Why is our urban planning in such a mess?

BY GAUTAM BHATIA

Drive through any growing Indian city: Agra, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai,
Pune—whether metro or moffusil, cantonment or industrial township, the
unbridgeable gap between people’s demands and civic reality becomes apparent.
In dimension, scale, numbers or aesthetics, what people want and what the city
offers?are opposing?and?often unmanageable?compromises

A Pajero owner sends his driver in the 3000cc four-wheel drive to pick up a loaf of
bread from the market. A company executive owns a BMW Series 7, a driving
machine that moves effortlessly at 100mph on German autobahns, but on the
overcrowded Indian street, the same car is a sad parody of the original. It is
usually stuck in evening traffic between cyclists and rickshaws.
And with no parking space in the home, the street has been privatized with
ominous signs: Parking for House D3 only. Tyres will be deflated. Similar levels of
overcrowding in municipal lots create a system where cars are jammed against
each other in order to maximize space.

Scarcity of water and electricity has been pushed to the background; there is
now a new cause: parking wars, one of the many curses of the 21st century
city.
Is the city then merely a frame for personal convenience, or is there a
community purpose to urban living? If there is opportunity in the city,
shouldn’t there also be restriction?
The best cities are, in fact, built entirely on undemocratic foundations. They
are based as much on the provision of opportunity to citizens as on enforcing
a severe restrictive framework on their daily life. That London has some of the
best natural parks in the world is the result of numerous ordinances that
control the buildings around them, limit activities within, and now—with the
imposition of a congestion tax—restrict the inflow of vehicles into town. Could
New Delhi ever place similar restrictions on its city centre, or Lucknow on
Hazratganj?
Along the east coast of the US, many new towns are designed only for
pedestrians. Parking lots are banished to the periphery of the town. In our
country, however, where a majority of the people own no vehicle at all, the
sidewalk has disappeared altogether. The development of a coherent townscape
is also a matter of urban concern.