrastructure and services to enable them to play their designated role in human emancipation and promoting global sustainability effectively and efficiently. Cities would require innovations and out of box thinking to make them safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable, as mandated by SDG 11.Looking at the entire context of the cities, their growth, development and management, text of paper tries to suggest framework for healing cities to make them sustainable and livable by involving; rationalizing planning; empowering cities; inventing new orders of cities; making cities compact/spongy; rationalizing mobility; greening cities; building/creating capacity; involving communities; preserving art and architecture; bringing nature into cities; planning with nature using sun, space and greenery as the basic essentials/elements of urban planning; ensuring good governance and leveraging technologies.

Introduction;

Cities are being misused, abused, bruised, manipulated, mutilated under the adverse impact of rapid, uncontrolled and unregulated growth of population, uncontrolled expansion of physical space and massive rural-urban migration. Haphazard, unplanned and sub-standard development are becoming pattern of urban growth. Globally, cities are being treated as commodity being used , traded and speculated for generating  more money and large wealth for individuals, communities, states and nations for making them rich and prosperous. Despite creating large space for  living, working, care of body & spirit, mobility and employment, cities are made to reel under enormous stress of deficient infrastructure and services. Despite consuming minimum land for housing large population in a limited area, cities are being made places of high degree of land speculation. Despite having large positivity, cities are being treated with impunity as a space full of evils. Future of the planet earth will depend upon and shall be dictated by;   how cities can be healed and  how  existing negativities can be eliminated and cities can be made them  better and healthy  spaces to live and work.

 Cities need to be treated  differently with  care and caution to make them spaces for  healing. Planners engaged in planning the urban settlements and professional engaged in development and management need to look at cities and treat them cautiously, differently and distinctly,  to make them spaces imbued with health and vitality, so that cities can emerge as healing spaces rather than areas full of diseases/evils/negativity ;infested/impregnated  with crime, poverty, pollution, homelessness, slums, congestion, exclusion, diseases, manmade/natural disasters etc.

 Text below makes an attempt to define agenda to  treat and heal cities through; rationalizing planning; empowering cities; inventing new orders of cities; making cities compact/spongy; rationalizing mobility; greening cities; building/creating capacity; involving communities;  preserving art and architecture; bringing nature into cities; planning with nature using sun, space and greenery as the basic essentials/elements of  urban planning;  ensuring good governance; leveraging technologies etc. Looking at the enormous length, breadth, depth and reach of the cities, number of alternate  options can be invented/considered/used  for healing the cities  to make them happy, healthy and great places on this earth to promote livability, sustainability and achieving the agenda ordained in the Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals defined by UNDP. Agenda can be enlarged/ rationalized/refined/redefined, by making additions and alterations, to make it more  specific, focused, effective, efficient and productive.

Rationalizing, Empowering, Capacity Building,  Increasing operational Efficiency of  Cities through innovative planning options  involving;

·      Looking urbanization beyond cities- Regional context

·      Looking cities in the physical, social, economic, environmental context

·      Preparing professionally Metropolitan Development Plans and District Development Plans, involving physical planners for synergizing the rural-urban development.

·      Redefining and rationalizing urban planning and development process by making planning human and environmental centric

·      Making villages integral part of the urban planning, development and management process.

·       Planning with nature and using natural elements of  Panchbhutas - Prithvi, Agni, Vayu, Jal, Akas and Sun, Space and Greenery

·       Weaving/integrating  development with nature.

·      Focusing on protecting , preserving and promoting bio-diversity

·       Promoting and making value addition to the existing flora & fauna,  vegetation.

·      Identifying all existing/lost water sources, channels of water flow, water bodies and making  them integral part of urban development process.

·      Carrying a land suitability analysis before allocating uses and defining land use options.

·      Synergizing and collaborating available resources of urban and rural settlements

·      Decarbonizing cities , buildings and infrastructures- Making Cities/ buildings/transportation Zero Carbon

·      Promoting co-operative based city ownership- Creating ownership for city

·      Making cities more human- making them more compact

·      Leveraging technologies for redefining urbanization, urban planning, development and management.

·      Making informal sector, women, children and physically challenged, integral part of city economic, physical , social development agenda.

·      Empowering cities to be made  self-contained, self-sufficient in day- to- day/basic human needs.

·      Planning cities on well- defined  quantifiable parameters and benchmarks- services, amenities, water, open spaces etc. for evaluating performance of cities.

·      Making urban planning based on Smart Visioning

·      Planning for People not vehicles

·       Promoting accessibility and not mobility

·      Planning walkable/cyclable cities.

·      Promoting State of art Planned Development

·      Making cities sustainable- focusing on consumption/production

·      Making cities Resilient- focusing on disaster mitigation, management

·      Making cities Inclusive- focusing on people - making cities people centric

·      Making cities Circular-  focusing on use of materials- making cities  production/waste centric

·       Making Cities Healthy- Focusing on and  making cities environment centric

·      Making Cities Safe- Focusing on preveting physical/social/economic crimes and natural/ manmade disasters.

·      Making cities Green- Leveraging landscape- Creating Quality Public Spaces on prescribed norms and standards

·      Leveraging Culture, Heritage, Art / Architecture

·      Designing Low Energy Buildings- Focusing on  built environment to make them  low energy

·      Making cities community/people centric

·      Inventing new order of planning- focusing on environment/ ecology/employment/quality of life- rather than merely land use planning

·      Reviewing, rationalizing and redefining  planning tool- making them relevant/effective/efficient

·       Making cities Energy efficient

·      Promoting Green Roofs / green walls- promoting green areas

·       Avoiding Urban Sprawl-- Stopping melting of cities

·      Minimizing heat island - Reducing carbon footprints- global warming

·      Making cities zero- carbon/zero-energy/ zero-waste/ zero-water cities

Make cities Compact by;

·      -Adopting principle of limited land, unlimited space

·       – Promoting High-density development

·      -- Adopting Transit- Oriented development

·      -- Raising Height of buildings

·      --Rationalizing land use pattern

·      -- Rationalizing planning norms and standards

·      - Promoting use of land 24x7x365.

·      -Promoting multiple use of land/ infrastructure- social/physical

·      --Redefining  Building bye-laws

·      - Building inside not outside

·      -- Building vertical not horizontal

·      -- Building High not low

·      -- Building mix not pure

·      --Building dense not shallow

·      - Intensification of available land

·      - Densification of available land

·      -Promoting Green field development

·      - Changing typology of buildings- Adopting flatted development instead of Plotted development

·      - Optimizing current infrastructure.

Making Cities Spongy by;

• Planning extensive Green( Vegetation) and Blue (water) network in the city
•  Making cities Green- by bringing large  area under green open spaces

·       Creating  water bodies using low-lying areas

• Introducing more ponds and lakes/ Creating  land basins -to hold some of the excess water .
• Making provision of rooftop green spaces- for slowing the rain water flow and absorb part of rain water- reduce urban flooding
• Promoting Green walls- instead of brick/cement mortar walls in buildings

·      Increasing the area under  absorbent land

·      Making all buildings/institutions zero-rainwater discharge- by mandating large scale rain water harvesting/ ground water recharging.

·      Promoting storage and Rain water harvesting at local /community/city/peri-urban areas.

·      Promoting Ground water recharging on large scale

·      Reviving/ Restoring all existing water channels

·      Minimising area under hard surfaces in the city

·      Making roads/parking porous- using porous materials/ concrete

·      Finding space for storage of rain water- below road crossing

·      Promoting urban landscaping / urban forestry on large scale.

·      Planting trees with large water absorbing capacity

·      Minimizing building envelops defined in the building zoning

·      Redefining building bye-laws to minimize ground coverage/increased depth of setbacks and making mandatory to leave minimum 40% of land area as porous.

·      Making all green spaces zero-water discharge-

·      Making all pavement porous for reducing rain water discharge

·      Incentivizing institutions/ buildings promoting zero-rainwater discharge

·      Levying charges for rain water discharge based on the area of the plot/amount of rain water discharge.  

·      Creating  urban storm water park in the city for  collecting, cleansing, storing storm water and letting it infiltrate it into the aquifer. vegetation) and blue (water) networks –

Planning Urban Mobility--Transportation

·      Making travel and traffic integral part of planning, development and management process of the city and not making it an afterthought/left over.

·      Managing/minimizing  travel demand and trip length

·      Minimizing intra-city travel

·      Separating inter/intra city traffic

·      Planning for people, not for vehicles

·      Promoting accessibility and not mobility

·      Making urban transportation people centric and not vehicle centric.

·      Promoting Green Transportation- Cycling and Walking

·      Planning dedicated quality transportation network for cycling/walking as integral part of neighborhood planning.

·      Integrating and bringing various modes of travel on same

Platform.

·      Promoting mixed land use and avoiding pure land use planning.

·      Making cities compact to promote walkability/cycling

·      Promoting transit oriented development

·      Leveraging technology on large scale to rationalize traffic

·      Creating dedicated app for traffic management

·      Creating a unified traffic regulatory authority at local/regional level. 

·      Creating a unified command centre for monitoring and managing traffic

·      Promoting bus based mass rapid transport – rationalizing routes, rationalizing fair, making buses comfortable, minimizing changes, making fare affordable.

·      Creating awareness- educating/ involving communities

·      Making core areas walkable by eliminating vehicles

·      Discouraging widening of roads in core areas/walled cities

·      Shifting bulk- material markets/activities attracting large volume of vehicular traffic- outside the congested areas- to areas designated in the master plans

·      Creating pedestrian/cyclists’ friendly spaces at the neighborhood/city areas

·      Promoting decentralization of activities- creating self-contained neighborhoods

·      Creating net-work based work spaces at the local level/neighborhood level

·      Asking institutions/industries employing large manpower/ users to run dedicated buses/travel options to minimize travel by personal vehicles.

·      Pricing of roads used  for discouraging use of private vehicles

·      Using the mechanism of equitable allocation of space in roads carrying large number of vehicles ,based on the proportion of passengers transported.

·       Making optimum use of available traffic and  transportation network

·      Using mechanism of staggering of timing of operation of offices/ schools etc.

·      Avoiding pure-land use planning and promoting mixed land use strategy.

·      Avoiding use of grid-iron road pattern-- where adopted to be superimposed by diagonal network to reduce distances.

·      Using city shapes and pattern of streets which minimize the travel/traffic

·      Putting in place a well-defined hierarchy of road pattern.

·      Promoting pedestrianization/cycling for travel within the large  institutions/ campus

·      Creating network for bi-cycle sharing in the city.

·      Deploying professionally trained/educated transportation related manpower at city level

·      Creating adequate transportation related manpower by starting specialized courses in traffic and transportation courses in all planning institutions/ institutions of higher engineering learning.

·      Running special campaigns for educating road users in general and pedestrians /cyclists/children/senior citizens/physically challenged persons

·      Minimizing traffic accidents

·      Promoting R&D in the area of urban transportation

·      Marking dedicated funds for rationalizing/ creating traffic and transportation infrastructure.

·      Dedicating defined periods in the year for holding roadshows and educating the road users.

·      Restricting/rationalizing the vehicle ownership in the cities.

·      Rationalizing the charges for parking based on- intensity of vehicle population, availability of road space, duration of parking, typology of vehicle parked etc.- parking area in large demand need to have higher parking charges and parking areas less in demand could offer lower parking charges for better utilization.

·      Clearly defining  and appropriately managing long term/short term parking needs

·      Mandating provision of  adequate space for parking of vehicles within the house in the building bye-laws .Depth of Front setbacks  need to be rationalized and construction of boundary walls to be dispensed with for  creating adequate space for parking  within the plot area.

·      Plinth levels /road berms need rationalization for easy parking of vehicles.

·      Road cross-sections need careful study for defining metaled portions and width of the kerbs to be provided on each side. Central position of the metaled portion with adequate/equal width of berms on both sides to be preferred.

·      Road widths needs detailed study when planning of houses on one side/both sides to rationalize mobility/ traffic/parking  

Conserving Heritage;

·      Making Heritage  integral part of the local level plans/ Master plans/ Development plans for integrating heritage with the planning process by  including a dedicated chapter on the local heritage- identification, development and management.

·      Clearly/precisely  defining Heritage  through an effective/efficient legal framework.

·      Creating/improving capacity/framework at local level to identify/demarcate/notify/ plan /develop/manage the heritage in a time-bound manner .

·      Widening scape of  Heritage not only to natural/manmade environment but also  to include all tangible/intangible assets valued by the local communities

·      Promoting awareness/ understanding of  the context and empowering people and communities to conserve local heritage.

·      Making heritage identification, preservation, conservation, value addition and management- a people centric/ community  led  mission and not government led program.

·      Creating adequate manpower for identification/planning /development/ management of identified heritage by running specialized courses in institutions of higher learning in architecture/planning/ engineering/ management.

·      Earmarking dedicated funds for development /management of identified heritage.

·      Involving corporate/private sector in heritage identification/ development/ management. Making heritage conservation part of CSR activities to generate assured financial resources.

·      Creating dedicated/specialized legal framework for preserving identifying heritage through heritage conservation regulations.

·      Including Heritage in the school level study curricula for making students aware about the role and importance of heritage and its conservation.

·      Involving local institutions in heritage conservation/preservation/ management by involving local youth by training them as tourist guides.

·      Creating local ownerships of heritage for safeguarding and promoting heritage at local level.

·       Effectively and efficiently integrating Heritage and Tourism to promote employment, eliminate  poverty and promote local economy.

·      Identification/promotion local art and craft  for promoting local economy and employment.

·      Bringing dedicated, quality  and well-illustrated literature/films for promoting/wide dissemination of  the local heritage.

·      Holding dedicated festivals to celebrate and commemorate the local heritage for  rational growth and development of the heritage areas.

·      Rationalizing development in and around heritage areas by eliminating haphazard/unplanned/sub-standard development for safeguarding the heritage assets.

·      Supplementing and complementing the heritage areas with appropriate/ supportive infrastructures/amenities, without adversely impacting the ambience and glory of the heritage

·      Evolving Comprehensive Conservation Heritage Strategy based on four distinct pillars of-- promoting Understanding -- Ensuring Positive Action-- Developing Partnerships -- Promoting Best Practice.

·      Conservation / Heritage Strategy must revolve around;-

?       Promoting partnerships between different stakeholders

?       Creating awareness / appreciation of value of heritage assets

?        Incentivizing conservation /promoting / monitoring/reviewing heritage  sites on regular basis.

?       Organizing exhibitions/conferences /workshops at Heritage sites

?        Synthesizing historic resources with economic development strategies.

?       Avoiding commercialization of heritage over conservation values.

?       Promoting active re-use of heritage buildings-Palaces/ hotels/ museums --for larger public use / making value addition to heritage

?        generating resources for maintenance & upkeep of heritage assets.

?       Promoting best practice for- preservation , conservation and management of heritage sites

?       Promoting partnership -- between public, private and voluntary sectors 

?       Fostering continued use/ enjoyment /access to diverse historic assets

?        ensuring   contribution to  quality of life present / future generations.  

?       Developing short, medium / long term targets-- within available resources

?       Creating reservoir/pool of skilled/trained manpower for heritage conservation. 

?        Improving communication

?       Making people believe that development and heritage are positively co-related -- for promoting economy/ quality of life/ removing poverty

?       Promoting participative governance -- by  empowering local communities in the planning / implementation /promoting vigilance of the heritage sites

?       Making rational choices of combining--  restoration, rehabilitation/ preservation  for promoting valuable heritage.

?       Creating an efficiently operated platform for  administration, interaction, collaboration and co-operation between the key partners .

Caring for Communities

·      Making planning people centric based on their vision and aspirations.

·      Making citizens integral part of city planning, development and governance process.

·      Ensuring basic amenities of food, shelter , clothing, eduction and healthcare, on prescribed norms, for all the residents as a matter of basic human right.

·      Focusing on quality of life, equality and equity- based opportunities for all.

·      Reordering priorities to generate gainful employment for all.

·      Empowering people and communities to promote planned and orderly development

·      Creating an effective and efficient mechanism of involving communities in urban spaces

·      Creating an effective, efficient and responsive mechanism of redressing public grievances.

·      Leveraging technology for involving communities by creating community planning websites;  holding public meetings; carrying out public surveys; creating interactive platform ;placing suggestion boxes; holding competitions; displaying models

·      Incentivizing communities for adopting/promoting good practices in conserving resources, promoting solid waste management, energy/water conservation, reporting leakage/waster of services, maintenance and promoting green/open spaces.

·      Incentivizing communities in celebrating and values cities and its heritage.

·       Creating appropriate platform for community participation and involvement in planning, decision making etc. on continued basis.

·      Creating and empowering  pressure groups for safeguarding the environmental, bio-diversity, ecological aspects of urban living

·      Involving communities by creating local ownership of urban places/spaces.

·      Creating opportunities for communities to interact with experts for local area planning,  improvement; development and management.

·      Creating a  Think- Tank involving local talent and expertise available with the communities for planning, development and management of public assets.

·      Effective involvement of communities to revolve around Identifying, appreciating and building on the  neighborhood’s  existing demographic and cultural influences.

·      Creating appropriate level of trust between citizens and local leadership for conveying the message that local communities and their views, ideas, aspiration and needs are valued and built in the projects/programs. 

Empowering Local Governance

·      Avoiding multiplicity of agencies involved in local level planning, development and management .

·      Designating Urban local bodies operating at local level as the planning/development authorities.

·      Empowering local authorities with adequate resources( manpower & financial), power, authority, responsibility for rational urban management.

·      Empowering local leadership for Good governance ;  promoting planned development /state of art development/ bringing innovations in urban planning/empowering cities/making cities sustainable.

·      Dedication , knowledge, understanding, commitment  and sincerity essential for good leadership for  leading by examples.

·      Making Good governance revolve around; making value based choices in planning, development and governance.

·      Creating well-defined ownership for cities among people/communities

·      Building on a high performance team of officials  having knowledge, understanding, expertise and commitment.

·     Making accountability integral part of the governance process- Creating Culture of Accountability

·     Creating well- defined city Leadership- Mayor

·     Adopting professional / Management Approach

·     Promoting Training and Development

·     Investing in Learning

·     Securing Stakeholders Consensus

·     Launching Pilot Programs of development  in cities

·     Prioritizing/defining Agenda for City Growth

·     Holding direct elections to the posts of Mayor/President/ other office bearers, making accountability as part of the urban governance.

·     Defining qualifications/experience for local leadership for ensuring competent local leadership

·     Creating posts of Chief Executive officer in the urban local bodies for effective monitoring/implementation of the development agenda.

·     Mayors of Curitiba, New York, Washington, Rio-de Janeiro, Bogota, Toledo,  London, created highest degree of urban Leadership/Governance to make cities Smart/Sustainable/Futuristics

Empowering Cities

·      Empowering cities  to be self-sustaining and self-sufficient in matters of related to raising/spending resources; promoting good governance; undertaking long/short term planning & development; making provision of services etc.

·       Implementing 73/74th Constitutional Amendments in letter and spirits.

·      Creating a dedicated list of municipal sources of revenue on the pattern defined for the centre /states in the constitution.

·      Making optimum use of available resources for the overall development of the settlement.

·       Positioning a dedicated agency at the city level, uly supported by requisite power, authority, responsibility and resources, both manpower, financial and technical.

·      Adopting best global practices appropriate to the existing/prevailing  environment, culture, socio- economic values and available resources.

·      Promoting a culture of security, safety and mutual co-operation among residents

·      Creating large number of public spaces at the local, sub-local, zonal, sub-city and city-level.

·      Making cities futuristic by innovations/ creating out of box ideas/leveraging technology, to achieve higher quality living and achieving operational efficiency.

Greening Cities

·      Providing well-defined-and- qualitative open spaces, on the prescribed norms and standards, covering entire length/breadth of the city/pan-city-- should be made integral part of urban planning process.

·      Making cities Green and blue by creating large open spaces and number of  water bodies.

·      Making available green spaces @ 9 sqm per resident

·      Involving communities/Corporate sectors, in creating,  planning, designing and maintaining the open spaces.

·      Making available open spaces to all residents/communities  in the cities based on equity and equality.

·      Using all low- lying areas for greening and creating water bodies

·      Creating large wealth of trees/capita in the city- involving creation of urban forests.

·      Protecting/ preserving/declaring  all existing flora and fauna to be protected

·      Celebrating flora/fauna  by holding   dedicated festival on the pattern of Rose festival, Chandigarh

·      Incentivizing the use of  land available with institutions for landscaping and tree plantation

·      Using land available with parastatal agencies for planting trees and promoting greenery in cities

·      Mandating all stretches of land falling under HT Electrical lines  to create green/landscaped corridors in the city.

·      Mandating use of land legally prohibited for urbanization,-- to be used for greening cities.

·      Using all vacant urban land available with parastatal agencies ,marked for future developed, for plantation of trees.   

·      Mandating all industrial units/ institutions planting trees based on specified area norms

·      Recognizing  individuals/communities/RWA/instructions for good work done in promoting greenness in cities.

·      Making operational a well-defined policy for greening the available public areas.

·      Involving communities in planning designing and maintaining the available green areas in the city.

·      Involving corporate sector/institutions in promoting green cover and increasing the number of trees by giving advertisement rights.

·      Permitting planning, designing, developing and maintenance of landscaping of the area under roundabouts/traffic rotaries

·      Earmarking dedicated spaces in the city for communities to promote plantation of trees in memory of their dear/near ones by paying charges for plantation and maintenance- Smriti Van

·      Creating a well-defined policy of greening roof areas/walls to promote green cover in the city/core areas of the city.

·      Redefining the building regulations to minimize area under building envelop/ ground coverage and increasing porous areas within the plotted development.

·      Defining/Using areas along equivalent green area in the building itself.

·      Promoting green buildings for creating large green spaces

·      Adopting the concept of buildings within gardens rather than gardens within buildings

·      Bringing landscaping and greenery from outside to inside buildings

·      Focusing on promoting green areas while planning/designing buildings

·      Incentivizing the use of all available vacant/unused areas for creating green cover- underground parking/under-ground water works etc.

·      Using super- trees concept adopted in Singapore for creating large number of trees and green cover.

·      Using areas over public/personal corridors for landscaping

·      Promoting green culture in planning and designing of institutional areas.

Leveraging Technology;

·      Technology to hold the key to planning , designing , managing, empowering and making cities sustainable.

·      Using technology for sourcing data related to operation of cities and using for rational decision making/bringing all line departments on same platform/promoting co-ordination/avoiding duplication and overlapping/ avoiding wastage of resources/filling existing gaps in service delivery

·      Technology can be leveraged for;

-Rational Planning and designing

-Preparing /Amending  Master Plans/ Development Plans

-Implementing Master /Development Plans

- Monitoring Delivery of services- water supply, sanitation, electricity, roads

 --Tackling air pollution

--creating platform for efficiency

--breaking silos

-- lodging complaints/making suggestions for improved services

--making payments on line

--rendering services on line

-Managing travel/traffic/parking

- Digitizing bus stops- bus schedule,

-Managing solid waste- using sensor  based garbage bins

- Promoting accessibility

– Managing services

--Minimizing travel

--Tackling noise

- Monitoring Pollution

-Interacting/comnnecting with community

-Raising/collecting resources

-Promoting efficiency in levying/ defining municipal taxes/fees/charges

-Carrying out surveys

-Monitoring effectively the quality of development on ground

- Minimizing the requirement of manpower-making operation cost-effective

- Minimizing malpractices/corruption

- Promoting transparency in decision making

- Promoting Good /effective/ efficient governance.

-Rationalizing Selection of sites for the projects

-Promoting urban mapping

- Checking unauthorized/uncontrolled/haphazard development/construction

- Effective monitoring of growth of slums

 Monitoring government assets/ checking encroachments on public property

Three Mantra for Healing  Cities- Mackenzie Global Institute Report

 1. Achieve smart growth

·      -- finding best options to do things sustainably

·      -- promote economic growth for people –

·      -- making people earn good livelihood

·      -- make them enjoy a good quality of life.

2. Do more with less–

·      -- cities need money to accomplish all wants .

·      Collecting, managing/spending  resources economically, effectively/ efficiently

3. Win support for change-

·      - Leaders need to;

-- deliver fast, positive, /visible results,

- build support for changes.

--- Based on high-performing civil services.

·      Author

   **Jit Kumar Gupta

     Former Advisor, Town Planning,

      Punjab Urban Development Authority

     #344, Sector 40-A, Chandigarh-160036

    mail- [email protected], mob- 90410-26414

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