The Hindu         30.11.2011

Rope in experts, say urban planners

Anil Radhakrishnan

“Not much groundwork” on city master plan

With just one month left for the submission of the
revised master plan of Thiruvananthapuram city to the State government,
urban planners have urged the Corporation to give a professional touch
to the vision statement by roping in experts or outsource the
preparation of the plan to a reputed consultant, preferably with global
recognition.

Urban planners who attended a workshop
on the master plan, held at the City Corporation office last week, said
the way the workshop moved along showed that not much ground work had
been done in preparing the revised master plan.

Councillors
who participated in the deliberations expressed anguish over “lack of
information” and the need for additional time to harness inputs and make
the exercise a meaningful one.

The new master plan,
now on the drawing board, is aimed at focussing on a land-use plan up
to 2031, traffic and transportation, other infrastructure, and a
heritage plan. Experts and professionals with talent and expertise
should be roped in for preparing the master plan as development of
waterfront areas, leisure and entertainment facilities, and maintenance
of open spaces and parks are the thrust areas in infrastructure planning
for the capital city.

Housing for the migrant population and rapid urbanisation will have to be factored into the development plans.

“It
was apparent that two forces were already pulling the exercise in
different directions — political interests trying to scuttle the process
on the one hand, and a section genuinely concerned about methodology,
validity, and transparency on the other,” an urban planner, who attended
the workshop, said.

“The master plan will have to
paint a social perspective of where the city has to be positioned and
its inhabitants in the global scenario. Such a gigantic responsibility
was being discharged by a group of relatively inexperienced people,” he
said. Concerns were also raised by some councillors about the working
groups created for the preparation of the master plan.

While
the government has a pool of appreciable talent, exposure to the
projects like preparing a master plan for a State capital are
inadequate. “A master plan has to be the effort of numerous experts and
professionals, fine-tuned at each level, and consolidated by a
visionary. What is in display, today, is a study in contrast,” another
planner, who specialises in urban transport, said.

An
urban planner said that from the display of ignorance, incompetence,
and political considerations affecting the master plan, it was essential
that the work should be outsourced to a consultant. “The
recommendations of the consultant should be finalised democratically by
putting them to discussions, rather than taking a bottom-up approach,”
he added.