Sunday, August 06, 2006
Who is in charge of planning for Chennai?
The citizens of Chennai are faced with two uncertainties. One is whether the city has an overall plan for its growth or is it developed through a series of stand-alone ad hoc projects. They ask themselves, which comes first - planning or projects? They also like to know who is in charge of planning their city and who would be accountable for it.
Planning is a holistic approach and its objective is to achieve a certain quality of life for the residents of the planned area. Planning typically would start from a vision based on the aspirations of people or on a political direction or even a concept. Sensitive planning would study and analyse all aspects of urban life and work out solutions for sustainable communities through land-use, transportation, road network and protection and conservation of important ecological and heritage zonesso that there can be a qualitative improvement in social, economic and cultural well being of people. Planning is expressed in quantitative terms through two-dimensional plans for implementation and would indicate the growth likely to take place within a time span and the infrastructure required to cope efficiently with it.The aim of mega stand-alone projects, however, is one-dimensional. They are planned and built with a single objective in mind and do not take all facets of life into consideration. Often other expensive palliative remedies need to be taken to counter the painful impact of such projects. Tidel Park and the I.T. corridor is a typical example of such stand-alone projects requiring corrective measures. Recently, a newspaper reported that at least three flyovers are required on the I.T. corridor to cope with traffic jams.
Stand-alone projects often come up in a hurry. The hope that the infrastructure will be put in place by the time these projects are operable is often belied because the various departments, which must simultaneously participate in ensuring this, have not bought in the project. To achieve the objective of an improved quality of life, projects should be a natural outcome of proper planning and must follow and not precede plans.
Till around four decades ago, the Chennai Corporation had been the premier agency in charge of all aspects of city development - water, sewerage, electricity, roads, health facilities, schools and, of course, land development and building. However, its powers have been steadily eroded by the various departments set up for each utility: CMDA for city planning, Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board for water and drainage, Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for electricity supply and so on. In fact, only Corporation schools and health centres are under its control. Whatever may have been the original reason for this separation of utilities, a holistic approach to the development of the city has been lost.
Thus we observe that for buildings, which have been issued demolition notices by the CMDA, electricity, water, and drainage connections are given and transformers, which must be located on roads being placed inside the sites, reducing the parking available within!
Fragmentation of planning departments has de-linked planning and projects.
Top-down exercise
Planning has been and continues to be a top down exercise. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority had in 1976 brought out the First Master Plan for Madras - a document whose contents are followed even today for sanctioning applications by the CMDA. The Second Master Plan is yet to see the light of day even though the High Court allowed the CMDA to bring it out in 2002.
Citizen groups in Chennai have challenged the legality of the CMDA bringing out the Master Plan. Constitutionally, under the 74th Amendment, it is the responsibility of the local bodies.Adding confusion to the chaos is the newly announced Jawarharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), a multi-crore urban renewal scheme that will route substantial funds towards new urban infrastructure projects in metros and other big cities. Citizens of Chennai have come to know that a City Development Plan (CDP) has been prepared by the Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation (TUFIDCO) with assistance from the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department for Chennai City. The CDP, upon approval from the Ministry of Urban Development, will guide the nature of infrastructure development in the city.
The CDP is not seen as an opportunity to collate public opinion on the vision for Chennai city. Instead, it is seen as a mere formality to be eligible for project funds under the new JNNURM floated by the Government of India. The issue raises the very basic question of whether TUFIDCO has any authority under the Constitution of India to draw up city plans bypassing the provisions of the 74th Amendment. Further, do they have the competence to develop a holistic plan? Have they consulted the local bodies or have the local bodies been sidelined once again in the exercise? Are the elected councillors abrogating their responsibility towards their constituency and willingly allowing their power to be usurped? Is the State Government still dominating the urban planning scenario and continuing to bypass the Corporation of Chennai in this exercise? If the CMDA has abdicated its role as a planning agency, what then is its role? And where is the people's participation, a vital component of the 74th Amendment, in this task?
Several cities of the world, in developed and developing countries, have powerful city councils, presided over by visionary mayors. They are financially and administratively independent of the State Government.
It is not only mayors and councils of rich cities such as London, New York, San Francisco and Moscow, which have made a difference. The councillors and mayors of poorer cities in South America such as Curitiba in Brazil and Bogota in Columbia have been acknowledged for bringing about positive changes to their cities. The sheer size and scale of cities and especially of a metropolis such as Chennai would require a powerful body committed totally to the welfare of its citizens starting with its planning. When will the elected representatives of Corporation of Chennai live up to their responsibilities and when will we see them take charge of planning for the city?
