Cognitive Assessment of

Local Planning Issues:

Sankrail, District Howrah,
State West Bengal

Name: Sreya Paul. ID: 2021APM002;1st sem;

Urban & Regional Planning; Dept. of Architecture;
Indian Institute of Engineering Science and
Technology, Shibpur

Submitted to-
Prof. Swati Saha
Dr. Soumen Mitra
Ar. Sarbani Sarkar
 Assignment 1.1 | Planning Project I | AP6171 | 2021-‘22

 Introduction of the area

Here I’m going to discuss an issue about a road, which is located at Sankrail in Howrah
district. Howrah is on the western side of the river Ganges. Sankrail is a census
town in Sankrail CD Block of Howrah Sadar subdivision in Howrah district

The red marked road here is called Paul Road,

which is the only access to the residential area
by the river front.

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 Assignment 1.1 | Planning Project I | AP6171 | 2021-‘22

 Description of the issue: over crowd

On the weekend afternoon

this red marked road
becomes so crowded that it
becomes really tough to
access the residential area
dependent on it. On the
weekdays people comes but
the road stays accessible.

Picture of weekdays showing the road. It shows people already occupying the road.

 Post mortem of the issue

1. Scarcity of recreational area

The mentioned road is by the river Ganges with some

beautiful scenic beauty and airy atmosphere and also it
is easily accessible. There is not much recreational area
in the 3 km radius of the site, making this road more
approachable to the others. The post pandemic effects
are also there. As the schools and colleges are closed,
students generally come here on a daily basis. A lot of
offices are still on work from home mode so on the
weekends people of every age group comes here for
relaxation making the crowd worse.

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 Assignment 1.1 | Planning Project I | AP6171 | 2021-‘22

2. The adda culture

Bengali people love adda fanatically. It's their culture's vital function. Adda came to
Bengali evidently as an unavoidable incidence of daily dwelling, whether or not it's the
long queues for the bus or train or neighborhood meetings inside the streets, markets,
tea stores, and so on, and has emerged as synonymous with Bengali lifestyle and
consistent till these days.

3. Riverbank occupied by factories

Most of the river front is taken up by

brick or jute factories or other factories.
Only two road stretches are available.
Though the other road is in front of the
Sankrail police station, making it a less
crowded one and as a result of it most
people gather in the mentioned road.

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 Assignment 1.1 | Planning Project I | AP6171 | 2021-‘22

4. No proper parking or seating space

Throughout the whole stretch of the road, there is no parking space or seating area. So, the
general tendency of the people is to park there bike or cycle on the road and seat on the guard
wall of the road. This makes the road narrower and hard to access. Though there is a play
ground beside the road, but people prefers to keep there bike or cycle with them most of the
time. In weekdays it’s still better as the number of people is less but in weekends it really
creates a messy situation.

5. Poor socio economic condition of the neighbourhood

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 Assignment 1.1 | Planning Project I | AP6171 | 2021-‘22

The national jute mill, closed more than 15 years ago, is located just beside the site. The
workers were mostly from neighboring states. They are staying here now for more than 2 or 3
generations and didn’t go back when the mill closed down. As a result of it the economical
condition of them went down and illiteracy rate increased. In a normal one family household
there are more than 5-6 people. There living condition is very poor. So, they prefer to spend
most of the time outside on the riverbank.

 SWOT analysis

 References

 Google map

Thank you
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