URBAN PLANNING - KEY TO GOOD URBAN GOVERNANCE

URBAN PLANNING - KEY TO GOOD URBAN GOVERNANCE

Prof. J.K. Gupta; [email protected]

Former Director, College of Architecture, IET, Bhaddal

1.????PROLOGUE

1.1???????Contemporary Urban world has its genesis in three major developments which inter-alia include growth in size, number and spread of human settlements; increase in the proportion of population that lives in urban centres and transformation of the society based on large proportion of population making urban centres as place of residence besides following a pattern of life which has its origin and character in urban environment. Combination of these three developments has created a system which is both powerfully deep seated and self- reinforcing. It has rapidly changed the spatial organization and economy, which has impacted both local and global environment.

1.2??????Cities as economic and social system in space involving large concentration of population; concentration of Industry; principle centers of economy and polity; large consumer markets and highly trained workforce, represent most viable and suitable places with significant, social and economic achievements. Cities are known to contribute disproportionately to economic growth and social transportation by providing economics of scale and proximity that allows industry and commerce to flourish. They also offer optimum location for services and facilities which require large population threshold and markets for its operational efficiency. Despite housing large population at higher densities, cities are known to offer opportunities and quality of life better than its rural counterparts.

1.3???????Looking in the Indian context urbanization is, primarily and essentially, characterized by its massiveness, duality and contradictions. Despite the fact that level of urbanization merely stands at 31.11% in 2011, number of urban dwellers are placed at 377 million. Considering the massive differential between urban and rural growth rate (2.1% against 0.7%), number of urban dwellers will share parity with rural population by 2050 AD. Next four decades are likely to witness enormous growth in terms of numbers of urban centres, their size and population. It is estimated that by 2050 AD number of Metro Cities will go beyond 100 with Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi occupying distinct place and rating among the largest urban centres at the global level. In the given context urban centres are likely to emerge as major settlements, housing large proportion of Indian population.

1.4??????? Urban India besides housing large population concentrated in a limited area, is also known to make sizeable contribution to the national economy. It is said that in the year 1951, with level of urbanization placed at merely 17.29%, contribution of Urban India to the gross national product was of the order of 29%. In the year 1971, contribution recorded was 37% with level of urbanization placed at 19.91%. In 1991, with urbanization going up to 25.72%, contribution level was recorded as 50%. In the year 2001, urban centres contributed 60% share in GNP with urbanization placed at 27.78%. It is estimated that by 2021, when urbanization will be in the range of 35-38%, contribution of urban India will be in the range of 70-72% .With highly positive correlation between urbanization and GNP, it can be safely visualized that urban centres will be major drivers of Indian economy and story-writers of its growth and development. This calls for critically and objectively looking at the urban centres in terms of their pattern of growth and development and evolving strategies which make them more productive, efficient, healthy and sustainable.

1.5??????? Despite distinct advantages and critical role, urban centres have not been growing in a planned and rational manner. Emerging urban scenario on Indian canvas is that of duality and contradiction where large number of slums are over-shadowing the city growth; where slums and state-of-the-art buildings are rubbing shoulders; where poverty and prosperity compete with one-another; where unplanned development has emerged as the order of the day; where informal sector govern the growth and where basic amenities and services are eluding the majority of urban residents. Majority of urban centres continue to face problems of acute housing shortage and rapid uncontrolled growth resulting into haphazard expansion with sub-standard infrastructure, adversely impacting the quality of life of majority of urban residents. The existing inadequacies have further resulted into inefficient traffic and transportation besides uncontrolled rapid growth and proliferation of informal sector. Poverty and environment have emerged as the major issues and greatest threat to the urban dynamism. In addition, urban centres are fast emerging as largest consumers of non-renewal resources and energy, adversely impacting the sustainability both at local and global level. They are also generating enormous amount of waste which is grossly polluting water, air and land based necessities of human existence, growth, development and survival.

1.6??????? Looking at the entire context, Indian?urbanization can be called a urbanization of poverty, population and pollution marked by large concentration of people in a small area; rapid growth of urban poverty; inadequate and inefficient state of service delivery; unregulated expansion and pollution ?which have emerged as some of the major concerns of urban growth and development. The present state of affairs of urban sector can be largely attributed to the way urban centres are being managed and governed. In the Indian context, urban governance is conspicuously ineffective, resultantly inefficient. Major problems faced by urban centres have their genesis in the poor quality of urban governance in these centres. Poor urban governance has at its roots in the poor urban planning. Urban planning which is considered as the key to overcome majority of the urban problems, is, by and large, absent in the majority of urban settlements. Most of the urban centres are being managed and developed by proxy. Therefore, in order to leverage the inherent potential of urban centres, it becomes critical that urban centres are effectively and efficiently governed through a well defined and innovative system of planning and development. ?Effective, efficient and people centric urban governance can be put on professional pedestal only through the mechanism of planned development. In this context, role of physical planners and planning profession assumes critical importance to usher an era of high quality of urban governance.

2.?????????GOOD GOVERNANCE AND URBAN PLANNING

2.1??????? Urban Governance as an issue, as an option and as a strategy to leverage the inherent potential of urban centres has been well recognized and assumed critical importance in the context of ever growing role and importance of urban centres in the overall economic growth, employment generation and contribution such centres make to the national/state wealth. Accordingly, good urban governance ranks high on the agenda of all welfare governments. With urban centres growing larger and larger, urban governance becomes critical because of the impact it has on the life and liberty of innumerable urban dwellers. With cities becoming centres for large investments, centres of large concentration of population and providers of specialized services and amenities, their effective and efficient functioning assumes added importance.

2.2???????With India following a policy of economic liberalization, globalization and deregulation, urban centres in general and large urban centers in particular are going to attract lot of investment.?Urban centers are likely to emerge as the hub around which entire Indian economy and polity would gravitate. Accordingly, it would be essential that appropriate environment is created in these centres to attract investment, provide employment, eradicate poverty and ensure appropriate quality of life to make them more productive and sustainable. If urban centres have been termed as engines of economic growth, urban governance can rightly be called wheels of such engines. Urban governance, accordingly becomes more relevant and critical, because capacity of a nation to pursue its goals of economic, physical and social growth is contingent upon its capacity to govern its towns and cities effectively and efficiently.

2.3 ?Urban settlements are vital because they define the agenda for human living and working. Accordingly the overall objective is to improve social, economic and environmental quality of urban settlements and the living and working environment of all people, in particular the urban poor. Based on this premise ?in 1996, the Habitat Agenda identified adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements as the international priorities. Subsequently, UN General Assembly in its special session and World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 stressed the need for promoting more sustainable urbanization through better urban governance. Considering that urban planning is central to promote better governance of urban settlements, proactive role and importance of urban planning is accordingly stressed. Urban Planning has the capacity and capability of promoting sustainability besides making connections between people, economic opportunities and the environment. It also has the potential to reduce poverty and promote quality of life for all the urban dwellers through the generation of social and economic opportunities. Urban planning has the potential and capacity to usher an era of rational growth and planned development, provide space and platform for affordable living and ensure basic services and amenities and quality of life in urban centres.

2.4?Looking at the existing scenario of ever increasing and all pervasive poverty; growth of slums on a scale never known before; high degree of traffic congestion and obsolescence prevailing in urban settlements; acute shortage of basic amenities and services in the towns and cities, haphazard and unplanned development emerging ?as the accepted pattern of growth, a new regime of urban planning emerges as the basic necessity to improve the development framework of urban centres. Urban Planning has been found to have considerable effectiveness and impact in leveraging good governance through:

i)??????Reducing considerably new slums formation through slum up- gradation and ensuring adequate supply of land for development of affordable shelters in safe and accessible locations.

ii)?????Reducing vulnerability to natural disasters through carefully siting and planning urban settlements and designing them as energy efficient and green settlements by addressing key issues of climate change.

iii)????Creating Environmentally friendly cities through adopting a new regime of transportation based on least priority for personalized mode of transport, using more efficient and economical city forms, making cities more compact and humane, creating sustainable built environment besides putting in place legal and governmental system which is promoter of ?state of art planning?and development ?besides good governance.

iv)???Building sustainable economic growth based an adopting livelihood focus in the urban planning, helping in the process ??reducing urban poverty and rural-urban migration by creating appropriate level of gainful employment opportunities. Re-planning declining cities and derelict areas and reusing/ recycling urban land ?leading to?sustainable economic growth and better governance.

v)?????Creating safer and crime-free cities by adopting planning based on inclusiveness and partnership and providing a comprehensive framework for different interest groups to work together for a common purpose. Planned reconstruction and a governance approach used in the post- conflict reconstruction in strife-torn cities found to be highly effective to create sustainable communities.

vi)???Enhancing quality of life in human settlements by addressing human, social ,cultural , environmental and?natural aspects of settlements infrastructure through the mechanism of urban planning recognizing that poverty remains?central to planning of urban settlements.

vii)??Generating Resources by leveraging the inherent potential and capacity ?of urban centres to generate resources for development of basic infrastructure and service and providing amenities which are critical to human sustenance and growth. Planned development has capacity to usher a new era in the regime of generating fiscal resources through the mechanism of levying the development charges, land use conversion charges etc.

viii)???Creating land bank in urban centres through the framing of land pooling and distribution schemes by involving land owners as co-partners in the planning and development process. Town Planning Scheme in Punjab , Gujarat, Maharashtra have ?been role-model in creating land banks for ?providing ?housing?for the poor and laying down road network beside creating open spaces and sites for physical and social infrastructures.

3.?????????RE-INVENTING PLANNING?

3.1 ????Promoting planned development and involvement of Town Planners have amply demonstrated that good planning can lead to good urbanism and good governance. Areas developed under mechanism of planning have clearly shown that they offer better quality of life and environment as compared to un- planned parcels. Chandigarh, Manesar, Gurgaon, Noida, Panchkula, Mohali etc. are few examples of planned development which have amply demonstrated the effectiveness of urban planning. Master Plans and Development Plans prepared for various cities have considerably redefined the destiny of existing towns and cities and have put them on the path of rational growth and development. Building Bye-laws and Zoning Regulations/Development Control Regulations have also helped in rational use of land and enabled construction of buildings which meet the basic requirement of quality living besides ensuring air, light and ventilation within the buildings. ?However, despite numerous efforts made, inherent, potential and genesis of art and science of planned development has not been fully appreciated and put in operation in the development of urban centres. Most of the cities suffering in the context of poor urban governance have their roots in the neglect of urban planning. Urban planning remains central to urban governance and this fact must be duly acknowledged??and accepted. No city can ensure good urban governance unless it is backed and supported by a comprehensive, integrated, effective and efficient mechanism of urban planning.

3.2 ??However, in order to make urban planning supportive of good governance, we have to ?look for?new ?innovative and better options?and put in place a new planning regime in operation. It?needs to be appreciated that present form and pattern of physical planning and town planning will not be able to meet effectively challenges of 21st century in terms of rapid and massive urbanization of population, urbanization of poverty, urbanization of pollution?and?Natural Disasters. Planners?need to revisit their planning tools, planning processes and planning options/ strategies in the changed context. They need to be made more effective and efficient in order to meet the ??emerging urban dynamism and challenges.

3.3 ???Master Plans /Development Plans have been extensively used by urban planners to usher an era of planned development and redefine future growth pattern of the cities. But in practice, these plans have emerged as the major roadblocks in the planned growth and development of the cities. Master Plans have known to be rigid, consumers of enormous time and resources, based purely on land use, addressing merely physical issues, difficult to interpret etc. In the process, Master Plans have been put the planning process behind the city growth and chasing development. With considerable time taken for preparation, approvals and following procedural/legal requirements, cities continue to grow in the absence of the planning framework in an illegal manner, with the result majority of Master Plan proposals become non-implementable. Rigidly defined land use and Development Control, Regulations often fall under public criticism resulting in more violations than compliance.?Agencies involved in planning are invariably far removed from cities leading to formation of non-realistic proposals. Agencies involved in implementation lack technical and financial resources for effective implementation. The existing administrative capacity and dichotomy in planning has led to non-implementation of Master Plans. This calls for re-looking at the intent, content and scope of Master plans which need to be redefined to bring in more flexibility, ?make them less consumers of time and manpower in their preparation , for?imparting??required level of dynamism to meet the emerging needs of the cities and making them user friendly. Mechanism of preparing the Master Plans should be able to create local ownership leading to its effective implementation. This would call for a new regime of planning ?to be put in place for preparing better Master Plan by involving all the stakeholders in a transparent manner to ensure better quality of planned development and better governance of cities.

3.4 ???Legal framework guiding the planning profession and practice also needs to be relooked into in order to make it supportive of the new planning goals and better urban governance. Legal frameworks needs to be simplified and redefined to provide numerous options to planners to bring flexibility into the planning mechanism, minimize the time frame for plan preparation, plan approvals and plan implementation. Multiplicity of planning laws needs to be avoided with unified and comprehensive legal framework put in place. Multiplicity of agencies created to regulate planning, growth and development of urban centres also need to be avoided and provided for in the legal framework. Building bye-laws need to be reframed in order to make them promoters of quality development. Existing laws have done more damage than good and have emerged as major roadblocks in the construction of state of art, energy efficient and sustainable buildings. Building?bye-laws need to be simplified and made user- friendly.

3.5 ????Planning education also needs to be relooked, in terms of its contents, intent and syllabi in order to make supportive of new regime of planning practice and profession. New subjects need to be put in place in order to meet emerging challenges of urbanization. Planning education should be able to contribute in training better town planners who are promoters of development and not controllers of development; who are able to understand the needs, aspirations and requirements of urban settlements and address them; who can quantify the emerging challenges/threats to urban centres and evolve policy options for meeting those challenges/threats effectively; who are able to redefine an agenda of futuristic vision and development for the urban settlements. Urban governance should be made integral part of the planning education in order to enable the planners appreciate and understand the genesis of planning and governance besides their inter-relationship and integration

3.6???For urban planning to be more effective and efficient, it will be important that local planning functions must be devolved at the local level as envisioned in the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992. In addition, it will be important that well resourced planning organizations are created at the metropolitan and municipal levels. The agencies must be fully equipped to innovate with latest planning options, technologies and models in order to answer any challenge posed by fast changing urban world. Unfortunately, research and development is totally missing in the field of urban planning which has led to the decay of the planning process and its getting outdated within a short time span. Efficient research and development will hold the key to urban planning to innovate, to evolve new models, strategies and options in order to make urban planning effective, efficient and productive in the area of city planning and city governance. All Planning and Development Authority must have R & D cells in planning departments to undertake the task of research and development. Dedicated and exclusive funds must be allocated for research and development in the budget of such agencies which can be used by research agencies or planning schools based on specific proposals/projects submitted. In addition to creating efficient planning agencies and research cells, it will be critical to ensure tight execution and putting in place an enforcement mechanism for implementation of the city plans duly supported by a transparent system of exemptions and sufficient public participation. Urban planning in India has ?largely suffered due to acute prevailing shortage of trained planning professionals. In order to build large reservoir of qualified urban planners, it will be desirable to create 6 to 8 world class planning institutes on the pattern of IITs to train 3000 to 4000 planners annually. This would help in meeting the perpetual shortage of planners faced in the country.

3.7 ????World Planners Congress, Vancouver, 2006 has defined a new regime of urban planning as the underlying mechanism for promoting effective urban governance. Position Paper “Re-inventing Planning : A New Governance Paradigm for Managing Human Settlements”?prepared for the Congress, calls for?putting in place a new urban planning approach to be based on following ten major principles to achieve the objectives of good governance :

i)Sustainability :Based on integrated, social, economic and environmental considerations in human settlement planning taking into account impact of today’s development on future generations.

ii) Integrated Planning:?Involving economic, physical and environmental planning, set in an institutional framework to deliver efficiency and effectiveness that support rather than undercut each other.

Iii) Integration with Budget:???Ensuring integration and providing appropriate linkages to public and private budgetary processes for effective implementation and mobilization of resources.

iv) Planning with Partners : Involving all stakeholders including government, private sector, voluntary agencies and civil societies to foster voluntary collaboration. New urban planning works on the premise that planning is less an instrument of government and more a process of good governance; making city planning more participatory; making planning accountable to public through public scrutiny; bringing objectivity and inclusiveness in decision making; and making urban planning more?rational,dynamic and performance oriented.

v) Subsidiary:?Through clearly defined rules of different parastatal?agencies; decentralization to enable local bodies to play the leading role; involving community based organizations on matters that can be determined at local level and integration of processes to create efficiency and effectiveness.

vi) Market Responsiveness:?Through understanding of land related market demand particularly of the poor; creating opportunities for private sector; anticipating impact and reducing risks. Plans having credibility are bound to receive good market response and succeed.

vii)Access to Land:?By making land market more efficient, affordable and ?dynamic to meet the needs of all sectors through the creation of an equitable system of land ownership and land management by recognizing the reality of existing slums and informal settlements and their?right for upgradation and shelter.

Viii) Appropriable tools: Recognizing that rigid urban controls are not feasible/ desirable in rapid urbanization. Controls must be made strategic, affordable, effective and sensitive to meet the growing urban dynamism/ needs of the poor while conserving essential ecological resources.

ix)Pro-poor and Inclusive:?Through the recognition of rights to the city of poor, old, children, women, homeless and the low-income group of people and changing from ‘area based’ to ‘ area focus’ approach to protect and safeguard?the interest of have-nots.

x)Cultural Variation:??Through replacing uniformity imposed by existing Master’s Planning Model by including cultural priorities and preferences; replacing outdated legal regimes; and capacity building through skill development for professionals, community based organizations and training of politicians

?4 CONCLUSIONS

4.1 ???Urban planning and urban governance are both people centric and accordingly have their prime concern and focus on looking at and promoting the welfare of the people, improving their social, physical, economical and environmental conditions besides improving their quality of life. In addition both aim at ?creating ?supportive conditions and ?environment which helps people to perform their basic functions of living, working , care of body and spirit and circulation in the most effective and efficient manner. Accordingly urban planning and urban governance are interlinked and have close relationship. In fact both are supportive of one another. There cannot be good urban governance without the input of good and rational planning.

4.2???Looking critically and objectively at the entire context of good urban governance, it can be fairly concluded that effective urban planning holds the key to good urban governance. Poor urban governance in the present context has its genesis in poor urban planning. In order to enable the urban planning to play its desired and designated role in urban governance it will be critical that operational mechanism of urban planning is critically looked into and made more responsive to the emerging urban dynamism. Unfortunately in India, role of urban planners have not been given appropriate recognition. Limited numbers of planning institutions have contributed to restricting the number of qualified professionals. With urban centres holding the key, future growth and development of the cities will be contingent largely upon the proficiency, efficacy and efficiency of ‘Planning Profession and Professionals’. Sooner this is realized and rationalized, better it will be for the nation and urban centres to promote good governance.

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