The first Monday of October is observed worldwide as World Habitat Day and since last year the month of October as Urban October. This year the theme is ‘Public Space for All’ which advocates for the necessity of creating enough public space in our cities and towns.
As urban people are looking for better amenities and options to live, the responsibilities of the Government has increased manifold. In Bhubaneswar, the authorities must take all measures so that public spaces are not encroached and there is enough space for playing, walking, cycling etc.
Urbanisation is now a major force behind world economy with rural area becoming urban; tiny towns transforming to metropolis or megalopolis. Currently over one third of the Indians live directly in towns and cities. It is said that by 2050 India would be a nation where urbanisation would have spread fast to every nook and cranny.
The real challenge is whether people living in urban areas are really happy or options are limited. let’s take example of Bhubaneswar—India's first planned capital city. In six decades of time, Bhubaneswar is almost on the verge of losing its identity of being a temple city into a concrete jungle facing all sorts of problems, from mobility, slums, loss in green cover to multifarious civic woes.
Our city dwellers face many invisible challenges that are linked to urban planning such as obesity, asthma, mental health issues, heart disease etc. There are wide disparities in life expectancy; awful streets that discourage walking and intersections that cause traffic fatalities.
Twenty years back no one ever thought that New York would think to restrict cars to a certain areas only or transform the parking space into public space for cycling and walking etc. Similarly over decade ago, Bogota, a city in Colombia, chose to invest on cycling, pedestrian way, public space and public transport rather than building super flyovers or highways. Similarly in early eighties, the Netherlands chose bicycle over car— the reason was not of pollution and less consumption of fossil fuel, but the Dutch wanted their children to live long and enjoy while riding on streets rather than ending life in accidents. The public demand convinced the Dutch Government to transform the entire nation into a bicycling friendly city and today accident is almost ‘zero’ there.
What these cities all have in common is their ability to bring people together and work as per the wish of people. They know people may not follow the rules initially but in long run it is the people who will build their city.
So the necessity for a city like Bhubaneswar is to reinvent its public space so that people would be able walk around canals; children could easily play in the neighborhood and have enough public space.
(Dr Rout is an urban planner and co founder of local GovernanceNetwork. He can be reached piyush.rout@lgnet.in)