The Myth of Urban Development in Thiruvananthapuram

Amit Kumar Srivastwa*

Post-graduate Research Scholar, School of Ecology and Environmental Studies, Nalanda University, Rajgir, Bihar, India.

Abstract: This paper discusses the given urban problems faced by the urban population in Thiruvananthapuram from
last two decades and how with the help of projects like Kerala Sustainable Urban development project and JNNURM
(Jawaharlal Nehru national urban renewal mission), government of Kerala came up with a sustainable method by which
they almost solve all the urban issues in this city and made Thiruvananthapuram a development model. After that paper
focuses on impacts of these projects and tries to understand the actual situation of Thiruvananthapuram as an urban city.
Finally, the paper suggests some other remedies for the betterment of urban planning in Thiruvananthapuram.

1.1: Introduction

Thiruvananthapuram is situated in Kerala, in the south part of the India. Among the Indian states,
Kerala is unique as it is demographically ahead of the rest of the country and is in final stages of
demographic transition (to low fertility and mortality) (Rajan and Zacariah, 2009). As compared to
India’s urban population of 28,49,95,688 from a total population of 102,52,51,059 and counting,
Kerala has 82,66,925 (25.97%) of the urban population and the state ranks 12 th in urbanization rate
in the country. Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital, and the southernmost district, has an
outstanding position with its essential natural resources base, is a center of many governmental and
nongovernmental institutions, is the site of one of Asia’s largest IT hubs and has many proposed and
upcoming new projects in store[ CITATION Reg14 \l 16393 ]. According to the Census 2011,
Thiruvananthapuram district covers an area of 5.60% of the total area of the state and has about
10.31% of the total population of which 46.33 percent people resides in rural area and 53.66 in urban
area with the literacy rate of 92.66 percent and which contributes to 11% of the state’s income and
most of the people are involved in secondary and tertiary sector for income. Thiruvananthapuram,
Varkala, Attingal, Nedumangad, Neyyatinkara are the five urban areas in the District (2). Also, the
district is famous for Tourism and religious institution.

The district also shows an increase in the urban population and this change of people from rural to
urban can result in greater production of goods and services, but it can also create congestion,
pollution and greater demand for housing, the problem of clean water and sanitation facilities,
recreation areas, public transports and health care. But because of huge tourist attraction, industrial
development, increasing population and improper planning of the city, Thiruvananthapuram faced
lots of problem e.g., insufficient and deteriorated transmission and distribution facilities of water,
sewerage & sanitation facilities either dysfunctional or covering limited area, poor urban
infrastructure, poorly maintained drainage plagued by heavy siltation and clogging, poor solid waste
management, pollution from religious beliefs and congested urban road network ever since last four
decades.

1.2: Problems in the City

Because of steady population growth and rapid urbanization, Households of Thiruvananthapuram

district faced many problems in past two decades, which were:-

Insufficient and deteriorated transmission and distribution facilities of water. The main problem with
distribution facilities of water was that the main lines of water distribution were aged 35-40 years.
Thiruvananthapuram water supply scheme was initially commissioned in 1933 and after that, there
was no new distribution facility till the 1990s. Even after Water (prevention and control of pollution)
Act, 1974, there was no policy implemented for sufficient supply of water. As the population of this
urban city has increased, this situation became complex and created a dilemma for many.

Sewerage & Sanitation facility was so poor in Thiruvananthapuram. It is either dysfunctional or

covering a limited area. Sewerage coverage is 40 percent is this city. The sewage farm designed for a
capacity of 8 mld was commissioned in 1945 and now the farm is overloaded with 6 times higher
quantity of sewage. The soil due to prolonged load of sewage and lack of maintenance provision has
substantially lost its porosity. Consequently, the raw sewage remains stagnated within the farm for
prolonged period developing septicity. Also in this district, there was a grip of severe mosquito
nuisance. Stagnation of waste water was a potential source of contamination of ground water and the
situation of the city in the early time period of last decade was that of health hazards and a threat to
ecology. Installation of a sewage treatment facility with appropriate technology was of immediate
need for them in 2005.

Poorly maintained drainage plagued by heavy siltation and clogging was another problem in
Thiruvananthapuram. The area has 2 major rivers with a number of smaller streams and channels
flowing through various parts of the city. The main reason behind poor drainage was a lack of a
proper network of interconnected drainage canals and only 290 km of 722 km stormwater canals and
drains in Thiruvananthapuram were covered and they carry treated and untreated sewage and solid
waste. As a result, the discharge from the canal remains in the river water for a very long time and
that was compounded be solid waste disposal in the canals, blocking the free flow of water.

Also, there was a huge problem of solid waste management. Solid waste management was marked
by the absence of clear institutional responsibilities, lack of skilled staff and equipment and funding
constraints. Also, municipal corporations in Thiruvananthapuram generate 579 million tons of waste
per day. In terms of volume, the annual amount of municipal waste generated in India is equal to that
generated in some European countries. However, these European countries are smaller in terms of
population and size.

The Urban road network in Thiruvananthapuram congested by poor traffic engineering and
management. With increasing population, the complexity of traffic network is also increased.
Municipal Corporation maintains 4.15 percent of state roads while state ratio of the vehicle per
person was 80 vehicles/ 1,000 persons, and in Thiruvananthapuram, it was 106 vehicles/ 1,000
persons. Also, there was some urban institution issue in this city e.g. poor urban infrastructure and
urban services which were caused by the inadequate institutional framework. The reason behind that
was a system for managing services exclusively for urban bodies are almost non-existent and there
were limited local capacities for urban management.

1.3: Projects and policies for urban development in Thiruvananthapuram city

In 2006, Government of Kerala came up with two project which was KSUDP (Kerala sustainable
urban development project) and JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru national urban renewal mission)
for urban planning and development. The main aim of the government of Kerala was to sustain the
urban planning for a population of the city while protecting the environment and upholding the
development socially and economically (3).

To address the accumulating challenges thrown up by urbanization, Kerala sustainable urban

development project has been launched in Kerala by the Government of Kerala with the financial
assistance of Asian development Bank (ADB) covering five major cities in Kerala namely
Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, and Kozhikode & Thrissur. The main aim of KSUDP was to
improve and expand urban infrastructure and services for households, enhancing their livelihoods and
improve urban management, planning and financing capacity of sector institutions. Project
components in Thiruvananthapuram were urban infrastructure and services development, urban
community upgrading, local government infrastructure development and support for capacity
building and project management. The subdivision of these components was water supply up
gradation, sewerage system up gradation including sewage treatment plant, solid waste management
improvement, storm water drainage system up gradation, roads up gradation, community
infrastructure development.

During the implementation time period, due to this KSUDP project, the government of Kerala
almost solved these aims. In under water supply up gradation facilities, the government of Kerala due
to KSUDP improved water treatment plants and rehabilitate the existing transmission mains and
pumping machinery. They also rehabilitate the trunk water transmission and introduced a leak
detection program with rehabilitation and strengthening of the existing distribution network, also they
achieve to provide metering of house service connections (including repairs) and installation of bulk
water meters. The total fund allocation by Asian development Bank was RS. 122.17 cr. only for
water supply facility. Now Thiruvananthapuram is the only city in India where water is supplied for
24 hours with more than 30,000 public taps and free pipe connections for BPL families and pipe
water distribution network covers most part of the city and it is a tremendous achievement for
Thiruvananthapuram.

Most of the sewerage and sanitation facilities were either dysfunctional or poor, but under Kerala
sustainable urban development project, all the sewerage network will rehabilitate and expanded and
other sewerage treatment plant was also constructed. Also, Thiruvananthapuram Municipal
Corporation presently comprises an area of 141.74 sq. Km. of which 30 percent is covered by a piped
sewerage system, which serves the core city area. Sewage disposal method from the households in
un-sewer areas of the Corporation includes septic tanks, borehole latrines and community toilets. The
total fund allocation from Asian development bank for implementing this facility was Rs. 282.98 cr.
presently most part of the sewage, about 50 mld reaches the only sewage disposal facility, in the form
of a sewage farm at Valiathura locality in Thiruvananthapuram. The quantity of sewage from the city
conveyed through a system of sewer network aided by pumping stations reaches a stilling chamber
located at Muttatharai.

The drainage system will be improved in all Corporations through rehabilitation of existing culvert
and construction of new ones and constructions of new drains to improve the storm water drainage
network. The total fund allocation for construction and reviving of drainage system was Rs. 84.54 cr.
In the case of road and transport, traffic congestion reduced & road safety improved through
improvement of critical roads and junction, without acquisition of lands, by providing pedestrian
footpaths, off-street parking and bus-bays and corridors, improvement in street lighting on major
roads. For improvements of the road, safety government erects footpaths, traffic island, underpass,
pedestrian subways under busy roads and flyover. Overall fund allocation was Rs. 129.76 cr. for this
project.
Another working area of this project was upgrading urban community in which they set a goal of
development to basic urban infrastructure and services which would be coupled with livelihood
promotions for the benefit of the urban poor. Funds are made available to poor communities for
improving basic infrastructure and services for women children slum dwellers. Livelihood
promotions implemented by financing income generating programs for a confederation of self-help
groups and for microenterprise development. Poverty social funds have been formed with this focus.
Also for transparency between government and households, capacity building improved for urban
management and the focus would be to institutionalize a system to enable the government to monitor
the performance of and oversee service delivery to improve the sustainability of the project. Also, the
implementing system for Kerala sustainable urban development project is unique and consist an
empowered committee KSUDP is member-secretary and mayors and various department secretaries
concerned constitute the panel, a co-ordination committee which influences the integration and
evaluation of the project, a city level steering committee in which the mayor of the city is the
chairperson and corporation secretary is the convenor and members includes district collector,
representative of community organisation, departments, and councillors, a project management unit
which provide the leadership to project management at city and state level and a project
implementation unit which supervise the project execution function under the corporation secretary
in each corporation. Overall one can feel that Kerala sustainable urban development project is
working towards sustaining Thiruvananthapuram as an urban city.
On another hand, projects like JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru national urban renewal mission)
give a new definition to the urban development and planning. Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was a massive city modernisation scheme launched by the
government of India and ministry of urban development in December 2005. In Kerala, the main
endeavor of JNNURM was to persuade alteration and fast track planned development of identified
metropolitan cities and focus is to be on competence in urban infrastructure and facility delivery
mechanism, community participation and accountability towards citizen (3).
The main objectives of JNNURM (4) are focussed attention to integrated development of
infrastructure services in cities covered under this mission, establishment to asset-creation and asset-
management through a swing of reforms for long-term project sustainability, ensuring adequate funds
to meet the deficiencies in urban infrastructural services, scale up delivery of the civil amenities and
provision of utilities with emphasis on universal access to the urban poor and special focus on urban
renewal programme for the old city areas to reduce congestion and provision of basic facilities to the
urban poor including security of tenure at affordable prices and ensuring delivery of other existing
services of the government for education, health, and social security.

By implementing this project in Thiruvananthapuram, this city achieved Modern and transparent
budgeting, accounting, financial management systems, designed and adopted for all urban service
and governance functions, City-wide framework for planning and governance established and
become operational, All urban residents is now able to obtain access to a basic level of urban
services, Financially self-sustaining agencies for urban governance and service delivery is established
through reforms to major revenue instruments, Local services, and governance will be conducted in a
manner that is transparent and accountable to the citizens of the city.

1.4: Conclusion & Critique

There is no doubt that with the help of projects like Kerala sustainable urban development project,
Asian development bank and Jawaharlal Nehru national urban renewal mission, Thiruvananthapuram
as an urban city is now developed in sustained terms. In 2016, Thiruvananthapuram got first place in
urban governance and planning which shows the accountability of government towards city’s and its
population. Also in this year, Thiruvananthapuram secured the same rank in urban governance. The
survey conducted by a Civil Society Organisation called “Janaagraha Center for citizenship and
democracy” which observed at 83 governance patterns to rank 21 cities across 18 states. Enhanced a
city scores in this study the additionally likely it is that it will be capable of delivering an improved
eminence of life to citizens above the medium and long-term. The Thiruvananthapuram City scored
principally fine on citizen attention in local elections and on its aptitude to tackle citizen grievances.
The foremost parameters consist of urban capacities and resources, urban planning and design,
empowered and legitimate political representation, and transparency, accountability, and
participation.

However, we cannot say that Thiruvananthapuram completed their entire task for being an urban
city. Because the term “Sustainable” is nothing but a long term process and if Thiruvananthapuram
Municipal Corporation working towards it then one can conclude that this city as a sustainable urban
city. Compared to the global point of references of London and New York, which scored 9.3 and 9.8
respectively, Indian cities only notch up somewhere between 2.1 and 4.4 on a scale of 10
(Thiruvananthapuram got 4.4 on a scale of 10). This is due to India’s cities are not perched to handle
urbanization well due to several universal scantinesses in urban governance that could influence
public overhaul liberation. These stumpy scores entail that Indian cities necessitate strengthening
their city-systems – quality of laws, policies, and institutions extensively to get better service delivery
and deliver a high quality of standard of living to citizens.
The road traffic in the state is mounting at a rate of 10-11 percent a year, but the double-digit growth
is not sustainable in Kerala having a narrow stretch of landmass sandwiched between the Arabian Sea
and the Western Ghats. This is the finding of a study undertaken by Dr. B. G. Sreedevi, director of
the Thiruvananthapuram-based National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC)
(4). The state had a total vehicle population of 85,47,966 as on March 31, 2014. An efficient and
modern public transport system is the only way to address the situation. But the political class seems
to be oblivious of the needs of a state staring at clogged roads and increasing levels of noxious fumes
released by the vehicles. A glance at any of the annual reports by the NATPAC would reveal the gap
between the actual conditions of the transportation infrastructure and the recommendations on the
remedial measures required to improve the situation. But those at the helm of the local bodies, who
put forward policy initiatives to the state administration to address the situation, often fail to
understand the real requirement of the state. The problems of Solid waste management facing
Thiruvananthapuram city are not just the increasing quantity of waste or the lack of a site for a
processing plant as had been stated earlier. Shortage of staff, equipment, and waste disposal vehicles,
as well as their poor maintenance, inadequate worker supervision, poor health of existing
contingency workers, indifferent attitudes of some Corporation staff, lack of community participation
and political interference, are among the many concerns that affect this process (5). This should be
indicative of the relatively lower volume of waste generated in India. However, even the
management of these reduced volumes in problematic. Clearly what is needed is an effort to tackle
solid waste management problem using a multi-pronged strategy that covers all of the problems
mentioned earlier. There is an urgent need to realize that the city's main problem lies in its inability to
collect and properly dispose of waste at the earliest.

Another fixation which is essential is community participation; self-reliance and planning by the
community in waste management. The definitive objective is development as a whole and responding
specifically to the community's needs. This move towards lends more useful focus and recognition of
the fundamental problems and seems feasible in a state where the local administrative units have
been financially empowered as they have been in Kerala through the Decentralised Planning Process .
This paper concludes that a centralized facility for Thiruvananthapuram will require large anaerobic
digesters for wet wastes and a BMT plant (Biological Mechanical Treatment or Bio drying
Mechanical Treatment) for dry wastes, each with a capacity of 200 tons. Much rhetoric has been
made on city’s waste management. Finally, this paper observes that much euphoria was created on
various solutions. But a feasible and sustainable working solution is yet to be evolved.

References and Notes:-

1. Reghunathan C, Dr. Anilkumar R, 2014, “Changing Socio-economic profile of
Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala”. ISOR journal of humanities and social science. PP 4-11.

2. Census of India, 2001 and 2011.

3. “Proposed sewerage treatment plant at Thiruvananthapuram”. Annual report of Kerala sustainable

urban development project, the government of Kerala and Asian development bank. 2010 and 2013.

4. George. A. P. 2000, “Solid waste management in Thiruvananthapuram city: A case study”.

AMCHH. PP-42-43.

5. Josheph K.T.; 1999, Environmental factors of solid waste disposal in Kerala. Gov’t engineering
college, Thrissur, Kerala.