‘Urban planners aren’t contractors. We create’

In 2019 the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai MCGM in collaboration with the World Resource Institute WRI invited urban planners to join hands with its engineers to redesign the cityrsquos streets to make them safer and inclusive Mumbai Street Lab was the firstofitskind project in which five arterial roadsmdashSV Road Nepean Sea Road Vikhroli Parksite Road No 17 Maulana Shaukat Ali Road and Rajaram Mohan Roy Roadmdashwere selected for improvements that included pedestrianfriendly interventions walking and cycling paths and ideas for smooth vehicular movement Each winner was promised a R5 lakh prize moneyNothing came of this initiativeLast year Kalpit Ashar cofounder of architecture design firm Made in Mumbai which was chosen to redevelop Maulana Shaukat Ali Road in Grant Road East received an email informing him that his firmrsquos services were not required anymore ldquoThe BMC first agreed to take on our designs and later said the project was scrapped All five firms that were chosen have received this communication It was a hogwash The roads were reconstructed without following the drawings of the consultants and same problems of our existing roads were repeated that too after spending a huge amount of moneyrdquo says Ashar Soon after they received another rude surprise when they heard that the BMC had floated a new tender for street retrofitting This time however there was a difference The ldquostringentrdquo conditions laid down by the civic body for the empanelment of architects for redesigning Mumbairsquos streets meant none of the urban planning firms would be eligible ldquoThe conditions to apply for the tender included a deposit of R1 lakh that would be retained for three years a turnover of R2 crore which was later changed to Rs 50 lakh and liquid cash of Rs 25 lakh among other things We are architects not big ticket contractors Instead of looking at talent and experience the authorities are interested in bank balancerdquo Over a hundred Mumbai architects and urban designers have now written to the Deputy Chief Engineer of roads department planning highlighting the problematic terms of the tenderRahul KadriStreet design is the basis of town planning says Pranav Naik of Studio Pomegranate a Lower Parelbased architecture firm that was chosen in the 2019 plan to develop Nepean Sea Road ldquoIn urban design we take it as a given that a person has to walk a certain distance before they take up a mode of transport If a city is designed for walking it will automatically work well for public transport For instance itrsquos a breeze to walk a kilometre to reach MRT stations in Singapore it takes just about five minutes But in Mumbai that same one kilometre feels long because the footpaths are narrow and broken they are blocked by illegally parked vehiclesrdquo he explainsBoth Naik and Ashar who have collaborated with various municipal bodies on several projects believe that footpaths are complex social systems and designing them requires contextual planning along with a sound understanding of movement of people and ecology of the neighbourhood ldquoYou have to customise your plan especially in a metropolis where you have hawkers shanties and diverse elements to take into accountrdquo believes Ashar Last year the civic body proposed to spend Rs 1600 crore on the improvement of roadsPranav Naik and Dikshu C KukrejaRahul Kadri is an adviser on NSRCFVISION 2020 an initiative undertaken by the NSRCF Nepean Sea Road Citizens Forum with IMK Architects to revamp the existing stretch of Nepean Sea Road The plan hopes to focus on solutions for footpath connectivity pedestrian safety and convenient crossings hindrance free pedestrian movement organised bustops and laybys traffic calming techniques installation of tree grates and a scheme for organised street vending According to him the success of an infrastructure project depends on negotiation with local residents ldquoThe last time when the BMC and WRI floated the project it didnrsquot work out because they did not anticipate the hurdles in implementation The process of design cannot be linear because it requires adjustments on the groundrdquoResearch shows that Mumbai is dreadful for pedestrians The city ranked 27 among 30 Indian cities that were evaluated on their lsquowalkabilityrsquo by the Clean Air Initiative an organisation involved in assessing ease of walking in Asian cities Urban walkability is determined by continuous and safe walkway networks that are accessible toall peopleItrsquos important to differentiate between streets and roads says Dikshu Kukreja urban planner and principal architect of CPK Kukreja While roads are primarily for vehicles streets prioritise people ldquoIrsquod say they streets are the nerves of a cityrsquos system A welldesigned street can bring about the best in its citizens Because we are infatuated with vehicles we have neglected streets and focused only on road design Streets are shrinking and roads are getting widerrdquo Kukreja feels Europe has done a better job than the US with walkability Think Vienna Paris Berlin and Rome Kukreja believes we can achieve this too if the civic bodies for starters engage urban planners in town planning ldquoWe create cities forpeople enabling balanced urban development Architects therefore must not be equatedwith contractorsrdquoNepean Sea Road street revamp proposalLeft Existing condition with treepit at the centre right proposalFootpath connectivityThe NSRCFVISION 2020 is an initiative undertaken by the NSRCF Nepean Sea Road Citizens Forum together with Kadri Consultants to revamp the existing stretch of Nepean Sea Road Pic courtesyimkarchitectscomExisting case 1Break in connectivityEnding the footpath with abrupt curbsExisting case 2Lowering the footpath to the level of the carriageway can lead to waterlogging of entrancesIdeal solutionProviding vehicular access ramps ensures connectivity in footpath