Journal 11×4

Institute of Town Planners, India Journal 11 x 4, October - December 2014
Editorial
In this issue there are seven papers out of which the first paper is written by Priya
Sasidharan on the topic - ‘Planning for a Smart City – Critical to the Context : Reflections
from Theoretical Models’; in which the author argues that the concept of smart cities in
the Indian context needs a paradigm shift from “alien or alienated” foreign white papers to
the vibrantly colored and critically contextual mode. Is it a techno - city or a technocrat’s
city? As technology needs to be accessible and inclusive, the “smart” translates as “user
friendly” with the user being universal. The answer lies in the technicalities and not in
the adoption of mere technology. The smart city idea should strategize the dichotomous
urban scenario – existing and the new. While the challenge is in both fronts with the new
becoming the successful prototype to replicate and the existing looking at being integrated,
the planning fraternity should embark on a “smart mode”. The queries are multiple but
the solution is singular – the smart way is deep rooted in the traditional base of sustainable
practices and in the contemporary every day urbanism.
The second paper on the theme - ‘Walkability for Urban Sustainability : Advocating the Green
Transport Paradigm in India’ written jointly by Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh
Chahal; observed that the current trends of increased auto ownerships and complex mobility
patterns in the urban areas are being viewed as absolutely unsustainable. While, on one hand,
the need is to reduce travel seems imminent, we also need to look into mobility patterns
that might have the potential to address the sustainability aspects of urban settlements. The
paper attempts to question the sustainability of prevailing mobility trends and development
practices. Since walkability which is so intrinsic and pervasive among humans offers itself as
an appropriate paradigm for a greener transport, it is being evaluated in the present context
of Indian cities. The paper emphasizes on the need to enhance walkability of Indian cities
considering its social, economic, health and environment related benefits.
The third article jointly authored by Neelakshi Joshi, Professor Dr.-Ing. Helmut Bott and
Professor R. Shankar is on ‘Opportunities and Challenges of Employing Crowd-mapping
in Bicycle Mobility Projects’. This paper shares the application of crowd-mapping, an
emerging tool in participatory planning, to collect and analyze data for a bicycle mobility
project in Bangalore, India. Data was collected by engaging cyclists through an online base
map. Quality and quantity of data collected is shared. Challenges faced in facilitating
participation and checking data authenticity are discussed. Recommendations are made
for a holistic design of future attempts at bicycle crowd-maps for cities. This paper aims to
encourage governments, planning bodies and researchers to widely apply this new tool for
actively engaging bicyclists in contributing dynamic and up-to-date data.
Jugmohan Singh’s paper on ‘Methodological Enforcement of Specifically Planned Spatial Traffic
Law: An Appropriate Approach to Decongest, Manage and Regulate the Traffic - Case Study
of Dehradun’ highlight that Traffic Law Enforcement is an indispensable tool for increasing
road safety, decreasing congestion, management and Regulation of Traffic in planned and
unplanned urban area, therefore it is utmost essential that traffic enforcement should be
done in a methodological and spatially planned nature. The theme of this research paper is
to scientifically highlight and precisely pinpoint the various parameters to be considered by
the traffic law enforcement agencies / organizations while enforcing the traffic laws in these
cities. Accordingly, the author is of the opinion that it is an incredibly vital to have significant
knowledge of traffic laws to recognize all concerned factors, while enforcing the traffic laws
Cover Design by Dr. Diwakar S. Meshram i

which in-return will help the traffic law enforcement agencies for enhancing increasing road
safety, decongestion, management and regulation of traffic. The focal point of this research
paper is how to analyze the present traffic enforcement system works, its impact and how
the spatial traffic law enforcement methodology can help in decongestion of traffic in various
urban area.
The paper titled as ‘Impact of Urbanization on Urban Lakes : A case of Hyderabad’ is jointly
authored by R. Nageshwar Rao and Nauman Najammuddin in which it is argued that Water
bodies are an integral part of urban landscape all over the country and are important
aquatic ecosystems, constituting an important source of fresh water. Water bodies served
several needs of rural life, serves as water harvesting structure impounding surplus rain
water, recharging ground water and feeding wells, providing protective irrigation water,
domestic water supply and drinking water for cattle bathing and washing. In urban context
Water bodies recharging ground water, urban water supply, flood control. Water bodies
provides recreational activities, provides open spaces with greenery in urban area. The
environmentally and hydrological degradation of water bodies in urban area has bad impact
on basic urban needs like domestic water supply, recreational activities and irrigation water.
Therefore, it is necessary to preserve and develop these large open spaces i.e. water bodies.
The paper on ‘World Class Cities : An Overview’ is written by Anwesha Chakrabarty which
propagates that cities world-wide are experiencing the dynamic processes of urbanization
and globalization. The major cities of the world have been transformed in recent decades.
This paper gives inference of growth and development in cities like New York, London,
Canberra, Berlin, Mexico and Seoul. Large cities have to respond to some basic challenges
i.e. active economy, urban infrastructure, quality of life, social integration, institutional
mechanism and governance. The capacity to response to these challenges and adaptation
of new technology; makes the urban area a World-Class enterprise.
Last but not the least, the paper on ‘Indian Real Estate- Will Awarding an Industry Status,
Improve its Prospects?’ is written by Dr. Mona N Shah and Thilak Babu Gottipati which
focuses on the construction and real estate sector in India, is the second largest employer
next only to agriculture; its size is close to US $12 billion and growing at a rate of about
30% per annum. Five per cent of the country’s GDP is contributed by the real estate sector.
In construction, the average profit in India stood at 18%, which is twice the profitability
for a construction project undertaken in the USA. During 2010-11, the Indian real estate
and housing sectors received US$ 1.12 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), according
to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion India (DIPP). As a known fact, Indian
real estate has been beleaguered with opaque practices and consumer apathy, unqualified
suppliers entering the market due to lower barriers to entry, resulting in the absence of
good standards of business practice amongst the majority, which is due to the existing state
of Indian Real Estate, it is inadvertently endeavouring its own potential to grow.
Dr. Ashok Kumar

Editor
ii
Content
Planning for a Smart City – Critical to the Context : 1

Reflections from Theoretical Models
Priya Sasidharan
Walkability for Urban Sustainability : 9

Advocating the Green Transport Paradigm in India
Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal
Opportunities and Challenges of Employing 19

Crowd-mapping in Bicycle Mobility Projects
Neelakshi Joshi, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Helmut Bott and Prof. R. Shankar
Methodological Enforcement of Specifically Planned 26

spatial Traffic Law: An Appropriate Approach to Decongest,
Manage and Regulate the Traffic - Case Study of Dehradun
Jugmohan Singh
Impact of Urbanization on Urban Lakes : 46

A case of Hyderabad
R. Nageshwar Rao and Nauman Najammuddin
World Class Cities : An Overview 62

Anwesha Chakrabarty
Indian Real Estate : Will Awarding an Industry Status, 85

Improve its Prospects?
Dr. Mona N Shah and Thilak Babu Gottipati
Cover Design by Dr. Diwakar S. Meshram iii

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D. S. Meshram iv
Planning for a Smart City - Critical to the

Context: Reflections from Theoretical Models
Priya Sasidharan
Abstract
The concept of smart cities in the Indian context needs a paradigm shift from “alien
or alienated” foreign white papers to the vibrantly colored and critically contextual
mode. Is it a techno city or a technocrat’s city? As technology needs to be accessible
and inclusive, the “smart” translates as “user friendly” with the user being universal.
The answer lies in the technicalities and not in the adoption of mere technology. The
smart city idea should strategize the dichotomous urban scenario – existing and the new.
While the challenge is in both fronts with the new becoming the successful prototype
to replicate and the existing looking at being integrated, the planning fraternity
should embark on a “smart mode”. Reflecting on the classic models of planning in the
contemporary context could offer the cue that could be redefined and adopted.
1. INTRODUCTION
The concept of smart city at its threshold in India stares at the global image
rendering of digital and intelligent cities on the lines of technology driven
initiative influenced by the western spectrum. The ambitious vision of the launch
of 100 smart cities has triggered queries on the conceptualization of smart when
the earlier sweep of sustainable is still holding sway on the global population.
The smart city edging towards automated and controlled systems progressing on
the futuristic mode of technology defined environment has become a singular,
univalent dictum. Is the smart city concept an adaptable or an applied prototype?
Urbanism as ‘a way of life’, the Geddessian triad a networked ritual, and ordered
chaos defining the urban fabric, rethinking the concept of smart in the Indian
context becomes the prerogative. The distinction or the line of difference
between smart and sustainable needs a clear and vivid understanding with
specific reference to the Indian context where sustainable is smart has been the
traditional wisdom. The Indian context is a myriad canvas of colors, vibrancy,
culture and events with a tag of unity in diversity, which further lays emphasis
on a decisive shift to the inclusive paradigm in development solutions.
The smart formula needs to be applied with its adaptive theorem of addressing
the existing situation in equilibrium with the new initiative of urban intervention.
The epitome of smart cities is not in the inception but in addressing the current
scenario of Indian cities with the urban population around 31 percent of the total
Priya Sasidharan, Professor, MEASI Academy of Architecture, Chennai
Priya Sasidharan 1
and the rate of urbanization poised to increase and cities are likely to contribute
75 percent of the GDP in the next 15 years. The smart city venture needs a
stylized approach in the true Indian flavor personified– singular yet universal,
underlining a rare genre. The Indian way of life spells an ordered chaos, as in
realistic with its jerks and brakes, push and pull features. Indian cities should
aim at branding the underlying sustainable everyday urbanism against the smart
futuristic globalism. Showcasing the innate potential, addressing the contextual
reality against the global frame poses the challenge in realizing a smart city.
100 smart cities in India from a visionary dream to reality needs the path to be
etched, directions drawn, socio - economic foundations laid and raised on pillars
of regional strength.
2. Components of a Smart City – From

Fig. 1: Smart City (Generic Approach)
Generic to Specific
The indicators of a smart city are largely outlined
on general terms of infrastructure, economic
incubators and ICT networks (Fig. 1) while the
specifics of land dynamics, resource evaluation
and management, societal connotations and
the contextual concern needs inclusion. The
framework created by the planning communities
of the developed nations target global economy
leadership through the advent of smart cities.
While the race is to create hubs of technical
expertise pooling that would be shared at a
price through consultancy domain, India has to
spearhead the smart revolution by evolving its Fig. 2: Smart City (Specific Approach)
ethnic potential indicators of smart (Fig. 2).
3. Sustainable is Smart - Traditional

Wisdom
The traditional practices that were site and
climate responsive were the primary markers
of green, energy efficient and sustainable cities
– the dictating global paradigms. The ancient
planning principles of form, for example
Padmaka, Dandaka, Chaturmukha, scale and
density of towns, skyline regulation by the
gopurams and shikaras of temples outlined the
urban morphology and development context.
Public spaces was an extension of the social
Priya Sasidharan 2
life and participation in fostering natural assets were the classic forerunners to
sustainable living that has to be intelligently redefined to achieve smart targets.
Revisiting roots is not being caught up in a time warp but rather analyzing the
innate cultural strengths in the everyday Indian urbanism. The spectrum in the
planning fraternity in the current scenario has to swing back and forth in time,
practices, compositional organization and civic aspirations synchronous to both
Indian and Western context as the dictum has moved on from think globally act
locally to the fusion trend of global.
4. Urban Rural Nexus – Striking the Equilibrium

The smart intervention has to hold the promise of opportunities and potentials
for a larger cross section of the society to benefit from a slice of life. The global
influx of wired networks, work from home, digital revolution narrative need the
public to be sensitized and brought closer to the concept. The urban - rural
divide widens with the smart city venture whereby the focus remains entirely on
the city whereas a paradigm shift in the approach would enable addressing the
rural hinterland as an extension of the vision.
The smart city initiative poses the imminent danger of creating pockets of
power and islands of isolation, while in reality it could bridge the disparities of
economy. Accessibility and affordability spells the axioms of inclusivity. While
the African nations are creating gigantic smart players as in Konza Techno City,
Silicon Savannah and Hope City near Nairobi and Johannesburg as specialized
zones clearly delineated from the urban poorer sections. The threat posed is the
disparity, seclusion and the rising dissent and discrimination among the public.
Land dynamics for the venture of a smart city targets the urban rural hinterland,
the fringes or vast tracts of agricultural land near the proposed industrial
and investment corridors. The displacement of the people and livelihood is a
cause for concern. While the zoning could allow extended functioning for the
local inhabitants through land policies and usage regulation the hinterland or
the industrial corridor could become the overlapping sector. The land use plan
needs to address the current context on a proactive stand chalking the proposed
regulations for the zones and the conversion permissibility.
5. Reflections from models – Spatial connotations

The three magnets of Ebenezer Howard (Fig. 3) could be referred to understand
the constituent elements defining the surge of people to the main city, hinterland
and the industrial corridors against the earlier divisions of town and country. In
view of smart cities and their spatial location, compositional analysis of zones
near the smart city, its proximity, scale, boundary issues and land use needs to
be clearly analyzed in two ways i.e. existing and new. The existing city when
Priya Sasidharan 3
Fig. 3: Three Magnets Concept – Ebenezer Howard Fig. 4: Smart City - Conception vs Conversion
identified for a conversion strategy to smart city has to become aware of its
composition, spatial development pattern and the strategy to become smart
(Fig. 4). The new development would transpire as a conception model with new
codes and principles of experimental digital narratives.
Another cue could be an inspiration from the Central Place Theory of Christaller
(Fig. 5) where the settlement patterns took geometric shapes; the central place
had a sphere of influence, the concepts of threshold and range. Although the
conversion process of the existing city to smart on geometric lines becomes
questionable, but could be on the patterns that the city has evolved, for example,
radial and finger like extensions in Chennai, twin city concepts in Hyderabad
and Secunderabad, satellite of Navi Mumbai, etc; in the Indian context. In the
broader spectrum the pattern that the smart city would adopt can be a fusion or
overlap could be of predominantly three types (Fig. 6):
• Overlap with the fringe, hinterland and near the industrial corridor;
• Overlap with the hinterland in the proximal vicinity of an industrial corridor;
and
• Overlap with the hinterland.
Three basic options of the newly developed smart cities need to vie with the
mother or main city that in several cases have also been adopted to be converted
as smart. The challenge to the planning fraternity would be to clearly pitch on
the prerogatives, priorities and the image of the existing and new smart cities.
The approach need not embark on linearity as a holistic, meeting the wish-list or
Priya Sasidharan 4
Fig. 5: Central Place Theory, Christaller Fig. 6: Smart City – Spatial Alternatives
checklist of indicators, but could be tangential and lateral focusing on the prime
catalysts that could bring in the ripple effects for contextually critical factors.
6. Learning Quotient – Best Practices Mode

Learning could stem from non-linear, bottom-up and multi- sectoral domains
rather than the classic illustrations. The axiom of working from whole to parts
and parts to whole plays a predominant role in experiential learning. Case study
based approach to understand the process of planning strategies could be to
outline a holistic system from process to the product or could even highlight
the specific stages in the process. Case studies presented have been selected to
focus on a contextual aspect of the target to a smart city.
The case of Latin America presents an interesting smart context of having worked
at grass - roots level by primarily upgrading basic amenities and community
infrastructure in the cities of Bogota and Medellin amidst conflicting social issues
of crime, violence and drugs in the larger picture of Columbia. Barcelona in
Spain chalked the improvisation of its public domain, attracting international
migration for hi-tech jobs promising inclusive and interactive environment for
life and work.
The Asian front presents a remarkably different scenario with Seoul in Korea
profiling waste management practices by generating energy from converted solid
waste landfill sites and creating public park assets as a two pronged approach.
South Korea also joined the race to brand smart cities with new towns conceived
with housing towers and hi-tech infrastructure but the scale of the vision and the
gargantuan series of mere replication of the success of Bundang and Ilsan proved
Priya Sasidharan 5
fateful. The answer lies deep rooted in the fact that we have to be critical to the
context rather than crucial to branding. The rise of Singapore as a nation within
its gardens, drawing parallels as a realization of Ebenezer Howard’s garden city
concept in planning could be referred for its equilibrium of densely built with
large open spaces shared by the public. While Manchester has developed a digital
living lab, Helsinki has initiated the Helsinki Region Infoshare project that could
sensitize the public in handling data systems. Smart cities have also been evolved
from green and brown field sites as Pudong and Shanghai.
In India with the Dholera project, the first smart city to be identified on the
Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Project, the joint initiative with Japan has been
hailed as the Gujarat within Gujarat promises to be the pilot demonstration
of a smart city dream. Mixed responses on the special investment region, the
land acquisition regulations poised as a faster process and the issues raised by
environmentalists on the selection near floodplains have become the cautionary
note as analyzed by Ayona Dutta (2014). The parallel line of thinking on
exploiting the opportunity and strengthening the local resources and enhancing
the livelihoods, introducing green technologies are on the parallel stream on
realizing smart in the regional localized context.
7. Community Participation Model

Priority in achieving the target of a smart city is to address all sections of the
society and embark on inclusive planning paradigm. Community based practices,
awareness and sensitization have proved a successful strategy, and involving
the representatives of the public would erase the
technocratic image of a smart city. Community Fig. 7: A Ladder of Citizen Participation
participation has helped revive neighborhood
assets as in restoration of built heritage, natural
resources and public spaces. This line of thought
has to be enabled and facilitated by mooting
collaborative work between the public, NGOs and
the corporate sector.
The ladder of citizen partnership model (Fig. 7)

by Sherry Arnstein (1969), a time tested exercise
has been revisited to differentiate between
empty ritual of participation and the true power
dynamics to make it happen. The bottom rung
clearly elucidates the power dynamics with the
authorities and their roles, while the community
is being integrated at the higher rungs. The
middle rung brings into the foray the awareness
Priya Sasidharan 6
Fig. 8: Inclusive Smart Participation Model campaign to clarify myths, superlative

predictions and false promises so as to
build confidence motion.
Adopting villages by corporate sector

seems to be the new turn of corporate
social responsibility needs to be cashed
on as a potential opportunity for
addressing rural initiatives for achieving
the smart concept. The highest rung
brings in participation from varied
groups of the society with the youth
and corporates brought in to share the
responsibility. This model has been
drafted as a concept design (Fig. 8)
with inputs that could moot a smart city
process in the contemporary Indian context with an integral interdisciplinary
process at the planning stage, responsibilities and tasks defined and experimenting
non-linear approaches.
8. ConclusionS
Challenges that a smart city venture in the Indian context poses are co-ordinated
contribution from a multitude of actors from the cross sections of the society,
technology providers, and policy makers to the powerful decision makers.
The compulsion factor to join the digital stream might have its preliminary
repercussions that need to be expected and prepared for. The displacement of
people, livelihoods, disparities that would emerge across borders of the rural –
urban front and the supremacy of foreign investments to the local indigenous
economy have to be faced and addressed amicably. The dimension of time,
phasing of the infrastructure network is a mammoth task in the existing Indian
cities as documentation of the archaic systems in vogue becomes time consuming
exercise.
The silver lining is the drive, the agenda to experiment and join the global
stream that needs to be promoted when India is emerging as a global leader. The
path ahead is to understand the Indian in India, the ethnicity in the city and the
genius in the indigenous. Whatever be the nomenclature or the classification,
sustainable – green – resilient or smart, the way forward is to emphasize on the
lacuna in the existing cities and enhance the credentials and expertise in the
upcoming cities simultaneously to strike the smart equilibrium.
Priya Sasidharan 7
This venture could forge a union between urban local bodies striving for a common
goal and efficient governance could encourage this proactive stand. The smart
city initiative could become an interconnected triad of economy, society and
environment, with new avenues for investments, global influx of technology and
universal outreach. Planning has a live context to cull out the strong foundational
base, experiment, put to test and realize a vision that could surge the nation
forward. Time tested models of proactive planning, interventions, renewal
missions could be collectively or partially exploited, exhausted or experimented
on the podium for smart cities. A viable, potent opportunity that could become
a dream or nightmare lies in the hands of the planning fraternity to take the
threads and weave the magic.
References
Celik, A.P., Zyman, R. and Mahdi, R. (2009) Sustainable Urbanization in the Information
Age, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Public Administration and
Development Management United Nations, New York, NY.
Sherry, A.R. (1969) A Ladder of Citizen Participation, JAIP, Vol.35, No.4, July 1969,
pp.216-224.
Draft Concept Note on Smart City Scheme, Revised on 14h October 2014 (work under
progress), http/www.indiansmartcities.in
Dutta, Ayona. “India’s smart city craze: big, green and doomed from the start?”, The
Guardian, 17 April 2014. www.theguardian.com
Puri Anuj. “What are smart cities?”, Green Living, Property Plus, The Hindu Newspaper,
15th August 2014.www.thehindu.com
I like the idea of trying to look after great cities, trying to

raise their level, of making them beautiful cities, not only with
beautiful buildings, but with healthy, efficient human beings, or
loving people, co-operating with each other and not trying to
knock each other down and exploit each other and make each
other miserable. That is the ideal of the great city that I should
like to have and I like to work for.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Priya Sasidharan 8
Walkability for Urban Sustainability:

Advocating the Green Transport Paradigm in India
Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal
Abstract
The current trends of increased auto ownerships and complex mobility patterns in the
urban areas are being viewed as absolutely unsustainable. While, on one hand, the need to
reduce travel seems imminent, there is a need to look into mobility patterns that might
have the potential to address the sustainability aspects of urban settlements. The paper
attempts to question the sustainability of prevailing mobility trends and development
practices. Since walkability which is so intrinsic and pervasive among humans offers itself
as an appropriate paradigm for a greener transport, it is being evaluated in the present
context of Indian cities. The paper emphasizes on the need to enhance walkability of
Indian cities considering its social, economic, health and environment related benefits.
1. INTRODUCTION
Automobile dependence is one of the greatest challenges facing cities in the 21st
century. The urban areas in India in recent past have witnessed a sharp growth
in auto ownerships and the much inflated mobility demands. While the number
of registered motor vehicles increased from about 0.3 million in 1951 to 159.5
million in 2012, the compound annual growth rate of the registered vehicles was
estimated at 10.5 percent between 2002 and 2012 (Ministry of Road Transport
and Highways, 2013). Transport engineers and planners have responded to the
escalated demand in terms of road widening, new or alternative routes, fly-overs,
transport management measures and several other expansion and development
strategies.
The expansion of transport infrastructure is widely acknowledged as a symbol

of progress and prosperity, and therefore grabs immediate attention of the
politicians, bureaucrats and professionals alike who all join hands in addressing the
issue. The cities transform and grow at an unprecedented pace to accommodate
and facilitate the increasing number of vehicles on roads; but then fall in their
own vicious traps since increased infrastructure elicit more vehicles on roads
demanding further enhancement of transport infrastructure. It is being realized
that no development effort can keep pace with transport demands which is
proving absolutely unsustainable because of its adverse impacts on the healthy
growth of cities.
Meenakshi Singhal Nohria, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, GNDU, Amritsar.

Email id: [email protected]
Dr. Karamjit Singh Chahal, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, GNDU,
Amritsar. Email id: [email protected]
Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 9

Transportation is critical to human activities and greatly determines the city

shape, structure and growth pattern. In India, the penetration level of two
wheelers is much higher as compared to other transport modes. In 2012, two-
wheelers accounted for the largest share of 72.4 percent, followed by cars,
jeeps and taxis having share of 13.5 percent; while all other vehicles accounted
for only 14.1 percent (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 2013). In
order to accommodate an ever-increasing number of private transport modes
and their associated infrastructures, the transport networks cut through the
urban landscapes neglecting the historic fabric, destroying neighborhoods and
encroaching upon the open spaces, thus badly bruising the city fabric. The cities
expand into the countryside causing urban sprawl. The result has been unbalanced
land use developments, spatial segregation of activities and a dispersed urban
structure meaning thereby increased trip lengths, an inefficient public transport
and increased dependence on the private modes.
Automobile dependence has extremely high environmental and socio-economic

costs. The environmental consequences of unlimited mobility are frightening. In
urban India, while the transport sector is considered as the major contributor
to air pollution, the level of suspended particulate matter in all metropolitan
cities exceeds the limit set by the World Health Organization (Singh, 2005). As
per a study of Delhi by the Central Pollution Control Board, India, the transport
sector contributes to 76.2 percent of CO, 96.9 percent of hydrocarbons and
48.6 percent of NO2 in air. Further, prevalent traffic congestion in Indian cities,
particularly during peak hours, causes reduced vehicle speeds, and a consequent
higher level of vehicular emission. The quantity of all three major air pollutants
viz CO, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, drastically increases with reduction in
motor vehicle speeds (Centre for Science and Environment, 2009).
Increased traffic has led to increased congestion levels exposing the population
to traffic hazards, high levels of noise and disturbing vibrations and air pollution.
This is adversely affecting the human health, local ecology as also the quality
of urban life. Transport being almost wholly dependent on the use of fossil
fuels contributes to global warming in a big way. The urban areas, today, are
designed related to the scale and pace of the fast moving vehicle. Use of space
by traffic facilitates the movement of the motorist, but reduces the accessibility
of pedestrians, cyclists and those with disabilities. Traffic and the accompanying
menace threaten pedestrian safety, impact negatively on societal activities and
create discontent among the city inhabitants, the cost of which is social stress,
rising crime rates and a threatened community.
2. Recreating livability through walkability

While on one extreme are those who view enhancing mobility as the ultimate
intent considering the enormous benefits of automobile; on the other extreme
are a growing number of planning scholars and practitioners who argue about the

associated social and environmental costs (Balsas, 2002). The current levels of
mobility are considered to be a contributor to excessive resource consumption.
There is a growing realization that no development effort can keep pace with
transport demands, and the need to reduce travel is imminent in order to
achieve high quality livable cities. Banister (2000) recommends reducing travel
through increased use of technology utilizing tele-activities, local provision of
services and facilities, and prioritizing public transport. While the potential of
tele-shopping, tele-business and other forms of tele-activities for substitution of
travel is being explored, it is sensed that these may provide greater choice and
flexibility to the computer-literate but will not affect all people in the same way.
Therefore, the technology would have only a marginal impact on reducing the
demand for travel in cities.
The local provision of services and facilities shall go a long way towards achieving
sustainability. This would impact upon shortening the trip lengths, thereby
promoting walking and cycling as feasible options. Like bicycling, walking is
a green mode of transport that has low environmental impact in terms of air
and noise pollution. Besides environmental concerns, walkability would have
several other benefits as well. In addition to its utilitarian value as transport
mode of travel for trips to work, school or shopping, it has great socio-cultural
and recreational significance as well. It is a socially equitable mode of transport
available to a majority of the population across various classes. Many recent
health studies have demonstrated that walking can promote mental and physical
health including cardio-vascular fitness, reduced stress, stronger bones and
mental alertness and creativity.
Walkability implies shorter distances to destinations; an environment which

shall be traversable to children, elderly and the physically disabled; safety from
perceived crime or traffic; full pedestrian infrastructure such as sidewalks or
separated trails, marked pedestrian crossings, street furniture and street trees;
and pleasantness (Forsyth, 2008).
3. Walkability in the Indian urban context : Facts and issues

Past studies related to traffic and transportation in India indicates deficient
walkability related data. In 1994, with a view to help the Ministry, a traffic and
transportation study was undertaken by RITES on 21 sample cities that sought
to establish the urban transport scenario and forecast the anticipated issues in
the urban areas of India. In 2006, the National Urban Transport Policy strove to
address the unprecedented increase in transport problems in the major cities
in the country. NUTP recognized the centrality of people in the Indian cities,
and intended to provide safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and
sustainable access to the people. It also focused on a more equitable allocation
of road space with people rather than vehicles (Ministry of Urban Development,
2007).

The most recent task of carrying out national level survey was undertaken in 2008
by the US consultancy Wilbur Smith Associates, on behest of the Union Ministry of
Urban Development, Government of India, for the purpose of formulating traffic
and transportation related policies and strategies in the urban areas of India.
A total of 30 cities of varied sizes (Table 1) were identified for the purpose. In
addition to several im-
Table 1: Populationbased Walkability Data for Selected Cities
portant aspects of traf-
fic and transportation, Cities Population in Walkability Walk trips Trip length
walkability too was lakhs in 2001 index (%) (kms)
studied through various 1 Gangtok 0.92 0.30 56 2.1
surveys such as house- 2 Panaji 0.97 0.32 34 2.4
hold interview surveys, 3 Shimla 1.73 0.22 58 3.0
pedestrian opinion sur- 4 Pondicherry 5.08 0.37 40 3.0
veys, road network in- 5 Bikaner 6.40 0.43 46 2.6
ventory, etc. Various 6 Raipur 7.19 0.41 35 3.0
parameters such as 7 Bhubaneswar 8.44 0.28 28 3.9
walk trips, trip lengths, 8 Chandigarh 9.66 0.91 23 4.5
walkability index and
9 Hubli Dharward 9.68 0.39 23 3.9
several others were
10 Guwahati 10.60 0.39 21 4.1
considered in relation
11 Amritsar 10.85 0.31 27 4.5
to the size of the cities.
12 Trivandrum 11.22 0.34 26 4.7
3.1 Mode Share of 13 Madurai 11.85 0.40 34 5.2
Walk Trips 14 Agra 13.69 0.38 27 4.4
A trip, in the study, re- 15 Bhopal 14.58 0.47 26 4.4
fers to the complete 16 Kochi 18.18 0.57 16 5.5
journey through stages 17 Patna 18.36 0.65 26 4.5
from origin to final des- 18 Varanasi 18.95 0.33 24 4.9
tination. Where mul- 19 Nagpur 21.13 0.66 21 5.0
tiple modes are used in 20 Jaipur 26.80 0.64 26 6.0
a single trip, the pre- 21 Kanpur 27.16 0.59 29 5.6
dominant mode in the
22 Surat 30.90 0.62 27 6.0
journey is considered
23 Pune 42.00 0.81 22 6.1
as the mode of travel.
24 Ahmedabad 59.34 0.85 22 6.2
The study of mode share
25 Hyderabad 63.83 0.68 22 7.9
(Fig. 1) for selected
30 cities revealed that 26 Chennai 70.14 0.77 22 8.6
there is a considerable 27 Bangalore 86.25 0.63 26 9.6
share of walk trips in all 28 Delhi 138.50 0.87 21 10.2
cities. Barring the im- 29 Kolkata 147.38 0.81 19 10
mensely walkable hills 30 Mumbai 177.02 0.85 27 11.9
cities, walk trips range Source: Ministry of Urban development, 2008

from 16-46 percent in the other Indian cities. Panaji, Pondicherry, Bikaner, Raipur
and Madurai have a high share of walk trips which is more than 30 percent. Only
two cities Kolkata and Kochi have walk share less than 20 percent that is probably
due to higher patronage of public transport (PT) in these two cities.
3.2 Average Trip Length

Trip length is the average distance travelled during a trip. This has been estimated
as the ratio of total passenger km to the total number of trips. Trip length is found
to be directly related with the city size. As city size increases, trip length increases.
Average minimum trip length is for Gangtok (2.1 km), while the maximum trip
length is for Mumbai (11.9 km) (Fig. 2). About 24 cities have average trip length
less than 6 km. As per Tiwari (2011), ‘Indian cities have mix land use structure
with substantial informal settlements (15-60 percent population living in slums).
This has resulted in short trip lengths irrespective of city size’.
Fig. 1: Share of Walk Trips for the Selected Cities
Source: Ministry of Urban development, 2008
Fig. 2: Average Trip Lengths for the Selected Cities

3.3 Walkability Index

A walkability index (Fig. 3) has been developed for evaluating performance of
pedestrian infrastructure taking into consideration the availability of foot path
on major corridors and overall facility rating by pedestrians (Fig. 4). From the
facility rating and footpath availability, the index is formulated as follows:
Walkability Index = [(W1 x Availability) + (W2 x Facility rating)], where,

W1 and W2 are the parametric weights (assumed 50 percent for both);
Availability is the ratio of footpath length to the length of major roads in the
city;
Facility rating is the score estimated based on opinion on available pedestrian facility.
Fig. 3: Walkability Index for the Selected Cities
Fig. 4: Average Pedestrian Facility Rank of Cities based on Population

The higher the index, the better is the level of pedestrian facilities in a city. It
is observed from Fig. 3 that Chandigarh has the highest index among all selected
cities, reflecting its better pedestrian facilities. Larger cities generally have higher
walkability index though this too is embarrassingly short when compared with that of
cities in developed countries (1.5 to 1.7 for London as per rough estimates). Average
index for all cities made together is found to be 0.52. It is clear from the figure that
cities with values lesser than the average are more in small and medium size cities,
indicating the importance of developing better pedestrian facilities in these cities.
The condition of pedestrian facilities were assessed based on various parameters

viz availability of foot path, foot way width, presence of obstruction, maintenance
of footpath, street lights and other amenities, security from crime, walking path
conflicts, availability of pedestrian crossing and safety in crossing. The final rank
was derived on a 1-5 scale. A low rank indicates inadequate and substandard
pedestrian facilities. The figure 4 represents the average for various categories
of cities. In general the larger cities were found better in terms of pedestrian
facilities, whereas the smaller cities were found to be grossly lacking in this aspect.
3.4 Apathy of the Pedestrian

It is observed that a significant number of trips in Indian cities are made on foot
(16 percent - 58 percent). However, the pedestrian infrastructure, amenities
and services are neglected and not given adequate focus in municipal planning
and budgets. Pedestrian planning gets the least priority for the reason that
there are few incentives in this regard. As per Goodman (2003), there hardly
lies any technological or engineering challenge or any economic incentive in
planning to walk. Being so universal, it does not attract any ‘powerful lobbies
or advocacy groups’ that could vouch for the cause. Walking is ‘so basic and
so undemanding in terms of finances that it slips through the net in strategy
formulation’. Further, ‘lack of a clear understanding regarding the economic
impacts of non-motorized modes is a major reason why they are excluded from
the transportation development agenda of cities in India’ (Rahul, 2013).
With the government policies and initiatives favoring the vehicle, a general
decline of non-motorized modes is evidenced on Indian roads (Rahul, 2013).
However, a large number of cyclists and pedestrians would have no other option
because of their poor socio-economic status but to bear the brunt of deficient
pedestrian infrastructure (Tiwari, 2001). Inadequate planning for pedestrians has
many negative consequences, the most notable being unnecessary fatalities and
injuries. Figure 5 indicates the share of pedestrians as percent of the overall
traffic related fatalities in the selected cities in India. The perception of an unsafe
physical environment reduces the propensity to walk which further impacts in the
social and economic sense as ‘traveling long distances along physically daunting
corridors reduces the time and energy residents can spend on jobs, families,
studies and other productive activities’ (Krambeck, 2006).

Fig. 5: Share of Pedestrians (%) in Road Accidents (2005)
4. Walking as a viable choice in India cities

The fact that Indian cities have a fair share of walk trips in spite of the poor
infrastructural provisions partly indicates the helplessness of large number of
commuters because of their poor socio-economic status. Though many non-
motorized commuters have resorted to motorized modes which are generally
perceived safe (Rahul, 2013), there are others who constantly struggle for
space with the motorized traffic impacting adversely on their safety, health and
efficiency. Such people would have to be provided with such infrastructure that
may enhance their safety perceptions while also affording a pleasant walking
experience. The walkability data also shows a high percentage of short trips.
High share of short trips even in the large and sprawling cities creates potential
for enhancing walkability for short distance commuting for everybody in spite of
their socio-economic status. Further, the high cultural significance of walkability
combined with increased awareness as regards its environmental and health
benefits may become instrumental in reversing the trends of increased auto-
centric development practices. In this context, following becomes inevitable if
we have to respond to the sustainability concerns in Indian cities.
4.1 Recognition of Pedestrian as an Important Road User

The pedestrian forms the largest group of road users, therefore must find
recognition in all transport related plans and policies. Right to walk safely is a
basic human right that should not be infringed upon. Everybody is a pedestrian
at one time or the other. For a person having minimum level of mobility, walking
should be feasible, implying safety concerns. For the others, the environment
needs to be enhanced to bring in behavioral changes in favor of walking since it
offers several health, social and other benefits.

4.2 Policies for Pedestrians

Pedestrian should become the first step in an enlightened urban transport policy,
or at least may be treated equitably with other transport modes. The policies
for development of road infrastructure shall be people-centric rather than auto-
centric with greater emphasis on public transport and non-motorized transport.
Any such policies shall duly acknowledge the dignity of a pedestrian. Instead of
reducing pedestrian facilities, policies must be oriented so as to reduce need
for individual motorized travel. Suitable and exhaustive guidelines for planning,
design and construction of safe, convenient and comfortable movement of
pedestrians should be prepared and strictly enforced
4.3 Planning and Designing for Pedestrians

Pedestrian facilities shall form an integral part of road design, construction and
improvement plans. Pedestrian facilities should not appear as after thoughts or
add-on facilities. No plans should be approved unless road safety audit is carried
out specifically concerning safe pedestrian facilities. While segregated right of
way may enhance the perceived pedestrian safety, creative facilities like shady
trees, provision of drinking water and resting points along walking corridors would
mitigate, to a large extent, adverse weather conditions. Planning may also seek
spatial segregation of pedestrian traffic, and develop an exclusive pedestrian
network independent of the road network, thereby yielding a pleasant, safe and
cleaner walking environment. Encroachments on the footpaths should be checked
through proper planning coupled with strict enforcement. National level database
related to pedestrians need to be created at macro and micro level, and regularly
updated so that the pedestrian issues may be realistically addressed.
Speeding vehicles in the residential areas often threaten the safety of residents,
especially the kids and the elderly. Extensive traffic calming techniques may be
employed to make the residential areas pedestrian friendly. Traffic is the pulse of
the city and lends its first impression. How civilized a city is, can be gauged by the
manner in which pedestrian facilities are provided and function. Lot of order and
safety can be introduced if pedestrian facilities are designed and operated properly.
4.4 Community Involvement

Community participation is an inevitable part of any development endeavor so
as to evolve solutions that enable greater use by the potential beneficiaries.
Since walking affects everyone, irrespective of age, gender, caste and economic
status, so all should voice their concerns for effective walkability practices.
5. ConclusionS
In the context of present socio-economic realities of Indian cities, pedestrians cannot
be eliminated from the urban landscape. Rather it may form the starting point for
rethinking and propagating walkability for addressing the sustainable transport agenda.

However, since the Indian cities are quite diverse especially in terms of population
characteristics, role of non-motorized traffic must be considered respecting this
diversity. Planning in general terms will lead to failure in providing an effective and
efficient pedestrian infrastructure. It would be worthwhile to explore as to which
planning and design factors could enhance walking or how the existing auto-oriented
environments be retrofitted for pedestrian access. Further the urban forms should
also comply with walkability requirements of short travel distances and accessibility
to livelihoods, education and other social needs, for the benefit of the pedestrians.
References
Balsas, C.J.L. (2002) New directions for bicycle and pedestrian planning education in the
US. Planning Practice and Research, 17:1, 91-105.
Banister, D. (2000) Sustainable urban development and transport - a Eurovision for 2020.
Transport Reviews: A Transnational Transdisciplinary Journal, 20:1, 113-130.
Centre for Science and Environment Delhi (2009) Footfalls: Obstacle course to livable
cities. Accessible at: http://www.cseindia.org/userfiles/walkability_pdf.pdf
Forsyth, A. and Southworth, M. (2008) Cities afoot—pedestrians, walkability and urban
design, Journal of Urban Design, 13:1,1-3.
Goodman, R. and Tolley, R. (2003) The decline of everyday walking in the UK: explanations
and policy implications. Sustainable transport: Planning for walking and cycling in urban
environments. Rodney Tolley (ed.) England: Woodland Publishing Limited.
Krambeck, H. (2006) The global walkability index: Talk the walk and walk the talk.
Accessible at: cleanairinitiative.org/portal/system/files/60499_paper.pdf‎
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (2013) Road Transport Year Book (2011-12),
Government of India, New Delhi.
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India, New Delhi.
Ministry of Urban Development, (2008) Study on traffic and transportation policies and
strategies in urban areas in India. Final report, Government of India, New Delhi.
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Indian cities. Research in Transportation Economics, 38, 22-34.
Singh, S.K. (2005) Review of Urban Transportation in India. Journal of Public
Transportation, 8:1, 79-97.
Tiwari, G. (2001) Pedestrian infrastructure in the city transport system: a case study of
Delhi. World Transport Policy and Practice. 7(4), 13-18.
Tiwari, G. (2011) Key Mobility Challenges in Indian Cities. Discussion paper produced as
background for the International Transport Forum on 25-27 May in Germany. Accessible at:
http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/jtrc/DiscussionPapers/DP201118.pdf
UTTIPEC (2010) Street Design Guidelines for Equitable Distribution of Road Space.
November. Accessible at: http://uttipec.nic.in/writereaddata/mainlinkFile/File282.pdf

Opportunities and Challenges of Employing

Crowd-mapping in Bicycle Mobility Projects
Neelakshi Joshi, Prof. Dr. Ing. Helmut Bott and Prof. R. Shankar
Abstract
This paper shares the application of crowd-mapping, an emerging tool in participatory
planning, to collect and analyze data for a bicycle mobility project in Bangalore,
India. Data was collected by engaging cyclists through an online base map. Quality and
quantity of data collected is shared. Challenges faced in facilitating participation and
checking data authenticity are discussed. Recommendations are made for a holistic
design of future attempts at bicycle crowd-maps for cities. This paper aims to encourage
governments, planning bodies and researchers to widely apply this new tool for actively
engaging bicyclists in contributing dynamic and up-to-date data.
1. INTRODUCTION
Classically citizen participation in the mobility projects has been restricted to
feedback and opinions. These are collected in town hall style meetings or surveys
conducted via face to face interviews of a predefined sample size. This results in
restricting the planning process to ‘tokenism’ and ‘non-participation’ (Arnstein,
1969). Also, route data collected via origin-destination surveys involves complex
procedures that interrupt traffic on the road.
Today, global connectivity via the internet presents an additional platform to

constructively engage with a vast group of citizens. Equipped with powerful
smartphone devices and connected through social media websites, the role of
citizens in contributing data to planning projects is an emerging concept (Evans-
Cowley, 2011). Furthermore, enabling citizens to pro-actively contribute and
engage in the planning process is a step in realizing true democratic planning
(Brabham, 2009).
Crowd-sourcing is defined as the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or

content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially
from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers
(Merriam-Webster, 2012). Crowd-mapping is an application of Crowd-sourcing
data geospatially on a map.
Neelakshi Joshi, Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Roorkee, India Städtebau-Institut

Universität Stuttgart Stuttgart, Germany, Email: [email protected]
Prof. Dr. Ing. Helmut Bott, Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Roorkee, India Städtebau-
Institut Universität Stuttgart Stuttgart, Germany, Email: [email protected]
Prof. R. Shankar, Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Roorkee, India, Email: [email protected]
Neelakshi Joshi, Professor Dr. Ing. Helmut Bott and Professor R. Shankar 19
Bicycle mobility projects stand to Fig. 1: Conventional Route Mapping v/s Crowdmapping
benefit from this technology as they (Author, 2014)
depend on up-to-date field data for
their success. Collecting Crowd-sourced
geo-spatial and real time route data,
reports on infrastructure quality and
constructive user feedback lie at the
heart of these attempts. Data collection
in Crowd-mapping is different from the
conventional method of one surveyor
following cyclists. Rather, cyclists source
their real time routes to the surveyor on
a central shared map (Fig. 1).
2. Background
Crowd-map’s first popular application was used in time of post-election fallout in
Kenya in 2008 (Ushahidi, 2008). People reported cases of violence through their
phones which were then recorded on an online map and enabled relief agencies
to provide help. Today, Crowd-mapping is being employed for collecting variety
of data ranging defunct infrastructure to pollution levels in different parts of
the world. Anyone with a device having an internet connection can contribute
requested data to a central map. In non-motorised mobility projects, Crowd-
mapping promises to be a powerful tool for gathering route information, problem
points and user suggestions.
Recording data is getting easier with a phenomenal increase in smartphone usage.

It was estimated by Business Insider that by the end of 2013, 6 percent of the
global population will own a tablet, 20 percent will own PCs, and 22 percent will
own smart phones (Business Insider, 2013). Indian citizens have not been immune
to this phenomenon with 81 percent mobile phone users out of which 10 percent
are smart phone devices and 80 percent are multimedia phones (Nielsen, 2013).
These numbers are predicted to climb as smart phones become affordable and
easily available.
3. Existing Applications of Crowd-mapping

Cities, both big and small, have begun experimenting with bicycle Crowd-
maps. Some are internet based maps while others provide a dual access through
mobile phone applications as well as the internet. Shared here are two popular
applications:
3.1 Dynamic Connections, Berlin

Dynamic Connections is a successful application of Crowd-mapping bicycle
routes in the city of Berlin. It is part of the BMW Guggenheim Lab and intends to
empowering everyday citizens to create and improve their own cities (Smith, 2013).
Fig. 2: Screenshot of Dynamic Connections The Dynamic Connections Map rates different
Map (http://www.dynamicconnections. Berlin streets on their amenability for cycling
de/maps, 2014) based on a variety of criteria including traffic
volume, topography, and safety considerations.
Users are able to identify which streets should
have future biking infrastructure, creating a
Crowd-sourced map of the potential future
biking network in Berlin (Dynamic Connections,
2013 a). The project recorded 5,211 routes
(Fig. 2) that provide for interesting analysis
(Dynamic Connections, 2012 b). The project
intends to advise any future efforts in the city
to improve bicycle environment.
3.2 Traffic Travel Interactive Platform,

Fig. 3: Screenshot of City of Beijing’s Crowdmap Beijing
(http://img3.douban.com/view/note/
large/public/ p230348515-1.jpg, 2013) Beijing Transportation Research Center in
collaboration with World Bank has launched
Traffic Travel Interactive Platform to collect
data on non-motorized mobility from citizens
employing a Crowd-map (World Bank, 2012).
Besides sharing routes, citizens can also report
bad infrastructure, problem points and share
images (Fig. 3). The data collected is being
used to advise further infrastructure and policy
changes in the city.
4. Application
To further test the Crowd-mapping as a tool
for participatory mapping, a web-page was set
up on a free mapping platform. Wikimapping
is used to record bicycle routes for the city
Table 1: Target Group for Crowdmapping of Bangalore, India. Previous transportation
Target Platform Group Views studies on cyclists restricted to reports
Group Size approximating the number of bicyclists in the
Bangalore Google 4784 84 city (Rites, 2011). No major efforts to map
Biker’s Club Group
exact routes or record frequent problems have
Praja Facebook 514 Data not
available been undertaken by government agencies. The
Ride a Cycle Facebook 376 Data not map is open source and can be accessed at:
Foundation available http://wikimapping.com/wikimap/Bangalore-
Bangalore Facebook 53 15 Biking-and-Walking.html#.Uy2fD6hdXw8. The
Bicycle map was popularized through social media
Commuters
websites for two months between 15 October
Total 5716 1905 (approx.)
2013 to 12 December 2013.
4.1 Participation
The map was popularized on social media sites aimed at cyclists in Bangalore
(Table 1). A group of 5,716 people was targeted for this project. It was difficult
to know how many members viewed the post for participation. However, a safe
assumption of one third of the group being active and viewing the post can be
made. This makes for approximately 1,905 views.
Following the publicity on social media sites, 103 users logged on to the Crowd-
map. Out of these, 90 cyclists actively contributed by recording their routes,
sharing infrastructure points or problems areas on the map. Cyclists contributed
50 routes, 8 problem points, 10 repair stations, 8 parking station and 14
photographs (Figure 4 and 5). 4.7 percent of the initial target group ended up
actively contributing to the mapping efforts.
Fig. 4: Bicycle Routes (in red) on the Crow-dmap (2014)
Fig. 5: Bicyclist Crowd-sourced Data on Crowd-map (2014)
4.2 Data
A total of 470 km of routes were recorded on the map. Besides routes, users
also shared images of routes and marked problem points. Based on user inputs,
the point category was further elaborated to include parking spots and repair
stations.
4.3 Survey
Besides collecting route information, the users participated in sharing basic
demographic and route quality information. The aim was to understand who was
participating and their basic bicycling preferences. Of the 50 respondents who
participated in the survey, the following data was gathered:
• Gender: 88 percent male and 12 percent female
• Average age: 30 years
• Average Trip Length: 9.4 km
• Primary trip destination: Work (72 percent)
• Primary reason for cycling: Health (34 percent)
• Rate the riding environment: Average (53 percent)
4.4 Opportunities
Compared to conventional data collected on cycle routes in the city, a Crowd-
map presents some additional advantages:
• Geo-spatial routes: User routes are immediately available on the map.
• Time saving: Once the initial project is set up and publicized, the data
collection is automatic, till the map is made available online.
• Cost effective: The tools used in this mapping exercise were open source and
free. Publicity on social media sites was also free. This makes it excellent for
campus or neighborhood mapping exercises where the community is easy to reach.
Larger city level efforts will involve an initial cost for publicizing the concept.
Furthermore, participation can be boosted by offering incentives and rewards.
• Open source: All data are shared openly and can be used for further research,
maintaining a continuity of efforts.
• Mutually beneficial: Data (repair stations, problem points and parking stations)
shared by one cyclist is helpful to others who participate or access the map.
• Engaging: The onus of producing data lies on the cyclists. This is the first
step in sharing responsibility for further attempts at improving the bicycling
environment in the city.
4.5 Challenges
Crowd-mapping is an emerging concept and attempts like setting up Bangalore’s
Crowd-map aim to understand and recommend suggestions to fine tune this tool.
• Small response: Although the map was publicized on social media sites to a
target group of 5,716 cyclists, 90 constructive hits were recorded on the map
in 2 months. Low participation has been the Achilles’ heel of any participatory
process and the primary aim of applying Crowd-sourcing was to facilitate higher
participation. This is done by making the process of participation easier i.e.
via the internet and second by making it more engaging and user-centric. Low
participation here indicates that stronger attempts need to be made to popularize
it among users.
• Data Authenticity: Since the data source is an anonymous web user, we do
not have means to check the authenticity of data shared. Although this was
partially regulated by publicizing the map only on specific bicyclist groups,
the possibility of non-authentic data inputs exist.
5. Recommendations
The success of good Crowd-mapping application is directly proportional to a large
crowd response. Although a powerful tool in itself, most applications reviewed
and used by the author tend to have a small user group. Also, incentivizing
participation both by physical rewards as well as non-physical ones like action by
the city on most frequently reported problems can elicit greater response. The
following recommendations are made for future design of Crowd-maps for cities:
• Publicizing beyond the internet: Although this project was restricted to

publicizing the map on social media platforms, a stronger response can be
elicited if these attempts are augmented by real-life publicity in schools,
offices and public places frequented by cyclists.
• Complete package: A complete Crowd-map should cover all aspects of a
cycle trip. It should provide for route recording, calorie counting, option for
rating infrastructure and posting problems. Also, forums for discussion on
possible solutions should be facilitated.
• Riding Environment: Air quality and sound levels are crucial to a good riding
environment. Cyclist can constructively engage to produce air quality and
noise level maps. Current smart phones are equipped to record decibel
levels. Sensors are being developed to record air quality (Livescience, 2013).
• Use of data: A successful Crowd-map should be action oriented. It is an added
incentive for cyclists to participate if they know that the routes shared will
be used to advice the bicycle mobility improvement projects by the city.
• Gamification and Incentives: Introducing game elements like rewards for
participation or design challenges for street design improvement can further
encourage participation.
6. Conclusions
Mobility planning in cities brings the focus back to improving bicycle and pedestrian
environment. Crowd-mapping route data for mobility projects promises to be
an engaging tool for this process. Besides increasing awareness about such
projects, it helps create a participatory platform for future interventions. Many
smartphone and internet based applications already exist and are contributing in
this. However the challenge in the near future remains to elicit a good response
from users and encourage planning agencies and researchers to adopt this as a
serious tool to connect to its citizens.
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b4b06201652578e0002f2470/.
Methodological Enforcement of Specifically Planned Spatial

Traffic Law: An Appropriate Approach to Decongest,
Manage and Regulate the Traffic - Case Study of Dehradun
Jugmohan Singh
Abstract
Traffic law enforcement is an indispensable tool for increasing road safety, decreasing
congestion, management and regulation of traffic in planned and unplanned urban
area. Therefore, it is utmost essential that traffic enforcement should be done in a
methodological and spatially planned nature. The theme of this research paper is to
scientifically highlight and precisely pinpoint the various parameters to be considered
by the traffic law enforcement agencies / organizations while enforcing the traffic laws
in these cities. Accordingly, the author is of the opinion that it is an incredibly vital
to have significant knowledge of traffic laws to recognize all concerned factors, while
enforcing the traffic laws which in-return will help the traffic law enforcement agencies
for enhancing increasing road safety, decongestion, management and regulation of
traffic.
1. INTRODUCTION
Dehradun city is located at 78°55′ to 78°5′E and 30°12′ to 30°23¢N. It is an
interim capital of the state Uttarakhand besides being the district headquarters.
It is the only municipal corporation of the Uttarakhand. It is strategically located
at the foothills of the Himalayas and serving as a gateway to the hills, which
has made it an important hill station in India. Dehradun has emerged as the
premier business as well as service centre within the hilly region of the state.
The functional character of the city is changing from an educational town to a
service and commercial hub for the entire state.
2. TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION ISSUES

Introduction and need for implementation of spatial traffic law enforcement
approach in Dehradun city to decongest the city traffic appears to be great.
Dehradun, the interim capital of Uttarakhand state, houses numerous government
and prestigious educational institutions of high repute of the country namely,
Forest Research Institute (FRI), Indian Military Academy (IMA), Indian Institute of
Petroleum, Survey of India, Wildlife Institute of India, Indian Institute of Remote
Sensing and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
Dehradun has urbanized manifolds after being declared as the interim capital of
Uttarakhand State in 2000. Municipal Corporation area have population of 4.26
Jugmohan Singh, Urban and Transport Planner, Mussoorie - Dehradun Development Authority,
Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Jugmohan Singh 26
lakh as per Census 2001 and has grown to 5.66 lakh in 2011. Considerable growth
of population and registered Motor Vehicles coupled with a marginal increase in
the transport infrastructure apart from construction of bus and truck terminals
has been observed since the inception of a new capital. Due to rapid ribbon
development along various corridors and concentration of activities in the core
area, traffic problems has increased tremendously and become critical.
Increase in city’s traffic due to unprecedented growth in the number of registered

motor vehicles, influx of motor vehicles on city roads from surrounding areas has
caused traffic problems. Poor conditions of the roads, lack of basic road infrastructure
facilities like footpaths, parking area, traffic signs, FOBs, street lights, etc; puts
the safety of road users at stake. Not only this, the traffic jams in the city core
area has become a common feature. The average speed of the motor vehicles has
approximately decreased to 5 to 15 kmph. The bottlenecks in some areas have also
aggravated the traffic situation. The city traffic rather than moving seems to be
crawling during peak hours. Thus, there is a pressing demand to solve the problems,
which create congestion in the city.
The 3Es i.e. education, engineering, enforcement (Fig. 1) act like the mainstay
for efficient traffic and transport planning and to achieve the efficient traffic and
transport planning all the 3Es have to work in simultaneously in a same direction.
It is the duty of all major stakeholders like Police, PWD, CPWD, Development
Authority, Municipal Corporation, National Highway Authority of India, Transport
Department, etc; to plan for efficient traffic and transport planning. Efficient
road traffic management is closely linked to a strong traffic law enforcement
strategy. Increasing urban population along with daily influx of vehicular traffic
from neighboring areas and cities further compounds the challenge.
One of the essential aspects of traffic and transport

Fig. 1: The Concept of 3-E’s,
planning is the enforcement of traffic rules and
regulations. The enforcement of rules and regulations
is a key to change the behavior of road users. The
road users have to be challaned for the violations they
commit on roads for their and safety of other road
users. Traffic law enforcing agencies have to understand
that It is not about the severity or the number of the
punishments; it is about the surety of the punishment,
which in simple terms can be denoted as intentional
enforcement, where the objectives are prefixed for
enforcing specific traffic laws. Most of the traffic law
enforcing agencies are concerned with the number
of fines done against traffic law violations and the
income generated by enforcement drives against those
Jugmohan Singh 27
violations. One has to understand that it is not about the number of challans
done by the traffic law enforcing agencies, it is about the way the enforcement is
initiated. The impact of the enforcement has to be such that road users feel that
they will be fined if they commit traffic law violations. To achieve a specified
objective it is more important to hit the bull’s eye with few arrows rather than
shooting the number of arrows away from the target in disarray.
Traffic law enforcement being an important tool can help in decongestion of the
Dehradun city traffic if this important tool is specifically and spatially planned
and implemented. Therefore, it is utmost essential for traffic police and other
traffic law enforcing agencies to spatially identify the area and violations related
to that specific area which affect the free flow of the traffic in that area and
in turn cause congestion, bottlenecks and traffic jams. So it is essential to
study the city and prepare a methodologically spatial traffic enforcement plan
of the city. Once the spatial traffic law enforcement plan is prepared, spatial
enforcement can be done accordingly. Time is ripe enough for traffic law
enforcement agencies to move from general traffic enforcement methodology to
specific and spatial methodological enforcement system. To understand specific
and spatial methodological enforcement system and how it is better than the
present enforcement system, it is highly recommended to investigate, analyse
the present enforcement system, and its impact on overall traffic condition of
the city.
3. traffic law enforcement scenario at Dehradun

Present scenario of traffic law enforcement in Dehradun city is not much different
from that of the other cities of India. The same formula of enforcement is being
used in every city. The impetus of traffic law enforcing agencies is to challan
more and more road users and in case of Dehradun city in year 2014 (Table 1)
from the month of January 2014 to March 2014, 13,819 road users were challaned
for various traffic law violations. Detail of traffic challans done by traffic police
from the month of January 2014 to March 2014 (before the Formation of City
Petrol Unit) is given below.
• Enforcement is not specifically area based;

• Challans are done for 27 Traffic Violations;
• Number of challans done on private vehicles is more than that of the
commercial vehicles;
• Data does not specify the area where challans were recorded;
• Police also does not collect and maintain the data about regular traffic law
offenders;
• Police does not serve challans for many other traffic violations prescribed
in acts and rules which can help in free flow of traffic and reduction of
congestion at Dehradun city; and
Jugmohan Singh 28
Table 1: Detail of Traffic Challans Done by Traffic Police from the Month of January 2014 to March 2014 (before the Formation of City Petrol
Jugmohan Singh
Unit)
VEHICLE
TYPE
With OUT HELMET

TRIPPLING
WITHOUT number plate
Over speeding
Black Film
Seat belt
Using mobile phone
Dangerous driving
Using high beam
Others
Overload
Reflector
Red light jump
Over height
Overhanging
Crane
Noise pollution
No entry
No parking
Violations of route permit
Pollution
Without Permit
Without Registration
Without license
One way
Passenger Over Loading
Vehicle Seize
Grand Total
1 CAR 0 0 12 1 9 133 146 128 1 144 3 0 132 8 1 23 4 6 2 12 9 3 5 782
2 4-WHEELER 0 0 22 6 3 268 30 36 2 141 66 2 73 8 38 13 2 2 26 6 20 41 175 6 50 12 1048

LOADING
VEHICLE
3 TATA MAJIC 0 0 0 0 0 22 4 2 0 9 1 0 11 1 8 1 12 8 1 7 1 20 2 110
4 TAXI 0 0 1 0 1 106 14 12 2 33 2 0 31 1 2 15 12 3 4 1 4 15 3 45 2 309
5 TRACTOR/ 0 0 2 0 0 1 3 12 0 4 0 0 4 26
TROLLEY
6 TWO 5894 947 116 19 0 7 260 210 1 776 3 0 639 121 3 148 6 45 158 258 237 9848
WHEELER
7 HEAVY 0 0 9 12 0 25 9 91 0 36 8 0 19 1 11 1 149 20 1 4 4 6 6 3 2 417

VEHICLE
8 LOADING 0 0 5 5 1 70 0 8 1 54 4 0 33 1 3 3 3 17 2 2 212
VEHICLE
9 VIKRAM/ 0 0 7 1 1 7 20 15 1 94 11 0 90 2 1 146 7 5 260 21 5 3 12 65 12 79 16 881

AUTO
10 CITY BUS 0 0 3 1 0 12 7 30 0 31 0 0 22 48 3 24 57 3 2 1 3 5 52 3 307
29
Grand Total 5894 947 177 45 15 651 493 544 8 1322 98 2 1054 12 46 370 18 184 431 46 50 6 114 455 300 256 281 13819
Table 2: Traffic Challans Done By Traffic Police from the Month of April 2014 to June 2014 (after the Formation of City Petrol
Unit)
VEHICLE
TYPE
Jugmohan Singh
USING MOBILE PHONE
WITH OUT HELMET

TRIPLING
NUMBER PLATE
OVER SPEEDING
BLACK FILM
WITHOUT SEAT BELT
DANGEROUS DRIVING
USING HIGH BEAM
OTHERS
RED LIGHT JUMP
WITHOUT LICENSE
PASSENGER OVERLOAD
OVER LOADING
OVER HEIGHT
OVER HANGING
CRANE
NO ENTRY
NO PARKING
WITHOUT REGISTRATION
WITHOUT PERMIT
VIOLATION OF PERMIT
ONE WAY
POLLUTION
NOISE POLLUTION
SEIZE VEHICLE
GRAND TOTAL
1 Car 0 0 11 1 29 213 227 832 42 2261 278 38 7 1 0 0 10 2 44 21 0 7 15 104 7 7 4157
2 4- Wheeler 0 0 19 0 0 72 24 41 9 199 57 123 18 114 5 26 1 8 37 18 1 2 10 72 2 10 868
3 Tata Majic 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 0 22 3 4 7 3 0 0 0 1 12 2 1 4 3 3 1 0 71
4 Taxi 0 0 2 0 0 9 12 13 6 75 21 14 29 4 0 0 0 1 20 2 2 4 0 19 1 0 234
Tractor/
5 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 17
Trolley
6 2-Wheeler 14411 932 100 6 96 28 439 982 16 7094 1217 347 0 0 0 0 98 0 94 117 0 0 213 29 3 236 26458
Heavy
7 0 0 2 1 0 9 16 118 0 248 22 24 0 9 1 0 3 108 22 0 0 4 6 17 3 0 613
Vehicle
Loading
8 0 0 4 0 0 17 6 26 2 200 19 10 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 54 1 0 345
Vehicle
Vikrams /
9 0 0 3 0 0 3 34 57 6 677 102 67 37 10 1 0 0 6 368 8 5 15 19 139 10 10 1577
Auto
10 City Bus 0 0 1 0 0 6 9 36 1 153 22 5 8 1 1 0 0 26 86 1 0 3 5 19 2 1 386
Grand Total 14411 932 143 8 126 358 770 2108 82 10936 1742 632 106 143 8 26 112 156 686 171 9 39 271 457 30 264 34726
30
• Impetus of the traffic law enforcement agency is mainly on the number of

challans
In the month of April 2014 Police Department Uttarakhand formed the City Petrol
Unit. After the formation from the month of April 2014 to June 2014 the number
of challans suddenly increased and total challans done by police were 34,726.
After the formation of city petrol unit the impetus have not changed and with
the increase in number of personals in traffic law enforcement the number of
challans increased drastically. Detail of traffic challans done by Traffic Police
from the month of April 2014 to June 2014 after the formation of City Petrol Unit
is given in Table 2, from which one can notice the following points:
• Enforcement is not specifically area based;

• Challans are done for 26 Traffic Violations;
• Challans done on private vehicles is more than that of the commercial
vehicles;
• Data does not specify the area where challans were recorded;
• Police also does not collect and maintain the data about regular traffic law
offenders;
• Police don’t challans for many other traffic violations prescribed in acts and
rules which can help in free flow of the traffic and reduction of congestion;
and
• Impetus is mainly on the number of challans.
To understand the enforcement system in a holistic way, comparison between

challans done before the formation of City Petrol Unit and after the formation of
City Petrol Unit has been done to analyze deeply the situation from all the possible
angles. The challans done by the traffic police has increased but the traffic condition
remains same as it was before the advent of City Petrol Unit. The challans done
on commercial vehicles which ply on Doon roads round the clock have decreased
and challans on private vehicles (two wheelers and cars) have increased. Traffic
congestion is still a familiar feature in Dehradun city traffic. Vehicles are plying
at the snails speed in the city core area. Now the question arises, can the present
traffic law enforcement approach decongest the city traffic? Can the traffic move
smoothly in the city area? Has the traffic jams scenario changed? Simple and sure
answer to all these questions is no. Traffic law enforcing agency is working 24x7
and still the condition of traffic is not improving, The reason is that the traffic law
enforcement agencies are not planning enforcement drives in the city spatially
and with the motive to achieve smooth and free flow of vehicular movement and
curbing those violations of road users, which create traffic congestion and traffic
jams in the city.
Jugmohan Singh 31
4. Methodology to prepare spatial traffic law enforcement

plan
To decrease traffic congestion in Dehradun city it is essential that traffic
law enforcement agency has to move from general traffic law enforcement
methodology to specific and spatial law enforcement methodology. Once the
spatial traffic law enforcement plan is prepared, spatial enforcement can be done
accordingly which will definitely help in decongesting the city traffic. To prepare
spatial traffic law enforcement plan, the following steps have to be followed:
Step I: Conducting the Reconnaissance Survey of the City

Conducting a reconnaissance survey of the city is imperative to understanding
the scenario of the city. The survey helps in visualizing the accurate picture of
the road network, traffic and its movement, road junctions, type of junctions,
road users behavior, condition of roads’, etc. To plan something for the city one
has to understand the city, its functions and other various factors as nothing can
be planned in isolation. A survey has to be conducted as it acts as a fundamental
material for any study to be impeccable.
Step II: Defining and Demarcating the Zones

The first and foremost step towards initiating the methodological and spatially
planned enforcement drive is to demarcate the zones. All the stakeholders
like the Police, MDDA, Nagar Nigam, RTO and PWD, etc. should participate in
formulating the plan for the core city area and for the demarcation of core area
the following parameters may be adopted.
• Defining places where traffic congestion is frequent;

• Earmarking the temporary and permanent bottlenecks;
• Road conditions;
• Traffic volumes;
Fig. 2: City Petrol Unit - Traffic Police Dehradun
Jugmohan Singh 32
Table 3: Comparision Between the Numbers of Challans Done by Traffic Police

before and after the Formation of City Petrol Unit
S.No Vehicle Type Challans done from Percentage Challans done from Percentage
the month of Jan out of Total the month of April out of Total
2014-March 2014 2014-June 2014
1 Car 782 5.7 4157 12.0
2 4- Wheeler 1048 7.6 868 2.5
3 Tata Majic 110 0.8 71 0.2
4 Taxi 309 2.2 234 0.7
5 Tractor/ 26 0.2 17 0.0
Trolley
6 2-wheeler 9848 71.3 26458 76.2
7 Heavy Vehicle 417 3.0 613 1.8
8 Loading 212 1.5 345 1.0
Vehicle
9 Vikram/Auto 881 6.4 1577 4.5
10 City Bus 307 2.2 386 1.1
Grand Total 13819 100 34726 100
• Major junctions;
• Road inventory;
• Most problematic areas;
• Area with parking problems;
• Abutting land uses; and
• Areas with parking problems, etc.
In case of Dehradun city core area demarcation has already been done (Singh, 2013),
which is again used to formulate the methodologically spatial enforcement plan.
The core area in case of Dehradun city is surrounded by the following boundaries.
• Haridwar Bypass Road in the South: This road stretch starts from ISBT and
ends at Rispina Junction. The length of this road stretch is 6.3 kilometer
• NH 72 Road in the South East: This road stretch starts from Rispina Bridge and
ends at Nehru Colony Chowk. The length of this road stretch is - 350 kilometer
Jugmohan Singh 33
Fig. 3: Stepwise Mythology to Prepare the Spatial Traffic Law Enforcement Plan
• Nehru colony Road in the South East: This road stretch starts from Nehru
Colony Chowk and ends at Balbeer Chowk on Balbeer road. The length of this
road stretch is 1.3 kilometer
• Balbeer Road in the East: This road stretch starts from Balbeer Chowk and
ends on EC road Junction. The length of this road stretch is 1 kilometre
• Eastern Canal Road in the East: This road stretch starts from EC road Junction
and ends at survey Junction. The length of this road stretch is 1.7 kilometre
• Raipur Road in the North East: This road stretch starts from survey chowk
and ends at Sahastradhara crossing. The length of this road stretch is 1.3
kilometer
• Sahastradhara Road in the North: This road stretch starts from Sahastradhara
crossing and ends at IT park. The length of this road stretch is 4.3 kilometre
• IT Park Road and Dhoran Road: This road stretch starts from IT park and
ends at Dhoran Junction on Rajpur Road, The length of this road stretch is
1.7 kilometre
• Rajpur Road in the North West: This road stretch starts from Dhoran Junction
on Rajpur road and ends at Nain Singh Road / Rajpur Chowk, The length of
this road stretch is 3.8 kilometre
• Nain Singh Road and New Cantonment Road in the East: This road stretch
starts from Nain Singh Road/ Rajpur Chowk and ends at Cheerbagh Bridge on
Bindal Rao (new cantonment road), The length of this road stretch is 2.65
kilometre
• Bindal Rao in the East: This stretch of core area boundary starts from
Cheerbagh Bridge and ends at Bindal Bridge on Chakrata road. The core
area in the east is bounded by Bindal Rao, The core area in this part is
Jugmohan Singh 34
Fig. 4: Core Area Demarcation of Dehradun curvilinear in nature because the course
of the river.
• Chakrata Road in the East: This road
stretch starts from Bindal Brisge on
Chakrata rod and ends at Kishan Nagar
Chowk. The length of this road stretch is
1 kilometer
• Ballupur Road in the east: This road
stretch starts from Kishan Nagar Chowk
and ends at Ballupur Chowk. The length
of this road stretch is 2.7 kilometre
• General Mahadev Singh road east and
south: This road stretch starts from
Ballupur Chowk and ends Shimla bypass
road, The length of this road stretch is kilometres
• Shimla Bypass road in the south: This road stretch starts from Shimla bypass
road and general Mahadev Singh road intersection and ends at Shimla Bypass
junction on Saharanpur road. The length of this road stretch is 300 meter
• Saharanpur road: This road stretch starts from Shimla Bypass junction and
ends at ISBT junction. The length of this road stretch is 500 meter
Once the core area is formulated it will help the traffic law enforcing agency to focus
on specific area where traffic law enforcement is highly needed. In a unplanned city
like Dehradun, problematic areas are mostly in the old city where width of roads
is generally narrow, abutting land uses are generally commercial plus residential,
high pedestrian movement, least open spaces for parking. Places like Jhandawala,
Dhamawala, Kotwali, Paltan Bazar, etc.; are the prime example where the
characteristics of old city can be easily noticed. The characteristics of the new city
area in the periphery of the old city area are quite different from the characteristics
of old city area, for example, road width in new city area is more than the old city
area. So for spatial enforcement plan it is essential to differentiate all the area of
the city according to their characteristics. Same traffic law enforcement approach
should not be adopted as it will not lead to achieving our objectives.
Step III: Mapping the City Road Network

Once the core city area is demarcated, the next step to follow is to map the road
network of the city including all major and minor roads. Mapping of the road
network can easily be generated by using GIS based tools, Google Earth, Google
Maps, Yahoo Maps, etc. As we know that the enforcement can be a key tool to
decongest the city traffic if implemented spatially, and for that it is very necessary
to study the road network of the city and collect information about the road
network, road user behaviour, and violations in specific area of the city. It is very
Jugmohan Singh 35
essential to correlate all these violations with the road users and road network of
the city. It is also essential to identify all major and minor road networks of the
city. During the collection of primary data in Dehradun city all the road networks
major and minor were identified (Fig. 3).
Step IV: Analyzing the main corridors and related problems

In the above given map of the Dehradun city, one can easily distinguish that few
major roads bisect or pass through the city. Major roads which pass through the
city are Chakrata road, Rajpur Road, Gandhi Road Haridwar Road, Saharanpur
Road, Haridwar Bye pass road, GMS Road and East Canal Road. To implement
traffic law enforcement spatially, it is highly recommended to further divide the
road network of the city into major route corridors for macro level study and to
understand the major problems of each corridor as given below.
• Problems in Corridor - I; Saharanpur - Mussoorie Road: Saharanpur-Mussoorie

Road is one of the major corridors of Dehradun city. This is link road between Delhi
Saharanpur to Dehradun and Mussoorie. This road divides Dehradun into two equal
parts, and passes through the centre of old Dehradun. Most of the development
of the city is taking place along this road. This stretch witnesses a mixed land use
thereby generating larger volume of traffic and parking. There are many important
government offices, police stations, traditional commercial area, malls, schools
and colleges, hotels, service and repair shops, hospitals and saw mills, etc. It
serves the whole population of the city and experiences heavy traffic. The second
major factor is that it also serves
high volume of through traffic Fig. 5: Map of the Road Network Dehradun City.
for Mussoorie and Haridwar.
Therefore, this road faces many
problems regarding traffic and
parking. Central and old parts
of the city has narrow roads,
high density of population, old
vacant buildings, and heavy
commercial activity and small
industries. Factors affecting
free movement of traffic in this
route area as following;
-- Absence of demarcation
of parking areas through
signs and markings;
-- Shopkeepers have en-
croached upon the road
for displayed their prod-
ucts, which affects free
flow of the traffic;
Jugmohan Singh 36
-- Certain sections of the corridor are being encroached upon by vendors

and slum dwellers thereby eating into precious space from right of way;
-- There are certain sections of corridor, which are narrow coupled with
encroachments; and
-- It was observed during the reconnaissance surveys that bandwagons are
parked alongside roads thereby forcing the LMVs and other vehicles to
park on the carriageway leading to decrease in the width of road available
for movement of vehicles and hence causing congestion.
• Problems in Corridor-II; Chakrata Road, Ballupur Road, General Mahadev
Singh Road and Shimla by Pass Road: Chakrata road is densely populated
commercial area. This corridor predominantly has commercial and residential
area. This corridor has lesser volume of traffic as compared to Corridor - I.
-- This corridor has presence of mixed land use in terms of residential and
commercial areas thereby leading to specific parking needs and parking
problems;
-- A part of the right of way is encroached upon by vendors, slum dwellers
thereby leaving lesser space for free movement of the traffic;
-- During reconnaissance surveys it was observed that vehicles are parked
in a haphazard and unorganized manner thereby reducing the optimal
utilization of right of way;
-- Gross violation of ‘No Parking Zone’ has been recorded at certain sections.
It has been observed that people park their vehicles where a No Parking
Sign is installed indicating total absence of enforcement;
-- In the same way all other major corridors have to be specifically examined.
Spatial study will help the law enforcement agencies to analyze the major
corridors properly which in return will help them to minutely study each
section of a major corridor. So after analyzing all the corridors, the next
step for the preparation of methodological and spatial enforcement plan
is to sub divide major corridors into micro road sections; and
-- In the same manner other major road corridors have to be understood at
macro level along with the related problems. Once all the major corridors
are identified and studied, it is better to further divide these major
corridors into smaller sections for micro level studies.
Step V: Division of Road Network of the City into Smaller Section for Micro
Studies
For spatially planned traffic law enforcement, Dehradun city’s road network has
been further divided into various sections for detailed study purposes and also
for recommending proposals at the micro level. For spatial and methodological
enforcement, it is important to subdivide major road corridors into minor road
sections for proper micro level study and for preparation of micro level spatial
Jugmohan Singh 37
traffic law enforcement plans. Major road junctions can be used as the starting
and end points as road junctions act as landmarks, and are easy to identify.
Various smaller sections of major routes (Table 4, 5 and 6) for micro level analysis
are enumerated below.
• Smaller Sections of major corridors and Major Junctions

-- Saharanpur Road: 1. MDDA office to ISBT Junction, 2-ISBT junction
to Shimla Bypass junction, 3-Shimla bypass junction to Niranjanpur
Sabzi Mandi Junction, 4-Niranjanpur Sabzi Mandi to Saharanpur Chow,
5-Saharanpur Chowk to Prince Chowk.
-- Gandhi Road: 1-Prince Chowk to Tehsil Chowk, 2-Tehsil Chowk to Darshan
Lal Chowk, 3-Darshanlal Chowk to Clock tower
-- Chakrata Road: 1- Clock tower to Natraj Cinema, 2- Natraj cinema to
Bindal Chowk, 3-Bindal Chowk to Yamuna colony Chowk, 4-Yamuna colony
to Kishannagar Chowk, 5- Kishannagar Chowk to Ballupur Chowk
-- GMS Road: 1-Ballupur Chowk to Balliwala Chowk, 2- Balliwala Chowk to
Kamla palace Chowk, 3-Kamala palace Chowk to Niranjanpur Mandi Chowk
-- Rajpur Road: 1-Clock tower to Ashly Hall Chowk, 2- Ashly Hall Chowk
to Eucalyptus Chowk, 3-Eucalyptus Chowk to Dilaram Chowk,4- Dilaram
Chowk to RBI Chowk, 5-RBI Chowk to Hotel Aketa Chowk
-- Raipur Road: 1-Darshanlal Chowk to Lancedown Chowk,2-Lancedown
Chowk to Kanak Cinema Chowk,3-Survey Chowk to Sahastradhara Chowk
-- EC Road: 1-Kanak Cinema Chowk to Nainy Bakers Chowk, 2-Nainy Bakers
Chowk to Eucalyptus Chowk,3-Nainy Bakers Chowk to Survey Chowk,
4-Survey Chowk to Aaraghar Chowk
-- Haridwar Road: 1-Prince Chowk to CMI Chowk, 2-CMI Chowk to Aaraghar
Chowk, 3-Aaraghar Chowk to Agarwal Chowk, 4-Agrawal Chowk to
Fountain Chowk, 5-Fountain Chowk to Nehru colony Chowk, 6-Nehru
colony Chowk to Rispana bridge to Vidhansabha Chowk, 7-Nehru colony
Chowk to Dharampur Chowk, 8-Daharampur Chowk to Agarwal Chowk
Subdivision of major corridors into smaller sections helps in identifying problems

in specific area with specific violations. This study helps in understanding and
differentiating between general and specific problems of route stretches, and
traffic law violations rampant in specific area and affects of those violations.
Now enforcement agencies can think of what has to be planned to curb those
violations. For specific and micro level studies of each section, road inventory of
each section has to be collected, complied and analyzed.
Step VI: Identifying and Earmarking the Specific Problems in Micro Road Sections
Once a details about the micro sections is collected through primary data,
secondary data, pictures, graphs, charts, tables, traffic volume counts traffic law
Jugmohan Singh 38
Table 4: Road Inventory of the Smaller Sections

Loc. Name of Location Left Foot- Left Median Right Right
No. path Carriagway (In mts.) Carriagway Foot-Path
(In mts.) (In mts.) (In mts.) (In mts.)
1 Saharanpur Road (Raja Ram Mohan Rai Academy To M.D.D.A Office) 0.00 11.40 1.30 10.10 0.00
2 Saharanpur Road (I.S.B.T. Chowk TO Raja Ram Mohan Rai Academy) 0.00 11.60 1.30 11.50 0.00
3 Saharanpur Road (I.S.B.T. Chowk TO Raja Ram Mohan Rai Academy)
4 Saharanpur Road (Majra Chowk TO I.S.B.T. Chowk) 0.00 12.30 1.30 11.70 0.00
5 Saharanpur Road (Hotel Laxmi Palace To Majra Chowk) 0.00 13.10 1.30 9.60 0.00
6 Saharanpur Road (Hotel Laxmi Palace To Majra Chowk)
7 Saharanpur Road (Madur Milan Wedding Point To Hotel Laxmi 0.00 12.90 1.30 12.20 0.00
Palace)
8 Saharanpur Road (Mandi Chowk To Madur Milan Wedding Point) 0.00 13.90 1.30 10.60 0.00
9 Saharanpur Road (Mandi Chowk To Madur Milan Wedding Point)
10 Saharanpur Road (Lal Pull To Mandi Chowk) 0.00 12.90 0.60 12.20 0.00
11 Saharanpur Road (Patel Nagar (HDFC ATM) To Patel Nagar BSNL 0.00 8.80 0.50 11.40 0.00
Office)
12 Saharanpur Road (Patel Nagar (HDFC ATM) To Patel Nagar BSNL
Office)
13 Saharanpur Road (Mata Wala Bagh To Patel Nagar) (HDFC ATM) 0.00 12.20 0.50 12.70 0.00
14 Saharanpur Road (Mata Wala Bagh To Patel Nagar) (HDFC ATM)
15 Saharanpur Road (Saharan Pur Chowk To Mata Wala Bagh) 2.10 9.90 0.50 7.60 7.10
16 Saharanpur Road (Saharan Pur Chowk To Mata Wala Bagh)
17 M.G Road (Arhat Bazar (Post Office) To Saharan Pur Chowk) 0.00 8.90 0.50 6.60 2.70
18 M.G Road (Arhat Bazar (Post Office) To Saharan Pur Chowk)
19 M.G Road (Prince Chowk To Arahat Bajar Post Office) 0.00 8.50 0.50 7.30 0.00
20 M.G Road ( Prince Chowk To Arahat Bajar (Post Office)
21 M.G Road (Indian Oil Petrol Pump To Prince Chowk) 0.00 8.20 0.50 6.90 2.30
22 M.G Road (Tahseel Chowk To Indian Oil Petrol Pump) 0.00 9.20 0.50 8.80 0.00
23 M.G Road (Tahseel Chowk To Indian Oil Petrol Pump)
24 M.G Road (Darshan lal Chowk To Tehsil Chowk) 0.00 7.20 0.60 7.20 0.00
25 M.G Road (Darshan lal Chowk To Tehsil Chowk)
26 M.G Road (Darshan lal Chowk To Clock Tower) 0.00 9.90 1.10 8.90 0.00
27 M.G Road (Darshan lal Chowk To Clock Tower)
28 Rajpur Road (Clock Tower To Aslte Hall Chowk) 0.00 12.20 0.90 12.70 0.00
29 Rajpur Road (Clock Tower To Aslte Hall Chowk)
30 Rajpur Road (Aslte Hall Chowk To HP Petrol Pump) 0.00 8.50 0.40 10.50 0.00
31 Rajpur Road (Aslte Hall Chowk To HP Petrol Pump)
32 Rajpur Road (H.P Petrol Pump To Behl Chowk) 0.00 7.20 0.60 9.40 0.00
33 Rajpur Road (Behl Chowk To DilaRam) 0.00 8.30 0.60 9.30 0.00
34 Rajpur Road (Behl Chowk To Dilaram Chowk)
35 Rajpur Road (Dilaram Chowk To Swaraj Plaza) 2.30 6.80 0.60 7.20 1.40
36 Rajpur Road (Dilaram Chowk To Swaraj Plaza)
37 Rajpur Road (Swaraj Plaza Tower To Silver City Mall) 0.00 13.2 0.00 0.00 0.00
38 Rajpur Road (Silver City Mall To Hotel Aketa) 0.00 10.6 0.6 7.60 0.00
39 Rajpur Road (MDDA Parking) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
challans counts spatially, etc.; the next step is to compile and then analyze the
data. To identify and earmark specific problems in a micro road section, we have
Jugmohan Singh 39

Loc. Name of Location Left Foot- Left Median Right Right Foot-
No. path Carriagway (In Carriagway Path
(In mts.) (In mts.) mts.) (In mts.) (In mts.)
1 Chakrata Road (Clock Tower to Doon Bible Church) 0.00 11.20 0.70 11.90 0.00
2 Chakrata Road (Bible Church to Bindal Pull ) 2.30 13.40 0.50 10.70 4.60
3 Chakrata Road (Bindal Pull to Yamuna Colony Chowk) 0.00 8.90 0.50 8.10 0.00
4 Chakrata Road (Yamuna Colony Chowk to Punjab 1.50 6.60 0.50 7.70 1.40
National Bank)
5 Chakrata Road (Punjab National Bank to ONGC Hopital) 1.60 7.90 0.50 7.60 1.50
6 Chakrata Road (ONGC Hospital to Ballupur Chowk) 1.80 8.80 0.50 8.70 1.60
7 GSM Road (Ballupur Chowk to Wadia Institute of 2.70 11.20 0.30 8.70 0.00
Himalya Gelogy )
8 GSM Road (Wadia Institute of Himalya Gelogy to 0.00 11.20 0.30 9.80 0.00
Balliwala Chowk )
9 GSM Road (BalliWala Chowk To Sangam Vihar Chowk ) 0.00 8.70 0.30 9.60 0.00
10 GSM Road (Sangam Vihar Chowk To Janak Puri (Near 0.00 11.20 0.30 8.50 0.00
Doon scottish Academy) )
11 GSM Road (Janak Puri (Near Doon scottish Academy) 0.00 8.90 0.30 9.70 0.00
To GSM Road (Near Gramin Bank)
12 GSM Road (Near Gramin Bank) To Mandi Chowk 0.00 11.10 0.00 0.00 0.00
13 Chakrata Road (Bindalpul Near Drain) 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Left Median Right

Loc.
Name of Location Carriagway (In Carriagway
No.
(In mts.) mts.) (In mts.)
1 Haridwar Road (Prince Chowk to Bus Depot)
9.20 0.00 0.00
2 Haridwar Road (Prince Chowk to Bus Depot)
3 Haridwar Road (Bus Depot to Araghar Chowk) 14.10 0.00 0.00
4 Haridwar Road (Araghar Chowk to Dharampur Chowk) 8.80 0.90 8.40
5 Haridwar Road (Dharampur Chowk to Rispina Phul) 14.10 0.00 0.00
6 Haridwar Road (Nehru Colony Chowk to Fountain Chowk) 11.10 0.90 10.10
7 Ring Road (Dharampur Chowk to Fountain Chowk) 9.60 0.50 9.50
8 Ring Road (Fountain Chowk to Rajiv Nagar Bridge) 13.80 0.00 0.00
to study route sections and compare between routes for specific enforcement
which can lead towards achieving the aim behind enforcement. No two road
sections are similar in nature in all aspects and similarly no two routes have
similar problems. Therefore, it is important for traffic law enforcement agencies
to prepare a comparison chart of the route and accordingly enforce traffic laws.
For explanation comparison between two specific routes, problems present, and
type of enforcement required is detailed in the Table 7.
Jugmohan Singh 40
Table 7: Identifying and Earmarking the Specific Problems in Micro Road Sections
Road Section Present Scenario of the road section. Type of violations for which
enforcement has to be done
in specific area
Paltan Bazar to • Width of ROW is narrow, ROW not more Enforcement required to
Lakhi Bagh than 11 meters. reduce Parking Violations
• High Pedestrian Movement Enforcement required for No
• No entry for Heavy Vehicle entry violations &
• Congestion Encroachment has to be
removed by Nagar Nigam. etc
• Low Speed of vehicle
• Encroachment on footpath
• Mixed land use
• High Hawker Movement
• High Density
• On street parking space available
• Traffic Movement Low to Moderate.
Mussoorie • Width of ROW is narrow Enforcement for over speed
Diversion to Sai • Low pedestrian Movement violations
Baba Temple • All the vehicle area allowed Enforcement for wearing
• Least congested protective gear. etc
• High Speed of vehicles
• Least encroachment
• Mostly Residential
• Least Hawker Movement
• Low Density
• No parking space available.
• Traffic Volume High
As no two route sections are similar in nature therefore it is important to understand

that implementing same strategy for all road sections will not result in achieving
the target. In the above Table, the major road sections of Dehradun city were
analyzed further to simplify how methodological and spatial traffic law enforcement
has to be opted. This methodology can help traffic law enforcement agencies in
understanding routes and traffic law enforcement required in each section.
Step VII: Collection of Spatial Data on Traffic Violations by Road users in

Specific Area
Before analyzing the data regarding traffic law violations done by road users
spatially in specific area, the first and foremost thing is to change the format of
challaning receipts. Challaning receipt format should include the exact location
where violation occurred and impact of that violation on traffic. It is important
to correlate the type of violations and impact of traffic law enforcement. One
has to study impacts of traffic violation as illustrated here.
Jugmohan Singh 41
Step VIII: Categorization of Traffic Laws for Fig. 6: Categorisation of Traffic Law Enforcement
Enforcement to Achieve Specific
Objective
Traffic law enforcing agency has to be
very precise about their motive behind
the initiation of traffic law enforcement
drives. To achieve desired objectives traffic
enforcement has to be further classified
into smaller sections. Motives for traffic law
enforcement can be different as described
below in the Fig. By further analyzing traffic
law violation records of Dehradun traffic
police will get to know what they are able
to achieve.
Step IX: Curbing the Violations in Specific

Areas with Spatial Traffic Law
Enforcement Approach
To curb the specific spatial violations, which cause traffic congestion, traffic law
enforcement agencies has to definitely adopt and adhere to this new methodology
of spatial traffic law enforcement system. Time has come when old approach of
Table 8: Traffic Law Enforcement and Impact of Enforcement
Sr. No Traffic Law Violations Impact of enforcement
1 Without helmet Enforcement for this traffic law violation is important for road
safety but can’t help in decongesting the city traffic.
2. Without Seat Belt Enforcement for this traffic law violation is important for road
safety but can’t help in decongesting the city traffic.
3. Without Number Plate Enforcement for this traffic law violation is important for road
safety, identification of vehicle and its owner etc but can’t help
in decongesting the city traffic.
4 Using Black Film on window Enforcement for this traffic law violation is important but can’t
panes help in decongesting the city traffic.
5. Parking Within junction area This traffic law violation hinders traffic movement and by
yellow box. enforcing for this traffic law violation, can help the traffic police
in decongesting the traffic movement
6. Parking in No parking Zones This traffic law violation hinders traffic movement and by
enforcing for this traffic law violation, can help the traffic police
7. Boarding and alighting of This traffic law violation hinders traffic movement and by
passengers in Junction area enforcing for this traffic law violation, can help the traffic police
Jugmohan Singh 42
Table 9: Spatial Traffic Law Enforcement Tabular Format

S. Act, Rules, & Violation Impact of enforcement Where to enforce spatially Major objectives.
No regulations of Section
1 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Every where To decrease the
Road Regulations, Section 2 congestion, increases smooth traffic jam and
1989 movement of traffic congestion
2 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Near Road Junctions To decrease the
1989 movement of traffic congestion
3 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Near Road Junctions, if he is To decrease the
Road Regulations, Section 6 congestion, increases smooth near a point, bend of corner or traffic jam and
1989 (a,b) movement of traffic hill or other obstructions. congestion.
4 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Road Sections To decrease the
1989 movement of traffic congestion.
5 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Road Junctions To decrease the
6 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Locations where U turn is To decrease the
Road Regulations, Section 12 congestion, increases smooth prohibited traffic jam and
7 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Near Road Junction, Gaps in To decrease the
Road Regulations, Section 14 congestion, increases smooth the median & U Turns traffic jam and
1989 movement of traffic, congestion.
8 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Road Junctions, Narrow Roads, To decrease the
Road Regulations, Section 15 congestion, increases smooth Places where no parking is traffic jam and
1989 movement of traffic, Eradicates specified Etc as specified in congestion.
temporary and avoidable bottle RRR Section 14.
necks.
9 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Where traffic signage is To decrease the
Road Regulations, Section 17 congestion, increases smooth installed. traffic jam and
1989 (i, ii) movement of traffic, places where this offence is congestion.
committed
10 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases Channelized roads To decrease the
Road Regulations, Section 18 congestion, increases smooth traffic jam &
11 The Rules of the RRR- Increases road safety, decreases places where this offence is To decrease the
Road Regulations, Section 31 congestion, increases smooth committed traffic jam &
12 The Motor MVA- 1988 Increases road safety, increases Near schools, tuition centres, To decrease the
Vehicle Act, 1988 Section 3 smooth & safe movement of traffic. college, parks, etc traffic jam &
congestion.
13 The Motor MVA- 1988 Increases road safety, increases City area mostly city core To decrease the
Vehicle Act, 1988 Section smooth & safe movement of traffic. area. Places where traffic jam traffic jam &
122 & congestion is common. congestion.
14 The Motor MVA- 1988 Increases road safety, increases All Public spaces To decrease the
Vehicle Act, 1988 Section smooth & safe movement of traffic. traffic jam &
127 Removes unnecessary bottle necks. congestion.
15 The Motor MVA- 1988 Increases road safety, increases Any public space To decrease the
Vehicle Act, 1988 Section smooth, safe & free flow of the traffic jam &
201 traffic. Removes unnecessary bottle congestion.
necks.
16 The Motor MVA- Increases road safety, Junctions & All public To decrease the
Vehicle Act, 1988 increases smooth, safe & free spaces traffic jam &
1988 Section flow of the traffic. Removes congestion.
117 unnecessary bottle necks.
Jugmohan Singh 43
traffic law enforcement has to give way to new spatial traffic law enforcement
system. To decongest city traffic, city’s traffic police have to start the enforcement
drive against the violations which cause traffic congestion in the city. To make
spatial traffic law methodology easier to understand, it is excellent to prepare
a table which specifies what kind of enforcement is required to attain a certain
objective. Detailed specific and spatial tabular set up for implementation of
traffic law enforcement to attain optimum results from traffic law enforcement
in Dehradun city will be useful (Table 8 and 9). Categorization of offences, impact
of enforcement, and objectives to be achieved are scientifically described.
There are x number of sections, notifications, codes, rules and regulations related
to vehicles, road users for which enforcement can be done. But if our objective
is to decongest the city traffic and for smooth movement of traffic without any
obstruction along with safety, the focus has to be concentrated towards some
of the violations elaborated above in the table. For achieving other objectives
enforcement agency has to focus on other sections, notifications, codes, rules and
regulations related to vehicles, road users. By analyzing violations and impacts
of enforcement against each violation, we can state that traffic law enforcement
drives can achieve different objectives. To achieve other objectives it is important
to select specific rules and regulations in a methodological manner.
Step X: Analysis of the violations after spatial traffic law enforcement drives
Once this approach is implemented in few model cities, data regarding the same
has to re-evaluated and change in the overall traffic scenario has to be checked,
and before and after scenario has to be analyzed. Analysis of this data can help
to in educating, enhancing enforcement system strategy and the police personal
in other cities. This approach will help traffic law enforcement agencies in
Dehradun (Uttarakhand) and other state in India to plan enforcement drives to
attain planned objectives for their cities. In this manner results can be achieved
in less time with less confusion and absolute precision.
5. ConclusionS
Methodologically specific and spatial traffic law enforcement plan is a better
approach and strategy to achieve the objective of decongesting a city traffic
and to enhance free flow of traffic in urban areas. This strategy can help in
achieving other goals as well. The only thing which is required to be changed
is the approach in which traffic law enforcement agencies enforce traffic laws.
Time is ripe to move from the old enforcement strategy to new and advanced
enforcement, planning and implementation strategy. To implement spatial traffic
law enforcement strategy no additional infrastructure or manpower is needed.
This systematic methodology is cost effective, simple and objectively precise in
nature. Famous, prestigious and influential departments like the Bureau of Police
Jugmohan Singh 44
Research and Development, New Delhi, Home Department and Police Department
of all states, and police training academies can facilitate in achieving this goal
across India. It is exceptionally vital to impart training and to educate traffic law
enforcement agencies about this advanced approach of enforcement. Planners
of reputed organization with minimum about 5 year of experience should be
engaged to prepare spatial traffic law enforcement plans, and encourage training
to traffic law enforcement agencies for better understanding of this approach.
REFERENCES
Singh, J. (2013) Core Area Demarcation Specifically Planned to Decongest the City Traffic-
A Case Study Dehradun City, ITPI Journal, Vol.10, No.2.
Dehradun Master Plan, 2005-2025, Town and Country planning organisation, Dehradun,
Uttarakhand.
Comprehensive Parking Management Plan of Dehradun, 2013 Mussoorie Dehradun
Development Authority. Dehradun.
Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.Website: - http://www.advocatekhoj.com/library/bareacts/
motor/index.php?Title=Motor%20Vehicles%20Act,%201988
Central Motor Vehicle Rules (1989) Website: - http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/Cmvr1989.pdf
Rules of Road Regulations (1989) Website: - http://transport.bih.nic.in/Acts/The-Road-
Regulations-Rules-1989.pdf
Development plans reflect the changes which are taking place

in the country’s economic and social structure as well as the
directions in which the structure has to be reorganised and
strengthened. In a democracy the pace of change depends to a
large extent on increase in public understanding and in public
response and on the growth of a scientific outlook on the part
of large numbers of people. Besides the economic and social
objectives, the educational aspects of planning are, therefore,
of great importance.
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jugmohan Singh 45
Impact of Urbanization on Urban Lakes :

A Case of Hyderabad
R. Nageshwar Rao and Nauman Najammuddin
Abstract
Water bodies are an integral part of urban landscape all over the country and are
important aquatic ecosystems, constituting an important source of fresh water. Water
bodies served several needs of rural life, serves as water harvesting structure impounding
surplus rain water, recharging ground water and feeding wells, providing protective
irrigation water, Domestic water supply and drinking water for cattle bathing and
washing. In urban context Water bodies recharging ground water, urban water supply,
flood control, Water bodies provides recreational activities, provides open space with
greenery in urban area. The environmentally and hydrological degradation of water
bodies in urban area has bad impact on basic urban needs like domestic water supply,
recreational activities and irrigation water. Therefore it is necessary to preserve and
develop these large open spaces i.e. water bodies.
1. INTRODUCTION
Water is one of the major structural components of the human body. Similarly
water bodies are very important components of ecological and environment
structure of nature system. The first human settlement around 6,000 years ago
began a twofold struggle with water: on the one hand people had to protect
themselves against floods, and on the other hand they had to ensure safe
water supply for domestic use and irrigation. Water is the most important input
for survival and growth of not only human beings, plants, animals and other
living beings on the earth but also economic development and environmental
sustainability. At the same time water is a dynamic component of the soil and
plant systems. Water is most scarce and precious natural resources.
Cities are gifted with innumerable lakes, but due to urbanization and lack of
concern for the natural resources, these assets are getting depleted. Many have
been shrunk in size due to encroachments by slums and urban settlements and
many others are getting polluted due to discharge of sewage and industrial
wastes. Due to construction activity like roads and buildings, natural drainage
gets blocked and leads to water logging and flooding. Excessive paved areas in
the city also lead to less percolation of water. Rain water, which is a source of
fresh water, is not being harvested properly and hence drains into rivers and
ultimately joins the sea. This is shear wastage of fresh water which can be
consumed but due to lack of proper tapping facilities it is getting wasted. If
R. Nageshwar Rao, Planning Officer, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, Hyderabad

Nauman Najammuuddin, Master Scholar of CEPT University, Amehdabad
R. Nageshwar Rao and Nauman Najammuddin 46

rainwater is not trapped in lakes, ground water recharge does not take place.
Hence, water table depletes which leads to water crisis.
Regulations are getting formulated to protect water bodies but the biggest
lacuna is non-implementation of these guidelines in any of the plans. Also, there
is a lack of integration of natural topography. Either there is complete land
use change or encroachment by the commercial settlements or by slums in the
water body. There is a need to not only restore water bodies but also integrate
it with the surrounding land uses. Consequently, ground water along with surface
water is reducing. Few lakes which are being restored and integrated with the
surrounding land uses have become successful. There will be an increase in social
and economic activity as well along with healthy environment.
Oceans, seas, lakes and ponds are few examples of water bodies, while several
natural water bodies find a mention in mythology. Many man-made ponds,
lakes and reservoirs boast of a royal origin as they were built by kings from
different eras. Water bodies, the resources of water locally, are important to
the local ecology and environment. As diverse as the country’s heritage, these
water bodies integrate culture with traditional wisdom to harvest rainwater and
replenish water tables. The quality and quantity of water in the water bodies is
getting affected by increasing urbanization and insensitivity to ecology.
Water bodies are an integral part of city’s open spaces and connected to various
traditions and religious functions. At the same time larger open spaces in the city
also maintain eco-system. It provides immense potential to tourism in the city.
Many times human interface with the water front of these water bodies may be
liable to contaminate and pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to preserve and
develop these large open spaces i.e. water bodies.
Water bodies are an integral part of urban landscape all over the country and
are important aquatic ecosystems, constituting an important source of fresh
water. Water bodies served several needs of rural life, serves as water harvesting
structure impounding surplus rain water, recharging ground water and feeding
wells, providing protective irrigation water, domestic water supply and drinking
water for cattle bathing and washing. In the urban context water bodies recharging
ground water, urban water supply, flood control, Water bodies provide recreational
activities, and provide open space with greenery in urban area. The environmental
and hydrological degradation of water bodies in urban areas has badly impacted
basic urban needs like domestic water supply, recreational activities and irrigation
water.
2. A CASE STUDY OF HYDERABAD

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) was constituted on
25 August 2008 for an area of 7,228.09 sq km. The jurisdiction of HMDA is the

Fig. 1: Location of Hyderabad
Source : HMDA, 2011
Fig. 2: Master Plan of Hyderabad, 2031

third largest in India after the jurisdiction area of the National Capital Region
around Delhi (45,000 sq km) and Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development
Authority (8,005 sq km).
With the undulating topography of the Deccan region, Hyderabad city and its
environs were dotted with a number of natural water bodies such as lakes and
tanks. Hyderabad is located in southern India (17:22’ N, 78’-27’ E, 525.5 Mtrs MSL).
It is the capital city of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad population is 8 million
in 2011. River Musi flows west to east. Hussain Sagar Lake is the heart of the city.
2.1 The Lakes of Hyderabad

Hyderabad, once known as city of lakes. But due to chaotic urbanization, rampant
construction, burgeoning legislations, absence of an effective administrative
system, lack of concern for the natural resource and lack of awareness amongst the
people have adversely affected the urban lakes and these are getting depleted.
Unplanned and unregulated urbanization and industrialization has led to large
scale degradation of the surface water bodies in both quality and quantity.
Encroachment of the lakes both planned and unplanned / unauthorized on

natural drainage channels. Urban lakes and its catchment are mostly receptacles
of untreated / partially treated sewage On one hand the city is facing acute
water crisis with the dwindling surface and groundwater resources on the other,
water logging and urban floods are a common sight after short spells of rains
accompanied with storms.
Historically, the semi-arid nature of Hyderabad’s topographical location called

for an optimized approach to its natural water resources. The city boasted of
the traditional cascading system of water bodies whereby all the lakes were
connected through a network of canals that ran through the landscape. Water
supply for city and agricultural fields were irrigated directly by the water from
these water bodies or from open wells which depended on these tanks for
recharging. The open landscape that surrounded the lakes acted as a natural
watershed to recharge the lakes with fresh precipitation.
Table 1: Population Growth, Hyderabad
This legacy was forgotten in the grip of urbanization,
Year Population Growth Rate%
much of the landscape around these lakes gradually got
1971 1,796,000 — covered by impervious surfaces. Poor attention was paid
1981 2,546,000 41.8% to preserving the existing lake system and eventually the
1991 3,059,262 20.9% lakes network got encroached. Instead of inflows from the
2001 3,637,483 31.2% catchment due to precipitation, untreated sewage and
2011 6,809,970 67.2% effluents from urban dwelling units started filling the lakes,
Source: Census of India, 2011 drastically affecting the lake biodiversity.

Spatial development strategies and regulations Fig. 3: Wardwise Population Density

should be considered for the water bodies as a
part of the urban ecosystem with special context
for the preparation of development plan. Keeping
in view all the above issues, there is a need to
conserve and manage the fresh water available
on earth. Thus, there is a need to conserve the
existing water resources.
2.2 Growth Rate of Hyderabad’s Population

The decadal growth rate of Hyderabad Urban
Agglomeration (HUA) was a high of 41 percent Fig. 4: Population Increase of Hyderabad
during seventies and eighties respectively. But
it came down to 31.2 percent during 1991-2001.
Much of the spatial expansion in the last

two decades in the HUA has occurred in the
surrounding municipalities. These areas recorded
a high growth rate of 71 percent in nineties as
compared to only 18.7 percent by the core city
(MCH). Several of these areas have been growing
at high rates from eighties onwards. Together,
their share of population in the HUA has increased
from about 23 to 30 percent while there is a Fig. 5: Growth Rate of Hyderabad
corresponding decline in that of the MCH.
2.3 Loss of Water Bodies

As the city has grown, urban sprawl has encroached
vacant lands and water bodies due to the increasing
pressure on land for housing and other activities.
There were 932 water bodies in 1980 which
decreased to 834 in 1990 and to 400 in 2010. And the
percentage reduction of geographic area of lakes
during the same period amounts to 2.51%; 2.40%
Source: LPC, 2011
and 1.57% respectively as per Revenue Department
(2010). Channels that used to carry floodwaters Fig. 6: Number of Water Bodies in Hyderabad
from one lake to the next in a catchment area, have
also been encroached by private and government
agencies. Discharge of untreated industrial effluents
has led to the total degradation of the water quality
in many water bodies. Non - implementation of
building regulations and pollution control laws has
encouraged encroachment and pollution of water
bodies.

Fig. 7: Classification of Surface Area of Lakes (ha) 2.4 Year wise Distribution of Water
Bodies in Hyderabad
It is estimated that there were 932
water bodies in 1980 which decreased to
834 in 1990 and to 400 in 2010 and the
percentage reduction of geographic sea
of lakes during same period amounts to
2.51%; 2.40% and 1.57% respectively as
per reverse Department (2010) tanks in
Source: www.hmda.gov.in, 2011
1980 in and around Hyderabad which came
down to 834 in 1990 and 400 in 2010. Urban areas have lost several lakes during
the process of development, which were earlier natural sources of water for
agriculture and several other economic activities.
A study on land use and land cover for Hyderabad and a large area around reveals
that the area under water bodies has come down from 2.51 percent of the
geographical area in 1980 to 2.40 percent in 1990 and to 1.57 percent in 2010.
Table 2: Lakes Proposed for Conservation Category –I

Sl.No Name of the Lake Village Notified Additional
Category – 1 lakes with special problem
(18 lakes)
1 Safilguda lake Malkajgiri 73
2 Saroornagar lake Saidabad 19
3 Langerhouse Langer House 11
4 Kapra Lake Kapra 27
5 Durgam Chreuvu Raidurg paigh 46
6 Hasmanpet Hasmanpet 24
7 Nalla Cheruvu, Uppal Uppal Khalsa 56
8 Pedda Cheruvu, Nacharam Nacharam 17
9 Medchal lake Medchal 70
10 Patancheruvu Patanchruvu 97
11 Amber Cheruvu Bhaghmeri 148
12 Rayasamudram Cheruvu R.C. Puram 13
13 Ragadamini lake 18
14 Patel Cheruvu, Nacharam Nscharam 136
15 Chinnarrayan Cheruvu, Alwal 3
16 Yellama Cheruvu, Kukatpally 1
17 Sudulavani kunta, Allapur Allapur 166
18 Mir Alam Tank Mir Sagar 4
Source: www. hmda.gov.in, 2011

Hyderabad has 169 notified lakes Fig. 8: Growth Rate of 12 Circles In Hyderabad
which has more than 10 hectare of
water spread area. They are classified
according to their water spread area
into very large, large, medium,
small and very small lakes. HUDA
has initiated a lake conservation
programme with the assistance of
Royal Netherlands Government under
the Green Hyderabad Environment
Programme.
87 lakes have been identified for

conservation based on their pollution
levels. They are grouped into
Category-I or highly polluted lakes, Fig. 9: Location of Uppal Circle
which number 18. The remaining lakes
are put into Category-II or moderately
polluted. This area suffers from
urban industrial intrusions and the
water quality in the lakes is degraded
due to the discharge of the effluents
without any treatment.
Comparing all the circle of

Hyderabad the growth rate of Uppal,
Rajendranagar and Kapra are more
and the most polluted lake is Nalla
Cheruvu which comes in Uppal Circle.
3. WATER BODIES IN UPPAL

CIRCLE
Uppal Circle is located in Rangareddy district of Andhra Pradesh. Uppal
Municipality was brought under the administrative control of the HUDA. The
Municipality then was merged with Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad along
with 8 other municipalities from Medak and Rangareddy districts forming the
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in April 2007. This resulted in a rapid
growth of population along with change of economic activity from primary to
secondary and tertiary sectors. GHMC takes care of the civic amenities in Uppal.
The circle is located between residential, commercial, industrial sectors. The
neighboring circles area are Kapra (Circle 1) and L.B. Nagar (Circle 3).

Fig. 10: Land use Map of Uppal Circle Geographically, it is located east of
the state’s capital city of Hyderabad,
specifically on the National Highway 202
to Warangal and the northern bank of the
river Musi, the longitude 17° 22′ 48″ N
and latitude 78° 33′ 0″ E.
There are four water bodies in the Uppal

Circle: Nalla Cheruvu, Ramanthapur
Pedda Cheruvu, Ramanthapur Chinna
Cheruvu, and Pedda Cheruvu.
Nalla Cheruvu
The site is surrounded by the residential

colony (Sriram Nagar, Shanti Nagar,
Gandhi Nagar) on the north side, Bhagya
Nagar, Boduppal, Buddha Nagar on the
Table 3: Land use Variations Decadal wise of Northeast, slum area on the west side,
Nallacheruvu Vegetable market on west side. Musi on
south side and Shanti Nagar, Sai Ram
Land use 1990 2001 2011
Colony on the south side. This area
Residential 26 29 36
is surrounded by the residential land
Commercial 3 4.5 12 use, manufacturing zones, multiple use
Industries 5.1 7 9 zone, public and semi-public zones,
Water body 3.1 1.6 2.3 Commercial zones. Most of the land use
Public & Semi Public 3.8 4 5.2 which is encroached is the residential
Roads 3.2 6 7.9 and these are in the form of small row
Agriculture/ Swamp land 28 26 25 houses. Some other areas are occupied
Conservation 0 0 1.5 by the slum areas.
Fig. 11: Land Use Details of Nallacheruvu There have been rapid changes in the
land use patterns covered by the Nalla
Cheruvu catchment area. In the 1990s
there was a rapid growth in the number of
residential use in Uppal area. This made
dominant land use type in catchments
area. There has been a significant
reduction in the areas of water bodies
since 1990 to 2001 and 2011. There is a
major percentage of swamp land were
grass is being grown for cattle towards
south side of Nalla Cheruvu. As much as

4.61 hectare of land under water bodies have been Fig. 12: Comparison of Surface Area of
lost in the past 2 decades due to the encroachments. Nallacheruvu in 1995 and in
2011
It was 30.11 ha in 1995 and in 2011 it got reduced to
25 ha, reduction of 5.11 ha.
Uppal Nalla Cheruvu is situated near Srinivasa Colony,

Uppal. Nalla Cheruvu was built by Nawab Asman Jah
Bahadur. This was supporting the agriculture, Irrigation
of the local farmers. It is one of the oldest and
Hypereutrophic lakes shared by Uppal circle. Density
pattern of the area lies within Hyderabad limits.
Many industries have come up, developed factories,
Source: Irrigation Dpt, I & Cad
townships, etc; are formed in the nearby areas.
Nalla Cheruvu lies on North-East Basin of Musi River. Uppal and Kapra circles share
its total catchment area. Total catchment area is 40.93 sq km. Stream channel
carries sewage from Uppal area and enter as inflow. Here slope is from NW to SE.
Main Inlet Channel- Pedda Cheruvu (50.4 ha) Nacharam. Two outlets for
surplus water to cater SE corner crossing the NH- 201 road about 30 meters a
part and joining after crossing to form single channel leading towards Musi river.
Fig. 13: Comparison of Surface Area of Nallacheruvu and its surroundings
Source: Google Earth

Table 4: Physical Conditions of Another outlet through a sluice gate is located at SW

Nalla cheruvu beyond wetland area joining Musi river. Existing inlet and
Surface area of Lake 25 HA outlet channels are earthen channels and are inadequate
F.T.L +473 Mts Lvl for maximum flood discharge. Inflow is from Inlet Channel
Maximum Depth 5 Mts which is connected with most of the residential as well as
Colour Turbid brown
Institutional areas. Most of the houses in the catchment
Source: Irrigation Dpt. I& CAD, Hyd area have on site disposal systems of sewage. Maximum
flow is from Inlet Channel-1, which is connected with
Table 5: Inflows at Inlets of Nalla most of the residential as well as industrial areas.
cheruvu
Inlet Drains DWF Flowing into the The major pollutants identified in the water of Nalla
lake in in MLD Cheruvu are Sulphate, Calcium, etc. The dissolved oxygen
Inlet I 32.96 levels are very low and consequently the C.O.D and B.O.D
Inlet II 3.27 of the lake are very high due to the extensive pollution.
Inlet III 21.32 It is showing Hyper Eutrophication status in lake. Annual
Total 57.55
average rainfall of Hyderabad is 821.7 mm. Factors
Source: Ngri, Uppal Municipality, Lpc
like, higher densities in the residential areas, growth
of industrial sector, improved roads with storm water
Table 6: Decadalwise Variations in drains, have contributed to an increase in storm water
Ftl Lvl of Nallacheruvu runoff.
Decades FTL (in HA)
Water quality of the lake has been drastically degrading
1991 27
due to the exorbitant amounts of pollutants present due
2001 23
to the direct discharge of industrial effluents from liquor,
2011 25
steel, wood industries industrial area as well as with
Source: Irrigation Dpt. I& CAD, Hyd
untreated domestic sewage and from storm water runoff
Fig.14: Decadalwise Variations in Ftl which carries all solid wastes, liquid wastes, cattle dung,
Lvl of Nallacheruvu automobile wastes, hospital wastes, waste material from
commercial areas, wedding halls in rainy seasons.
Inlet and outlet channels are in bad and unhygienic

condition. The existing sewage system cannot support
amount of sewage generated in the catchments area.
Source: Irrigation Department, Hyderabad
The lake is losing its depth and becoming shallower due
to the accumulation of silt where the nallahs meet the
lake. Undesirable activities such as dobhi ghats, animal washing are contributing to
sedimentation and pollution. Storm water drains are choked. Absence of lake water
quality monitoring also contributes to this.
There is no proper buffer zone left surrounding the lake on two sides and there
are degraded ill maintained bund. No fencing is there, while there are high
rise residential areas around the lake. Green spaces, recreational and institutions
are very less seen with only 4.1 percent. Refuse and sewer water pour into lake

Table 7: Comparison between Present Conditions to Table 8: Storm water Runoff Nallacheruvu
the Standards of Water Quality.
S.no. Substances Existing Standards(CPCB) Land use Type Runoff m3/sec
Residential 12.1
1. PH Value 7.2 6.5-8.5
Industrial 3.6
2. NO3 (Nitrates) 5.5 1
Open Space 1.o
3. PO4 (Phosphates) 3.9 0.01
Public Semipublic 2.015
4. COD in mg/lit 136 20 Commercial 2.35
5. BOD in mg/lit 46 3 Roads 2.72
6. DO 2.57 6 Total 23.78
Source: AP-PCB
Fig. 15: Comparison between Present Conditions to the Standards of Water Quality.
Source: AP-PCB
Fig. 16: Degraded Inlet Chanels
from industries and hotels constructed on its Fig. 17: Nallacheruvu and Surroundings
banks.
For a given rainfall, increased volume of runoff

and increased peak discharge are two effects
attributable to urban development. Reduction
of the watershed storage capacity, and the
increased efficiency of runoff flow paths, is a
direct consequence of elimination of porous soil
surfaces, infiltration and surface depressions,

Fig. 18: Nallacheruvu and Surroundings
holding areas and providing paved channels for runoff flow. 78 percent of land is impervious
and leads to rapid storm water runoff, while 21 percent is pervious surface
Total waste water generated is 58.03 MLD. Total coverage UGD is 66.4 percent.
The rest of the 33 percent households have individual toilets, the effluent from the
septic tanks is carried into the open nallahs by open drains into the major nallahs
and lakes. Existing STP of 30 MLD constructed is not sufficient for the total sewage
generated in the area. Waste water and sewage is the main source of nutrients that
set in a chain of events leading to degrading water quality.
High density is seen in the Uppal circle. High population density has resulted in
excessive stress on existing infrastructure and services causing unhealthy and
unhygienic living conditions.
Shrinking of lake area is a cause for concern. In 1995 it was 71.22 ha, which
became 50.4 ha in 2011, a reduction of 20.82 ha. There is a change in drainage
pattern due to unplanned constructions. Drainage channels are being obstructed
by civil structures like roads, building, etc. Storm water runoff is getting mixed
with sewage and disposed off via drainage networks. There is less ground
water recharge. Water is not available in dry weather. There is an increased
dependency on ground water for irrigation as well as domestic purpose. High
Fig. 19: Sewerage Details of Uppal
Source: Uppal Municipality

ground water depletion rate results in lowering of water table and increase in
cost of ground water exploration. Dry lakes are being converted into area for
solid waste disposal. Total waste water generated is 48.7 MLD.
Dumping of solid waste into lakes is worrisome. Disposal of waste water through
pipe network or open channels in lake is being done and also disposal of household
refuse by the people residing on the encroached land of lake, and surface runoff.
Open defection by the nearby residents and villagers further pollutes. Unhygienic
living conditions in the surrounding area, contamination of ground water aquifer,
breeding of mosquitoes, loss in economic value of water and spreading water born
diseases in the area are some of the major impacts.
Availability of vacant or unused land around the lake, improper demarcation of land of
lake and absence of any monitoring agency for lake are major reasons. Increased flood
hazard for the residents and their waste refusal causes pollution in lakes. Rehabilitation
and relocation issue during the development of lake should be taken up.
4. PROPOSED STRATEGIES FOR RESTORATION OF LAKES

• Development of recreational and public spaces, lake front development
recreational spaces, parks landscape gardens and planting of various trees,
shrubs, flowering plants, etc.
• Boating facilities such as construction of dock piers, etc.
• Rentable stalls, theme parks, restaurants, food courts, kids play areas
• Administrative offices, security chambers
• Fountains, aerators, small joy rides for kids, paths ways, road ways seating
facilities, pergolas and shelters
• Adequate toilets, each being a twin unit for ladies and gents
• Electrification cabling, lighting, etc; and parking.
Water logging species such as Barringtonia can be planted to withstand prolonged

inundation. Planting tree saplings like Neem, Jambolana, etc.; be encouraged
and opportunities of livelihood through development of eco-tourism be also
encouraged.
Development of recreational facilities such as walkways, guided boat rides, angling

spots, landscape gardens and facilities for aquatic sports in the lake would be an
effective tool for diversification of livelihood opportunities for local communities
and generating awareness about importance of lake within basin. Educational and
visitor interpretation services to be established at the critical locations particular-
ly along the bund known as third line of defense to facilitate closer look at the lake
and enjoying the boat rides within the lake. Specific training programs for various

Fig. 20: Lake Front Development Recreational Spaces, Parks target groups would be part of
eco-tourism activities. Signages,
communication and transport
facility and visit to catchments
would be part of eco-tourism
development. In addition follow-
ing issues be addressed for resto-
ration of lakes.
• Improvement of water qual-

ity, suggested interventions
and intake treatments
• Improvement of storm water
drainage in catchment area
and prevent and control of
pollution in lakes
-- Nutrient and storm water
volume absorbing rain
gardens
-- Solid waste management
in the catchments area
Fig. 21: Nutrient and Storm Water Volume Absorbing Rain Gardens
Fig. 22: Soil Scape Filter and Hydrasch Succession Pond

• Selection of technologies for the treatment of waste water for lakes

-- Soilscape filter
It is the simulation of natural filtration process of water through the good
vegetated soils and fragmented rock materials below which purified water
percolates. Area required is only 50 sq m. Very cost effective as far as electrical
consumption is required for conventional mechanistic systems.
• Hydrasch Succession Pond can be used for improvement of Sewerage System

in Catchment Area and Prevent and Control of Pollution in Lakes; and
• Up-Gradation of Existing Sewage Treatment Plants
5. conclusions
The existing water quality is not meeting the standards. Proposals for up gradation
of STPs and continuous monitoring is required. This measure is also expected
to improve the lake water quality to the level suitable for domestic secondary
usage like flushing, gardening, bathing, contact water sports, fishing, etc., for
the catchment area.
The existing lake water treatment is not adequate, because the incoming waste
water shall be addressed using bye pass arrangements. The STP could be designed
using bio-remediation concepts, where land area for treatment plant shall be
reduced.
In densely populated urban regions where adequate wastewater treatment

systems do not exist and uncontrolled discharge of wastewater endangers water
resources, the measures be taken to treat wastewater adequately on-site before
it is discharged into the environment and the treated wastewater is finally
supplied to the houses for inferior domestic uses like toilet flushing and gardens.
Active participation from local community, citizen groups, conservation

organizations, NGOs, media, etc; is necessary. Various stakeholders shall be
involved in maintenance plan. A core group be formed comprising of all the users
such as industrialists, citizen group, fishing firms, educational institutions, and
government departments so that maintenance of lakes could be made sustainable.
REFERENCES
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PhadkeMeghana, (1998) Water bodies as solution of water crisis
G.Tyler Miller(1991) Environmental science
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publishing house, New Delhi
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egovernance.com
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Management- Global Theory, Emerging Practice and Local Needs. New Delhi, Sage
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Kodarkar, M. S. (2005) Bhoj Wetland: Experience and Lessons Learned Brief.

World Class Cities: An Overview
Anwesha Chakrabarty
Abstract
Cities world-wide are experiencing the dynamic processes of urbanization and
globalization. The major cities of the world have been transformed in recent decades.
This paper gives inference of growth and development in cities like New York, London,
Canberra, Berlin, Mexico and Seoul. Large cities have to respond to some basic
challenges: active economy, urban infrastructure, quality of life, social integration,
institutional mechanism and governance. The capacity to response to these challenges
and adaptation of new technology; makes the urban area a World-Class enterprise.
1. INTRODUCTION
In 1950, New York with a population of at least 10 million people was the
only city in the world. According to the UN estimates, there were at least 16
cities or city regions with population in excess of 10 million by the year 2000.
The projections for the next 50 years indicate that urban growth rates will
rise steadily, particularly in the developing world. They range from familiar
metropolitan agglomerations dominated by a strongly developed core such as
the Greater London or Mexico City, to more polycentric geographic units as in
the cases of the urban networks of the Randstad (conurbation of four cities
i.e. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hague and Utrecht) in Holland. This development
poses many deep challenges to researchers and policymakers in the context
of increasing population, infrastructure provisions, urban governance and
management.
The term world class cities is widely used to provide competitive advantage
in the process of economic globalization by the city leaders and policy
makers. The planning approach is embedded in the institutional structures and
processes of governance of each city. These vary from city master plans or strategic
policy frameworks, through to vision or mission statements, focusing on balanced
development involving economic, environmental and social objectives. The
world city concept has a strong focus on connectivity, networking, governability
and polarization; generating ample employment, facilitating world-class
physical infrastructure such as water, sewerage, drainage, power and tele-
communication, and social infrastructure like health, education, recreation,
safety and security provisions, accommodation for all, and sustainable
environment.
Anwesha Chakrabarty, Urban Development Specialist, New Delhi
Anwesha Chakrabarty 62
2. Case Studies
The world’s mega-cities are merging to form
vast mega-regions, which stretch hundreds of
kilometers across countries and home to more than
100 million people. The world’s 40 largest mega-
regions cover only a tiny fraction of the habitable
surface of our planet, and are home to fewer than
18 percent of the world’s population but account
for 66 percent of all economic activity and about
85 percent of technological and scientific innovation1 (UN, 2002). Some selected
leading world cities are reviewed below.
2.1 New York

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, New York was a simple small compact
mercantile city of 60,000 people, clustered in a square mile at the southern tip
of Manhattan island. This was basically a pedestrian city. By 1830s New York
witnessed elaborate network of transportation including toll roads, canals and
rail roads2. The first steps toward metropolitan regional plan began in 1920s with
the following physical developments:
• Railway Transportation System with trunk line railroads and rapid transit
lines for accommodation of both passengers and freight;
• Port and shipping facilities;
• Highway system with bridges, tunnels and waterways;
• Parks and recreational
Fig. 1: New York City in late 20th Centaury
facilities;
• Location of public and
semipublic buildings; and
• Establishing industries
outside congested areas
with suitable housing of
employees
This Regional Plan for New

York and Environs in 1929, got
a setback due to the ‘Great
Depression’ of 1930s which lead
to crash the stock markets,
halting all the development
1 Based on www.wikipedia (2009) information

2 Article on New York City & the New Deal, Thomas Kessner, City University of New York
works. In 1968 the New York State Fig. 2: New York City in late 20th Centaury
Joint Legislative Committee on
Metropolitan and Regional Areas
stressed the need for strong county
government in metropolitan
areas, and the creation of
comprehensive planning systems.
The Committee recommended
that the state develop a policy of
regionalism under which the state
must encourage the creation of
regional agencies, beginning with
comprehensive planning bodies,
adequately staffed to coordinate
federal, state, local and private
development activities with a
regional impact3 (Thomas Kessner).
By 1950, the population in New York

City (NYC) reached 7.9 million. Sub-
Urbanism began to pull of new, single-
family homes in Westchester, Long
Island and New Jersey. This continued
for subsequent decades. In 1989, a consolidation of the five Boroughs emerged as
modern NYC with an area of approximately 790 sq km. The New York Metropolitan
region has an estimated population of 8.4 million4 in 2009 and area of 17,400 sq km.
It is the most densely populated region in USA and exceptionally diverse.
Of recent, New York City’s ‘Long Term Sustainability’ Plan released in April
2007 for the horizon period 2030, assumes continued growth in the city, with
the appropriate infrastructure development, sustainable and beneficial to the
environment producing public health benefits.
The Plan’s main goals are:
• Housing: Create homes for almost a million more New Yorkers, while making
housing more affordable and sustainable.
• Open Space: Ensure that all New Yorkers live within a 10 minute walk of a
park.
• Brownfields: Clean up all contaminated land in New York City.
• Water Quality: Open 90 percent of waterways for recreation by reducing
water pollution and preserving natural areas.
3 Regional Planning in New York State, Patricia E. Salkin, Government Law Center of Albany
Law School
4 US Census Bureau, Population Division
• Water Network: Develop critical backup systems for aging water network to
ensure long-term reliability.
• Transportation: Improve travel times by adding transit capacity for millions
more residents, visitors, and workers. Reach a full “state of good repair” on
New York City’s roads, subways, and rails.
• Energy: Provide cleaner, more reliable power for every New Yorker by
upgrading energy infrastructure.
• Air Quality: Achieve the cleanest air quality by encouraging mass transit,
fuel efficiency, cleaner or upgraded engines and installation of anti-idling
technology
• Climate Change: Reduce our global warming emissions by 30 percent.
The concentration of new development around existing transit nodes (“Transit-

Oriented Development”) to accommodate a million new residents by 2030.
The new development would be accompanied by improvements to public
transportation and open space, better air and water quality and reduction of the
city’s contribution to global warming.
New York has managed to achieve high economic growth by positioning itself
as a centre for financial services, tourism or leisure and entertainment, media,
fashion, retail, sports, etc. This plan mainly curtails the major planning issues
within the NYC and provides an opportunity to launch a meaningful regional
planning exercise for the much larger New York Metropolitan Region.
Fig. 3: Development of London in Stages 2.2 London

London is a world city region. Like
NYC, it also plays a significant
role in the world economy. It is
the main generator and source of
jobs as well as of culture, leisure
and other recreational activities.
London’s diversity is one of its
great historical, social, economic
and cultural strengths and makes
it one of the world’s most multi-
racial cities.
The Greater London ‘Mega-City

Region’ accommodated 21 million
people in 2004. There are a vast
number of linkages and networks
between all the settlements.
London functions as the central
city in the region. In 2006, London’s
population was 7.57 million people5. The Fig. 4: Concept Plan for Greater London as Envisaged
London Plan, estimates population of By Prof. Patrich Abercrombie in 1944
ranging from 8.26 – 8.71 million by 2026.
Regional Planning guidance mainly focuses

on sustainable development, achieved
through the objectives of social progress,
effective protection of the environment,
prudent use of natural resources and
maintenance of high and stable levels of
economic growth and employment.
Planning concept includes thematic

policies which have a particular spatial
impact and are addressed in other specific
parts of this plan namely:
• Increasing the provision of affordable
housing;
• Addressing the needs of a diverse
population
• Protection and enhancement of
social infrastructure and community
facilities;
• Promoting public health; Fig. 5: Glimpses of London
• Higher or further education;
• Integrating community strategies and
the development process;
• Assessing community impact and
ensuring community benefit; and
• Protecting Open spaces
Spatial Development Strategy of the plan

is a spatial development strategy for the
Greater London area and has six objectives:
• To accommodate London’s growth
within its boundaries without
encroaching on open spaces;
• To make London a better city for
people to live in;
5 Based on www.london.gov.uk , The London Plan, Spatial Development Strategy for Greater
London
Table 1: Planning Provisions in London Plan

Parameters Focus Measures
Economy • Improving employment opportunities • Creative industries
• Improving technilogies and skills • Key creative industries in London
• Removing barriers to improvement include design, publishing, music,
fashion, new media, film and
broadcasting
• Promotion of e-London amid e-
government and e-business activities
Land • Areas for Regeneration • Mixed use development
• Promoting world-class architecture and
design
• Sub-Regional Implementation Frameworks
Transport • Enhancing international, national and • Strategic transport investments,
regional transport links such as new runways and terminals,
• Integrating transport and development port expansion and new major
• Matching development to transport roads and railways, have enormous
capacity impacts upon development and the
• Promote greater use of low carbon environment.
technologies • Increasing the capacity, quality and
• Improved National Rail services integration of public transport to
• Improved Underground and Light Railway meet London’s needs
(Tram) Services
• Airport and Heliport development
• Improving strategic rail services
• Improving conditions for cycling
• Freight strategy
Housing There were 3.15 – 3.20 million households • Maximize the use of scarce land
in London in 2006. Based on the
latest available projections, London’s
population could increase by 0.79 million
to 1.14 million between 2006 and 2026.
This requires additional households of
27,000 – 36,000 per year.
Recreation • Development and promotion of arts and • Provision for retail and leisure
culture activities in all proposed Town
Centres
• Development of Olympic and
Paralympics Games and sports
facilities
Environment • Reduce the level of carbon dioxide • Promote alternative sources of
emissions 15% by 2010, 20% by 2015, 25% energy - renewable energy
by 2020, 30% by 2025 and a target of 60% • Alternatives to car
reduction by 2050. • Greenfield development
• Sustainable design and construction • Decentralised Energy: Heating,
• Blue ribbon network – linking water spaces Cooling and Power
• Waste management
• Biodiversity and nature conservation
• To make London a more prosperous city with strong and diverse economic
growth;
• To promote social inclusion and tackle deprivation and discrimination;
• To improve London’s accessibility; and
• To make London a more attractive, well-designed and green city
Major planning provisions adopted in London Plan is given in Table1
London Metropolitan Plan promotes conservation and restoration of prominent

greenbelts along with planned decentralization.
2.3 Canberra
Canberra, the capital city of Australia is a planned city. The inner-city area was
originally designed by Walter Burley Griffin, a 20th century American architect.
Within the central area of the city near Lake Burley Griffin, major roads follow a
wheel-and-spoke pattern rather than a grid. Griffin’s proposal had an abundance
of geometric patterns, including concentric hexagonal and octagonal streets
emanating from several radii. However, the outer areas of the city, built later on
due to urban sprawl, are not laid out geometrically.
Canberra covers an area of 814.2 sq km

The population of Canberra was 323,056 Fig. 6: Plan of Inner Canberra along Lake Burley Griffin
in 2006. The 2006 census showed that
1.2 percent of Canberra’s population was
of indigenous origin and 21.7 percent
were born overseas. The median age is
34 years, and only 9.8 percent of the
population is aged over 65 years. It is
expected that in 30 years’ time there
will be more old people living and lot less
younger people.
The city’s design was heavily influenced

by the garden city movement and
incorporates significant areas of natural
vegetation that have earned Canberra
the title of the “bush capital”. The
urban areas of Canberra are organized
into a hierarchy of districts, town
centers, group centers, local suburbs
as well as other industrial areas and
villages. There are seven residential
districts, each of which is divided into
Table 2: Goal, Objectives and Policy in Canberra Spatial Plan

Goal Objective Policy Response
Create and maintain a • Provide opportunities for a diverse range of • Consolidation of development to meet
healthy community housing for the full range of households’ types the additional dwellings, maintaining
and lifestyle preferences. balance between green - fields develop-
• Facilitate the equitable distribution of services ment, redevelopment and development
and facilities, including education and health within existing urban areas
care, arts and recreation • Ensuring new residential areas to access
• Maximize safety and perceptions of safety community facilities and services
within the community • Urban development will not be per-
• Facilitate an environment that provides shared mitted in areas that are at high risk of
access to public spaces and promotes healthy major natural hazards
activities • Equitable distribution of recreational
areas
Sustain Employment • Facilitate a prosperous city • To provide activity nodes for encouraging
Opportunities • Facilitate a vibrant, robust and culturally economic and employment growth
stimulating city centre • Encourage employment growth in the
• Support viable town centers’ as a focus for each town centre by freeing up development
district control
• Provide flexible opportunities and appropriate • To encourage sustainable urban form
locations for establishing and growing business and a mix of land uses
Retain ease of • Establish a more sustainable and more • Maintain and enhance connectivity
movements and responsive transport system services from local to regional level
facilitate good travel • Maintain and enhance the ease of getting • Encouraging public transport in trunk
connection around public transport routes
• Maximize linkages and access to services and • Improvements in local cycling and
employment for the population walking infrastructure
• Minimize travel time and journey distance • Parking policies to minimize private
between urban residential areas and the main motor vehicles
employment centers’ • Improvements in pedestrian safety and
amenities
Maintain a unique • To support role of Canberra as the national • Retaining the garden city principles
sense of place capital • Landscaping hills, ridges and gullies
• Retain and strengthen the open space network, • Creating clear sense of arrival into the
including the hills, ridges, natural watercourses National territory
and gullies • Preservation of open space with no
• Recognize the importance of culture and additional urban development on hill
natural heritage tops and sloping ridges
• Facilitate high quality built environment
Respect the natural • Create and establish a built form and city • Encourages built form that minimizes
environment layout that minimizes resource consumption, the consumption of water to assist in
including water and energy use improving water resource management
• Protect and enhance biodiversity • All new developments to meet five star
• Maintain water quality and availability energy efficiency rating consistent with
• Maintain air quality national standards
• Conservation strategy for endangered
species
• Use of renewable sources of energy
Ensure fiscal • Facilitate the provision of physical, social and • Infrastructure will be provided to
responsibility cultural infrastructure in a coordinated and correspond with land release and
cost effective manner development to meet the projected
• Facilitate improved efficiency of existing urban demand for additional developments
infrastructure such as schools, health care, • Planning and installation of infra-
transport systems, water supply, wastewater structure through Capital Works Program
management, storm water management, • All water catchments for potential
electricity and telecommunication future water supply will be protected.
smaller suburbs, and most of which have a town centre which is the focus of
commercial and social activities.
In early 2010, the unemployment rate in Canberra stood at 3.9 percent which
is substantially lower than the national unemployment rate of 5.3 percent in
Australia. As a result of low unemployment and substantial levels of public sector
and commercial employment, Canberra has the highest average level of disposable
income. The city’s main industry is government administration and defense, which
accounted for 31percent of Gross Territory Product in 2008–09 and employed over 40
percent of Canberra’s workforce. A consortium of private and government investors
is currently making plans for a billion-dollar data hub, with the aim of making
Canberra a leading centre of such activity in the Asia-Pacific Region.
The city is laid out so that arterial roads connecting inhabited clusters run through
undeveloped areas of open land or forest, which results in a low population
density; this also gives scope to develop land for future transport corridors
without the need to build tunnels or acquire developed residential land.
Canberra is home to many national monuments and institutions such as the

Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait
Gallery, the National Library and many Museum and Art Galleries.
Canberra is Australia’s political reportage with all the major media houses, the
commercial television networks, press and metropolitan newspapers maintain
local bureaus. A number of radio broadcasting stations are also present.
Canberra has numerous sporting ovals, golf courses, skate parks; tennis courts
and swimming pools open to the public. There series of bicycle paths are available
to cyclists for recreational and sporting purposes. Canberra Nature Parks have a
large range of walking paths, horse and mountain bike trails. Water sports like
sailing, rowing, dragon boating and water skiing are held on lakes. The Rally of
Canberra is an annual motor sport event and a facility for drag racing is currently
being planned for construction.
Goals and objectives of the Canberra Spatial Plan are given in Table 2. Canberra
Spatial Plan reflects the community’s aspirations for the future of the city and
planning policies with spatial dimensions.
2.4 Berlin
Berlin is an urban laboratory. It is a world city of culture, politics, media and
science. The city’s economy is primarily based on the service sector, encompassing
a diverse range of creative industries, media corporations and convention venues.
It serves as a continental hub for air and rail transport and is one of the most
visited tourist destinations in the European Union. Significant industries include
IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical, engineering, biotechnology, optoelectronics,
Fig. 7: Berlin Metropolitan Region
Fig. 8: Night View of Berlin City traffic engineering and renewable energy.
Around one third of the city’s territory is
composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and
lakes.
The metropolis is home to renowned universities,

research institutes, sporting events, orchestras,
museums and personalities. The urban and
historical legacy has made it a popular setting
for international film productions. The city is
recognized for its festivals, diverse architecture,
nightlife, contemporary arts, public
transportation networks and a high quality of
living. Berlin has evolved into a global focal point for young individuals and artists
attracted by a liberal lifestyle.
Berlin is a city as well as a federal state. The city state of Berlin and the
state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, have entered into a two-state
comprehensive agreement for spatial planning, which has resulted in the “Berlin-
Brandenburg Joint Comprehensive Spatial Development Plan”. This region is one
of the 11 metropolitan regions of Germany. The region comprises 5 million people
from over 190 nations6.
The priority area for spatial development set by the Territorial Agenda in 2007
includes:
• encouraging measures to link metropolitan regions and urban centres with

each other;
• promoting urban-rural partnerships, in particular by integrating regions
whose development is lagging behind;
• developing transnational clusters of regions of innovation and promoting a
knowledge economy;
• developing Trans-European networks (transport and energy);
• avoiding natural development risks in coastal areas and river basins; and
• improving the profile and image of areas of ecological and/or cultural value.
As concerns in spatial planning, Germany has been attempting regional planning

since the early 20th century to address urbanization, including centralized
spatial planning. Although a spatial planning system was put in place after the
world war, the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany designated spatial
planning as one of the area where when the federal government seeks to exercise
its legislative jurisdiction over a matter, the State Government may legally adopt
provisions different from those of the Federal Government. In fact, the Federal
Government is going no further than to set forth overall guidelines, with the
states implementing diverse planning systems.
As regards regional policies, the improvement of regional economic structures

is positioned by the Constitution as a joint operation wherein the federal
government is required to collaborate with the State Government and bear half
of the costs. The concepts and strategies for spatial development include:
• Development policy aiming at growth and innovation;

• Ensuring services of public interest;
• Promoting the European perspective of “the metropolitan” regions;
• Areas and networks of the knowledge economy;
6 German Urban Audit, 2008
• Joint responsibility in large spheres of influence; and

• Conservation of resources and shaping of cultural resources.
Berlin’s transportation system is an important component of the quality of life
and economic vitality of the community and the region. Berlin has developed
a highly complex transportation infrastructure providing very diverse modes of
urban mobility. Long-distance rail lines connect Berlin with all of the major cities
of Germany and with many cities in neighboring European countries. Berlin is
known for its highly developed bike lane system. Berlin has two commercial
airports i.e. Tegel International Airport and Schönefeld International Airport.
The role of public sector as an active agent in the development process

particularly in land and finance has been achieved through suitable policy and
investment framework.
2.5 Mexico
Greater Mexico City is a single conurbation of the biggest municipalities in Mexico,
with population of 21 million in 2009, the most populous metropolitan area in
the Americas and the third largest metropolitan area in the world with an area
of 7,346 sq km. As an “alpha” global city it is one of the most important financial
centers with population density of 2,784 persons per sq km in the Americas7.
The settlement of México was founded on several islands within a lake in the central
plain of present day Mexico city. The basic morphological urban structure was a
grid-iron system. The city population was nearly 5,00,000 inhabitants when the
Spanish arrived in 1519. During the nineteenth century, Mexico City was shaped by
foreign investment, industrialization and demographic trends that led the way for
urban transformation. The city design was heavily influenced by European ideas,
especially French architecture and urbanism. By the second half of the nineteenth
century, new urban axes were planned and urban interventions took shape, following
some of the principles on which the plans for Paris, Vienna, and industrialized
London, were designed. According to these new ideas, several main boulevards
and avenues radiating from the city centre were designed and landscaped. These
boulevards and avenues led to developing areas in the southern portion of the city.
Mexican urbanism, encompassing a wide range of scales and projects ranging

from the urban design of housing states to regional and national planning. Newest
innovations of planning techniques were adopted which includes diffusion of
theoretical ideas that occurred in magazines and journals during the early Modern
period. There were various city planning and urban design models tried out with
regard to local culture and put into practice. The ideas for integrating knowledge
from various sources and models were asserted that aimed at in planning and
designing, considering responsive cultural and social issues.
7 Based on www.wikipedia (2009) information
Table 3: Planning System8 / Initiatives of in Mexico City

1. National-level • designs, promotes, regulates and • conceives and coordinates regional/urban
coordinates urban development and land (-use) policies
• regional planning and land use • defines urban areas which require primary
policies attention
• implement the habitat program • demarcates territorial reserves
2. Regional- level • improve regional planning through • formulates and executes the State policies
a modern, updated and efficient on urban development and housing
urban planning system • formulates and executes state/ regional
• redistribute the population across plans
• the territory by establishing • promotes the introduction of municipal
priorities, locations and sizes for urban development plans
human settlements and redirecting • supervises the accordance of municipal,
the migratory fluxes towards regional and partial plans with the State Plan
medium and small cities • supervises technical norms for urban
• respond to the demand of urban development, housing and construction
land through the integration of • establishes the guidelines for land
territorial reserve regularization
• regulates all matters related to thoroughfares
and roads
3. Federal District • plans and coordinates policies and • formulates and executes urban planning
(DF) actions in urban development, policies and program
regional planning and housing for • coordinates the issuing of land use and
the DF, conceives program for the zoning certificates
supervision of the above • assesses all matters related to thoroughfares
• guarantees equilibrium between and roads
• land uses, settlements and • urban and environmental studies together
environment in a democratic with the Ministry of the Environment of the
context DF
• coordinates planning activities
of the federal level, states and
municipalities
• promotes investments in housing
infrastructure
• protects the DF’s historical and
cultural heritage
4. Borough level • city level functions alike DF • issues land use certificates and construction
licenses
• initiates urban regeneration program
• acquires land for territorial reserves for
lower income group
• proposes modifications to various urban
development programs
5. Municipalities • city level functions alike DF • formulates and executes municipal
development plans
• issues private construction licenses
• participates in the creation and
administration of ecological and territorial
reserves
• intervenes in land regularization, supervises
and controls land use
• plans and regulates the development of con-
urban localities
Fig. 9: Growth of Mexico Metropolitan Region - 1910 to Modern Mexico City is the
2000 cosmopolitan and vibrant cultural,
economic, political and industrial
centre of Mexico. It is characterized
by impressive avenues and colonial
buildings, fine museums and galleries
and the huge city square, which is the
energetic focal point of Mexico City.
Alternatively, it is also known for its
congestion and air pollution, and as
one of the largest urban areas in the
world. Mexico City accounts for 45 per
cent of Mexico’s industrial activity, 38
per cent of GNP, and 25 per cent of
the population within the country9.
Major planning issues are:
• Because of this pattern of growth,

the political jurisdictions of Mexico
City do not necessarily correspond
with its geography. This complicates
an already complex administrative
situation, and makes it extremely
difficult for officials and planners
to provide services for Mexico
City’s enormous population.
• Due to uncontrolled urban
expansion, Mexico City and its surrounding experiences combination of
natural resource constraints and environmental impacts.
Planning Initiatives
Urbanisation in Mexico City is mainly due to two factors i.e. migration and population
growth. The government must implement effective housing strategies, in particular
upgrading the quality of housing in the shanty settlements. The government of Mexico
is working together with the World Bank to address some of these issues, although
Mexico must attempt to tackle some of its problems in sustainable manner internally.
2.6 Seoul
Seoul, the capital of South Korea is located on the banks of Han River Basin. The
growth of Seoul began in early 1960’s when Korea’s capacity was fully mobilized
8 Based on report on “Planning System in Mexico City”, Oct 2006
9 Mexico City: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Management, December, 2004
for rapid industrialization and nationwide population Fig. 10: The Thriving City of Seoul
migration started from rural to urban areas. Being the
political, economic, cultural and educational centre,
Seoul became the most attractive city for people to search
for better employment opportunities. This resulted in its
sharp increase in population i.e. net increase of 13.6 lakh
population during 1960 to 1966.
Seoul expanded physically from 597 sq km in 1963 to 627

sq km in 1973 which corresponds roughly to its present
area. Recognizing the need of an integrated urban
living space due to rapidly expanding urbanized region, the boundaries of Seoul
Metropolitan Area officially known as Seoul Capital Region have been delineated.
The total area of the region in 1985 was 11,235 sq km which includes three
upper-tier local governments i.e. Seoul, Inchon and the province of Kyonggi and
64 lower-tier local governments with a population of 16 million.
The population share of Seoul Capital Region to that of Korea has rapidly increased
from 23.7 percent (i.e. 6.9 million population) in 1960 to 45.4 percent (i.e. 20.27
million population) in 199510. The mega-city of Seoul encompasses a population
of 10,208,302 in 200911.
Korean Government has worked out the following policies and implementation
tools to manage urbanization and metropolitanization of Seoul. The policy
objective / main concern of Government about the growth management policy
is ‘how to steer the location of people and industries away from the Seoul
Metropolitan Area (SMA) and to ultimately achieve the balanced development
among regions in the nation’. They have evolved the four stages as given below:
Stage I - Set up of Policy Direction for managing the growth of Seoul (1960-
1971)
The main objective of this stage was to manage the growth of Seoul. Policy
direction to manage the growth of Seoul was announced in 1964. Government
intension was to restrict the growth of Seoul with the help of following measures:
• Relocating government offices from Seoul to other major cities of Korea;

• Develop growth poles in terms of garden cities or new industrial cities at
strategic location. Under this strategy government started developing
Industrial Parks mainly in South-Eastern part of the country; and
• In 1969 government adopted Comprehensive Decentralization policy.
10 Economic Planning Board, Population Census 1966-1990: Major Statistics of Korean

Economy 1995
11 Seoul Statistics (Population), Seoul Metropolitan Government, 2010
Stage II - Green belt and New town strategy (1972-1979)

First comprehensive National Physical Development Plan was prepared for the period
1972 – 1981. It highlights the importance of developing large scale industrial estates,
expansion of power, water, roads, harbor, communication and other social overhead
capital in rest of the Korea. The existing tax laws were revised to discriminate
development of industries in urban centres. Several industrial new towns were
developed in remote provincial areas. Within the Capital Region, two new towns
were developed. These new towns were, Aman to relocate manufacturing industries
and Kwachon to relocate government offices from Seoul. Although the population
increased rapidly from 1970 to 1980 but it had its dampening effect subsequently.
Stage III - Inter-regional decentralization policy (1980-1988)

During this stage more systematic approach was adopted to facilitate orderly
spatial development of SMA. The entire Capital Region was delineated as a
planning unit and the regional land use control system, which still works in a
slightly revised form, was newly introduced in the middle of 1980’s. Sociopolitical
changes since the end of 1980’s have made the system vulnerable. President Park
proposed the relocation plan for New Capital City but this plan was dropped
with the assassination of its chief proponent. During this period second National
Physical Development Plan was formulated for the period 1982-1991. The new
administration, which took over offices after assassination of late President
Park, formulated new strategies. These strategies were addressed in the second
National Physical Development Plan implemented in 1981 and Capital Region
Management Law enacted in 1982. In the second plan, two key strategic concepts
were suggested which are as below:
• Integrated living sphere strategy: This strategy adopted to mitigate

intra-regional inequality by providing social and physical arrangements to
maximize the mutual contact between major urban nodes and its surrounding
rural areas. It was expected that by linking the two areas through improved
transportation networks, urban services and job opportunities agglomerated
in major urban nodes could be shared by rural as well as urban residents.
• Growth centre strategy: The key concept of this strategy was concentrated
decentralization to handle inter-regional inequality. Counter magnets were
created to curb the excessive concentration in SMA. These counter magnets
would be created by allocating limited investment funds to intensify growth
potential of selected fifteen provincial cities. Create enough counter magnets
in other urban centres across the country which could help to interrupt
migration flow into SMA.
• Important features of Capital Region Management Law: The capital region
management law was the most tightly written device to cope with the issue
of decentralization. Three specific noteworthy features of this law are as
follows:
-- Preparation of Capital Region Fig. 11: Five Zones of Seoul Capital Region
Management Plan: This plan is prepared
to ensure effective land use, desirable
distribution of industrial population and
harmonious placement of social overhead
capital across the region. The plan would
set the guidelines and detailed directives
for the lower order local plans (urban
plans). It was the first Capital Region Plan
made public in 1984 and adopted five
zonal system approach for development.
It highlights development performance
guidelines for each zone as given below
(see map):
oo Relocation promotion zone
oo Restricted rearrangement zone
oo Development inducement zone
oo Nature preservation zone
oo Development reservation zone
-- Creation of Capital Region Management Committee (CRMC): The
committee chaired by Prime Minister would coordinate regional planning
and management issues. It would consist of cabinet members, mayor
and private representatives. Considering the necessity of handling rapid
metropolitanisation of Seoul, the law
intended to provide overall and effective Fig. 12: Revised Zonal Division of Seoul Capital
Region
management devices for physical
developments, land uses and arrangement of
infrastructure for entire metropolitan area.
Recognizing the region as an integrated
urban living space glued to the city of Seoul
by close economic, functional and social
interactions, the law required an integrated
planning dealing with the entire region as
a unit while management consideration
would be based on inter-governmental
coordination.
-- Preparation of population impact
statement: It would be required
for development projects of certain
categories to forecast the adverse effect
upon population growth within the region.
Stage IV - New Town Development and Revision of Growth Management Policy

(1989 - Onwards)
Five new towns proposed outside the green belt to manage the growth of Seoul
are Bundang, Ilsan, Pyungchon, Sambon and Joongdong (Fig. 10). These towns
were developed to accommodate 1.2 million population. The main reason for
Government decision to develop new towns was to check / halt the rising housing
prices coupled with labour dispute at that time threatened the social stability
as well as the economy. The government also modified / revised the growth
management policy. Five category of development sub-regions were streamlined
into the following three zones (Fig. 11):
• Over concentration management zone (I)

• Growth management zone (II)
• Nature preservation zone (III)
Criticisms on the past policies

Fig. 13: Green Belt and Five New Towns in Seoul Metropolitan The uncurbed growth of SMA
Region during the last thirty five years
has generated problems of
growing inequality between SMA
and other region and overgrown
metropolitan itself. In the early
1960’s when Korean Government
declared to fight against the
growth of Seoul, various policy
measures based on green belt and
new town strategy in 1970 and
the concentrated decentralization
strategy in 1980 to handle these
problems have been formulated
and implemented. In spite of lots
of efforts of government, there
are gaps between the reality
and policy intentions. SMA is
pressed with overgrown problems
of income inequality, housing
shortage, traffic congestion, high
land price, degrading quality of
urban amenities and environment
pollution. The critics also argue
that government has not made
much effort to provide required
investment for development
of alternative locations where
population and industries could be accommodated. Government did not do

its best to arouse political support for the success of decentralization policy.
As a result of government policies, new trend of relative decentralization of

population in the suburban areas of Seoul started and began to grow faster
than that of Seoul. These suburban areas became the integral part of Seoul
Metropolitan area. As a consequence of this rapid urbanization in Capital
region, five new towns were developed. Fig. 12 of Seoul Metropolitan Region
with green belt and five New Towns.
Although the population of Seoul has decreased but the Capital Region is
growing faster than any other region in the nation. Facing complex social,
political and economic changes, the importance of SMA cannot be overlooked
in keeping Korean economy thriving and growing continuously. This may
accelerate the region-wide metropolitisation of Seoul. One important
inference of the study is that to cope with the problem of inequality, it would
be better to invest in selective provincial centres having growth potential.
3. Strategic Approach for developing World-Class Cities

Innovative and sustainable city management will provide a mechanism to
achieve healthy urbanization, help promote equitable society, manage land and
its resources, transgressing individual, political and administrative boundaries
and in coordination with local boundaries.
There is a need of an integrated cascaded planning system covering all the urban
and rural settlements. Hierarchical approach is a suitable system for balanced
growth of a substantial regional planning. An effective and systematic planning
is the fabric of growth and progress. The purpose of this process is to sustain the
socio-cultural values, conserve heritage and improve infrastructure. This will
make a city productive, competitive and bankable. Based on the above case-
studies, a strategic approach for efficient development will include:
• Land Use
• Introduce zones to phase development and to coordinate development with
a programme for extension upgrading of infrastructure networks / services
• Formalize improvement plans and introduce standards for compliance with
strategic development requirements
• Target selected regional centres as growth poles (satellites / new towns) and
coordinate their priority development with other strategic plans (economic,
transport and infrastructure in particular)
• Introduce measures to encourage development of infill areas and vacant land
• Projects of a specified size to be in accord with strategic plans and receive
approval from appropriate authority, before land is requisitioned for construction
• Estimate future land requirements and prepare a programme for further
requisitioning in relation to land already available.
• Initiate measures for land assembly and develop land bank

• Prohibit additional requisitions in zones with abundant vacant or underutilized
land
• Decentralize jobs to locations closer to residents
Economic Development
• Coordinate operations of local administrations by adoption of a policy for the

location of economic activities and link these with strategies for land use,
transportation and infrastructure, as well as programs for social welfare
• Renovate, relocate or redevelop requisite sites using various incentives
including grants / loans / others
• Adopt clustering concepts in association with other developments, in
particular land use, infrastructure and transportation
• Strategic approach to outward marketing for promoting the collective
comparative advantages of the region
• Allocate funds to assist business in research and development
• Ensure comparative / competitive advantages by streamlining bureaucratic
procedures and smoothing the public participation
Infrastructure
• Assess needs and identify priority areas for upgrading and extension of
strategic infrastructure and services
• Assist the administrations of priority areas to improve local services by using
development funds as grants and subsidies
• Facilitate private sector investment / involvement in the financing and
operations of infrastructure through Public Private Partnership modalities
• Limit the practice of land requisitioning as a means of raising funds for
projects
Fig. 14: Efficient City
• Phase the extension of infrastructure systems to match the spatial progression

of physical development
• Introduce incentives and penalties to ensure that vacant serviced land is
developed
• Joint approval of locations for mega-projects in line with land use and other
relevant policies and strategies
Transportation
• Prepare an integrated multi-model transportation strategy

• Integrated package of proposals to upgrade and rationalize road network,
limit the use of private vehicles (congestion charges) and improve public
transportation
• Coordinate land use and transportation strategies to improve private and
public transport services to and from major work place concentrations
• Improve the capacity of the regional road and rail networks i.e. both internal
and external nodal movements.
Social Welfare
• Target skill training (to meet shortfalls in available labour) to the unemployed
and disadvantaged
• Subject to the requirements of other strategies, locate growth poles and
economic clusters in an effort to redress inequality
• Encourage the supply of affordable rental units for the economically weaker
section of the community
• Initiate housing associations to operate as intermediaries for the poor within
the housing market
• Oblige real estate developers to include social facilities in developments, or
pay the equivalent for others to provide the same
• Requisitioning of farmland should be justified in relation to local land use
plans and in accord with the strategic land use plan
Environment
• Restrict activity locations in water catchments.

• Support local management and enforcement mechanisms
• Prepare waste management plan. This will include measures to reduce and
recycle waste, collection and sanitary disposal
• Prioritize natural resource areas to be preserved and incorporate measures
to protect them within all strategies
• Closure of polluting process/activities, or the introduction of measures to

reduce their impact to within acceptable standards
• Relocation of polluting activities to more appropriate locations with scientific
waste discharge techniques
Finance
• Monetize regional land resources

• Widen the tax base and introduce more effective taxes to generate regional
own source revenues. Property tax has clear advantages, especially if
mounted on GIS systems that capture other urban management information.
Higher taxes could be levied on vacant or underdeveloped land to encourage
a more compact urban form.
• Review cost recovery systems for existing infrastructure and utility services
and adjust user charges accordingly.
• Consider the introduction of “user pays” principal across the board, for all
services, and move towards sustainable financial management.
• Unless the means to meet liabilities are assured, minimize loan financing of
projects and issuance of municipal bonds.
• Encourage the private sector to contribute funds through appropriate Public
Private Partnership modalities.
• Projects in excess of a specified cost should accord with strategic plans,
and receive Metropolitan Authority approval, before land is requisitioned for
construction.
• Government banks and financial institutions should seek the confirmation of
the Metropolitan Authority before issuing loans (in excess of a specified sum)
for financing projects of the local administrations.
• Lending criteria for project loans should be reviewed and more commercial
principles applied.
• Introduce regional taxes to generate revenue for redistributed among the
administrations to compensate and balance any inequalities.
• Introduction of a standard of a development impact fees to generate revenue
for the funding of infrastructure and social services associated with new
developments
• Adopt differential monetary, fiscal and tariff policies between the city and
other parts to promote location and shift of activities into the other parts
Institutional
• Establish a metropolitan authority with strategic responsibility for the entire

region
• Revise boundaries of administrations (if necessary) to encompass urban

conurbation and other regional attributes
• Clearly demarcate roles, functions and jurisdictions between the Metropolitan
Authority and subordinate administrations
• Define operation and funding procedures / financing on the understanding
that the plans and programs of subordinate administrations will comply with
the guidance and directions given strategic plans
5. ConclusionS
• The process of developing a world class city capable of creating sustainable
wealth and quality of life for the residents and investors includes building
an internationally competitive, dynamic and inclusive economy; deploying
world class infrastructure and utilities for the region; optimizing mobility to
enhance linkages and accessibility through effective transportation; building
a skilled and responsive labor force; creating a sustainable world class living
and working environment; enhancing the quality of life and inclusiveness in
the region; delivering a unique image and identity through effective place
branding; ensuring a safe and secure environment; and employing world class
governance systems.
• This requires an undertaking with an active focus on economic growth on
high-impact projects. Second, policy makers should create additional jobs
with thrust areas of high end services such as IT, ITES, media, entertainment,
telecom, low end services (construction, recreation, retailing, hinterland
based manufacturing and logistics hub including SEZs, EPZs, and formation of
consumption markets or centers. Third, expand mass and private transport
infrastructure with mass rapid transit system connecting railway, roadway
and airways. Fourth, increase housing availability and affordability; provision
for rental housing market; slum rehabilitation and resettlement; special
integrated housing zones for economically weaker section of the society.
Fifth, infrastructure upgrading with safe drinking water, proper disposal
of waste, adopting alternative or renewable energy sources, access to
quality education, improve healthcare services, safety and security etc.
Fifth, adequate financing mechanisms through increase in user charges
and collection efficiency in property tax and others; better contracting
procedures for private public partnership projects and hiring; reduction
in administrative expenditure; and proper utilization of government land
assets. Last, a committed leadership and a coordinating body is needed.
Building effective, efficient and responsive governance system by adopting
top-down and bottom-up approach is necessary. We must also introduce result
oriented control over various departments like roads, water, environment,
urban development etc. Transparency in building approval processes is at the
heart of a world city.
Indian Real Estate : Will Awarding an Industry

Status, Improve its Prospects?
Dr. Mona N Shah, and Thilak Babu Gottipati
Abstract
In India, the construction and real estate sector is the second largest employer next only
to agriculture; its size is close to US $12 billion and growing at a rate of about 30% per
annum. Five per cent of the country’s GDP is contributed by the real estate sector. In
construction, the average profit in India stood at 18%, which is twice the profitability for
a construction project undertaken in the USA. During 2010-11, the Indian real estate and
housing sectors received US$ 1.12 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), according to
the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion India (DIPP). As a known fact, Indian
real estate has been beleaguered with opaque practices and consumer apathy, unqualified
suppliers entering the market due to lower barriers to entry, resulting in the absence of
good standards of business practice amongst the majority, due to which the existing state
of Indian Real Estate is inadvertently endeavouring its own potential to grow.
1. INTRODUCTION
The real estate sector in India has the potential to achieve unprecedented growth
and contribute hugely to India’s development initiative. Over the last decade
India experienced high growth on account of several reasons such as increasing
demand due to sustained economic growth, liberalization initiatives, and also
the permission for foreign direct investments. The high potential of investment
marks the need for rapid property development on the one hand, while mitigating
the problem of finance for real estate projects. Locked up in real estate projects
are huge personal and private equity commitments by a growing number of
foreign investors and home grown financial institutions. However, the situation
is far from ideal due to the opaqueness of real estate ventures and projects,
absence of proper land records and titling methods, excessive documentation
and legal compliances, existence of unaccounted money and undervaluation of
assets (Fig. 1).
With a focus on the Indian real estate, we examine the shortcomings of the existing
system. It attempts to assign the probable causes for deviations from regulatory
standards in development, the rate of marketing and financing of real estate in
India when compared with the best global standards. These shortcomings may be
Prof. Dr. Mona N. Shah, Dean PGP Real Estate and Urban Infrastructure Management and
Examinations, National Institute of Construction Management and Research, Pune E-mail:
[email protected]
Thilak Babu Gottipati, PGP Real Estate and Urban Infrastructure Management, National
Institute of Construction Management and Research, Pune, E-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Mona N Shah, and Thilak Babu Gottipati 85

Fig. 1: Gross Domestic Product at Factor Cost by Industry of Origin (Real Estate,
Insurance, and Finance) (Rs Crores, at Current Prices)
acting as road blocks in acknowledging real estate as an industry, unleashing its

maximum development potential and preventing it from effectively contributing
to the economic development of India.
2. Potential for Development of Indian Real Estate

Potential for the systematic growth of
Indian real estate has been accepted by Fig. 2: Transparency Index- Asia Pacific
all. However, when compared with existing
practices witnessed in real estate, it
may not appear so. Government of India
categorizes real estate along with financial
and insurance services in its gross domestic
product calculations. According to data
available from the Economic Survey of
India, this sector has shown a consistently
high contribution barring a few times,
when the growth has dipped considerably
low (Fig. 2 and Table 1).
2.1 What constitutes an ‘Industry’?

Definitions differ for describing an industry,
depending upon which party is viewing it.
However, most of the literature is found
in the work of Industrial Economics which
covers areas of industrial organizations and
policy. Thus the economists, the businesses,

Table 1: Current Status of Indian Practices with Global Best Practices in Real Estate
S. No. Attribute Best Practice India
1. Land Measurement GIS and Geo-spatial Manual
Technologies
2. Land Title Computerised, Clear Manual, ambiguity prevails in the entire
titles with no discrepancy titling process. records of earlier dates
and long record history not available.
available.
3. Approvals Single Window Multiple Windows
4. No. of Clearances Approximately 5 Approximately 52
5. Time Required 30 days Several months to an year & more
6. Regulatory Body Single Authority No specific regulatory authority for real
estate, several bodies at national, state
& local levels.
7. Laws Flexible to adapt with Archaic laws, not up to date at any given
market scenarios time
8. Financing Easy and simple, REITs Complex no REITs, sources maybe
are prevalent, variety of questionable.
sources
9. Foreign Direct 100% Laws pertaining to minimum requirement
Investment and exit makes investment difficult
10. Valuation Matches with actual Under valuation in most cases with the
purchase rates. difference paid through unaccounted
practices.
11. Property taxes Levied on all properties Exemptions for various properties like
vacant land etc.
12. Risk in Finance Minimal Very High
Source: Compiled from National Government Agencies, Planning Commission-India, Doing Business in India
(World Bank Publication, PTI, Thomson & Reuters
the sociologists, and the government are not always in complete agreement when
it comes to the definition (IDBI Act, 1964). Industrial economics covers areas of
industrial organization and policy, commerce and business economics. Due to the
efforts of the construction industry and the Planning Commission, the government
has recently awarded a partial industry status to construction but not real estate
implying it does not have a full industry status, but only under the IDBI Act 1964.
That means that it can access finance from formal sources. From the financial
point of view, the sector will get benefitted. However, critics aver that, this
status does not automatically guarantee a complete change for the construction
sector for the better. This does not guarantee that industry standards related to
its operations, wages and working conditions, training and skills development,
transparency in accounting, licensed practitioners, quality and safety standards,
customer satisfaction will be assured. The excessive regulation is also not sure
of diminishing.

In case of real estate, which has very strong construction linkage as well as
infrastructure for housing being accorded the status of industry would mean
a host of possibilities. Players in real estate sector have been clamoring for
industry status with large developers and associations like Builders Association
of India, RICS and ASSOCHAM taking up the matters with the government.
However, according to Anuj Puri, Chairman of the Task Force on Construction
and Real Estate, Confederation of Indian Industry(CII), 75 percent of the industry
consists of smaller and unorganized operators. Thus introducing corporatization
to these operators is necessary. Increased corporatization would benefit foreign
direct investment and rating of all projects at various levels. Rationalization
of taxation is also another issue with the operators and associations alike. It is
recommended that the General Sales Tax replaces the multiple indirect taxes
that make it difficult for the sector to be competitive in the international market.
It is interesting to note that investors, who are interested in investing in real
estate in India are critical of the sector’s functioning. Managing Director of Cresa
Partners says that foreign investors keen on investing in Indian real estate find
the lack of transparency and non-availability of the right kind of project basket
a dampening proposition.
The Capital Housing Stock in India constitutes mere 5 sq m per capita, which
is one of the lowest when compared with other developing and developed
countries. It has been estimated that there would be shortage of 26.53 million
houses during the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012), which provides a big
investment opportunity, according to a report by the Technical Group on
Estimation of Housing Shortage. The popularity of the Indian real estate sector
is also highlighted by a report ‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate in Asia Pacific
2011’ published by Price Water House Coopers and Urban Land Institute. The
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry research on foreign
direct investment in real estate revealed that the total share of FDI received in
India, the share of real estate has been steadily increasing from 4.5 percent in
2003 and reached 25 percent by 2011 due to the liberalized FDI Policy (BBPM Law
Report, 2006; DIIP, 2011). According to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle, about US$
15.8 billion has been invested from 2006 till date on various types of assets in the
real estate sector in the country. Of which, US$ 2.7 billion went to residential
projects and US$ 2.4 billion to township projects. A sum of US$ 2.3 billion went
to commercial projects, US$ 2.1 billion to mixed use and US$ 961.4 million to
special economic zones (SEZs). During the current year, private equity funds
invested US$ 320 million in commercial, US$ 65 million in mixed use, US$ 44
million in residential, US$ 190 million in SEZs and US$ 122 million in township
projects (IBEF, 2011). The prominent growth prospects for the next ten years is
predicted to be in affordable housing as 26.53 million dwelling unit shortfall has
been estimated by the Technical Group for Housing Estimation in the Eleventh
Five Year Plan.

3. Characteristics of Unregulated Business versus Organized

Industry
3.1. Lack of Standard Industry Practices
In the organized industry, all transactions are recorded as per the industry norms
and standards. There are huge barriers to entry for the non-serious and fly-by-
night players who have very less long term commitment to business, and have
less qualms indulging in malpractices. In unregulated business the accounting
entries and business transactions may not be subject to high standards and
adequate rigor of third party scrutiny, leading to a rampant prevalence of
unauthorized practices. One of the cited reasons for the inability of real estate
in India, to function with the same standards as witnessed in other, more evolved
sectors could be the fact that most of the real estate companies are privately
held proprietary firms and their financial statements are not readily available
for public viewing. As a matter of fact, many industrial houses that have been
engaged in developing real estate parcels on land held by them in the form of
mill lands or factory premises, have stated that corporatization in this industry
is necessary. According to Deputy Managing Director of the erstwhile Bombay
Dyeing Group, “The industry needs to partner with the government to sort out
issues pending since long. Also, corporatization of real estate would follow two
routes: one, where existing players move to becoming a corporate entity and
two, when corporate enter real estate. He stressed on the need for the industry
to take very seriously the development of in-house skill-sets to deal with the
regulatory environment”.
A similar sentiment is voiced by the President of GIC Real Estate, Singapore, who
says, “It’s not easy to do business in India, its difficult finding suitable partners
who have the same long-term objectives, as most firms are small and family run”
(Yassir, 2006).
3.2 Myopic View

A businessman’s view may be myopic often conceived only based on a single
project or with short term objectives, or alternatively focused merely on monetary
gains. In an industry, a firm has long term and integrated sustainable strategies
for the stakeholders. Business is not ruled by strong corporate governance,
ethical codes and accepted standards of practice whereas the industry stands
on publicly known governance and ethical structures and on professional
accountable practices. In business, qualified practitioners are not easily found,
whereas in industry, professionally qualified practitioners are in abundance who
continuously upgrade their skills. Industry values, research and development,
and innovation whereas in business the short term outlook prevails. When viewed
from this prism, the real estate business in India is found wanting on more of
these globally accepted paradigms of industry standards. It would be pertinent
to see further the implications of this on many aspects that affect the growth

of this industry and consequently the country as a whole. Table 1 shows the
functioning of the real estate sector in India when compared to the best global
practices.
4. India and the World

Deficiencies in the Indian market have a major impact on the investment
sentiment either foreign or domestic. These shortfalls not only affect the global
position of India as a potential market but also hinder the economic development
of the country. When viewed along with other markets like Singapore, UK, UAE
or Germany, Indian real estate practices barely match up to global standards of
practice. Aspects related to project management, project planning, and project
delivery are presented in the following passages.
4.1 Project Planning Stage

4.1.1 Land Titles and Records
In case of the UK land registry maintains all records. All encumbrances on the
title are instantly recorded to maintain enforceability. Private companies are
also active in the field of finding out the various encumbrances and charges
connected with a particular property, and the title records, for a specific fee.
Singapore keeps the entire information about a property and its title for public
viewing through government websites and is updated regularly. The entire
system of allotment of housing is highly transparent. On the other hand in case
of Germany the electronic system for registration of land records is adopted but
access is limited to authorized persons only. In case of India, the land records
are maintained through a manual recording system at the tehsil level, the lowest
level of administrative and land record office in charge of revenue collection,
which carries out the first level mutation of the land ownership. The records
are open for public viewing only on prior payment of fees. There are multiple
government agencies related to land certifications or giving no-objection
certificates like Revenue, Municipal Corporations, State Registry Offices, etc.
The level of transparency in India is very low as compared to global standards.
Fig. 2 also shows the degree of transparency in land dealings in Indian cities
along with some other countries.
4.1.2 Approvals
In the UK permissions are required for any kind of planning and the plot of
land is required to be registered with the UK Land Registry. It is mandatory
for all the builders and developers to abide by the rules and regulations of the
Building Control Services stated by the local authority or private sector approved
inspectors for compliance with the regulations. On the other hand in Singapore
the Urban Redevelopment Authority is the highest authority for approvals. The
entire process is network based and carried out through internet for all the five
approvals which are required for development. In case of Germany it is found that

the Planning Law and Buildings Regulations Law is a federal subject, and projects
are approved based on the compatibility of the project with the neighborhood
considerations and design of building. The local authority is only a supervising
body; a ‘single contact point’ process is adopted for any kind of permission and
approval. While, in case of UAE the entire process is made up of online systems
for all types of approvals. At the same time carrying out the development
requires almost 17 different approvals from various regulating bodies. In India,
a multiple window system exists and numerous approvals which range between
50 to 55 departmental approvals are required from local to national levels. Land
is a state subject in India, thus state level variations in land law exist. Limited
information is available for public viewing, while the available information is
sometimes outdated due to improper maintenance and updating of records.
States do not collect and update land and constructed property valuation data.
Thus, contemporary transactions are not based on scientific and up to data
information, it is completely left to the market forces. Chances of malpractice
are very high due to the absence of price information from government sources.
4.1.3 Licensing and Regulating Body

In the UK, the Architects Regulation Board defines the code for architects and
National Association of Estate Agents defines a code of conduct only for agents
involved in residential properties. While in Singapore the Board of Architects is the
regulating body for designers and architects and the Controller of Housing is the
licensing body for developers, brokers and salespersons. In Germany the special
State laws for regulation for architects are defined, while no regulating body
for developers and brokers is active. On the other hand in UAE the Real Estate
Regulatory Authority monitors architects, developers, brokers and salespersons
as a single regulating body. In India, the Council of Architecture is the licensing
body for architects but licenses from particular municipal corporations are also
mandatory. There is no regulatory authority for the developers, brokers and
salespersons.
4.2 Financing Stage

4.2.1 Funding
In the UK there are a number of financing options available, however the
secondary market funding is strictly restricted to avoid credit crisis. Thus the
flow of funds is negatively impacted in this market, while REITs have been the
most stable form of funds. When considering Singapore, entire funding is done
through Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Commercial Mortgage-Backed
Securities (CMBS). Similarly in case of Germany the funding is done through
REITs and CMBS and also mutual investment funds are an option for all kinds of
investors. Special investment funds are available for institutional investors. In
case of India the REITs do not exist and funding sources include mutual funds

approved by SEBI (which are not always dedicated real estate funds except HDFC
Realty, Tishman Speyer, etc.), project finance companies, insurance companies,
savings, private-equity, HNI and venture capital. However all of these are not
well-developed and therefore are not able to provide adequate finance for real
estate development. Majority of the real estate developers continue to rely on
informal sources.
4.2.2 Presence of FDI

In the UK there is 100 percent permission for FDI, the Singapore Government
also provides for 100 percent permission, while in Germany the foreign direct
investment is permitted but the investors are free to exit through a share deal
or asset deal and no approval is required from the German Authority. In India
the minimum parcel size of land of 25 acres is prescribed for construction
development and serviced housing plots for foreign investments. 100 percent FDI
is permitted with a lock-in period of minimum 3 years.
4.2.3 Presence of Multiple Regulating Agencies Body for real estate industry
In the UK there is an absence of a monitoring body and the Financial Services
Authority regulates investments through REITs only. While in case of Singapore the
land ownership is controlled completely by public sector, various authorities and
their prescribed rules are to be followed for different issues and uses. Similarly in
case of Germany there is no regulatory body working, but certain restrictions are
applicable to funding agencies for risk diversification. In case of UAE the Federal
Real Estate Regulatory Authority is in the process of establishment. As of now,
there is no regulatory body active in India as a whole. In India, the Ministry of
Housing and Ministry of Urban Development are central government lawmaking
authorities, the Reserve of India (RBI) regulates monetary policy, thereby interest
rates that govern banking, and non-banking financial sector, the Securities and
Boards Exchange of India (SEBI) regulates foreign investments in real estate.
Association of Mutual Funds (AMFI), decides on the types of mutual funds that
are permissible, and their governance; finally the National Housing Bank (NHB)
functions as an apex regulatory authority for Housing Finance Corporations
and Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) operating in real estate lending.
Apart from the central structures, there exist the State level regulators because
Housing and Real Estate is in the State List, so is Land. Multiple laws and duties
to acquire, develop, maintain, and dispose real estate exist at the state level.
At the local level of municipal corporations and bodies, Development Control
Rules (DCRs) and Floor Space Index (FSI) norms, Transfer of Development Rights
(TDR) may be in use in certain states, these add to the endless regulation and
multiplicity of clearances at different governmental levels. The trademark of
Indian real estate regulation is its excessive and splintered nature. As seen in
Table 1, on an average, 52 -55 clearances, delay the launch of new projects.

4.3 Project Implementation Stage

4.3.1 Provisions to check the utilization of money for the intended purpose
When considering the UK the proper utilization of money is ensured through
individual contractual escrow arrangements to fulfill the purpose. Singapore
prescribes formation of escrow accounts. While in Germany, no such provisions
prevail but certain binding rules may exist in government related projects. On
the other hand in UAE, the federal law checks the guarantee accounts or escrow
accounts of real estate developments. In India, no such provision for escrow
accounts are known to exist let alone auditing them to find out their intended
purpose.
4.3.2 Health and Safety Regulations

The Health and Safety executives work as inspectors in the UK, appropriate
certificate is required from the government prior to the occupation of completed
developments, and specific duties are stated for contractors and developers
under the health and safety legislation. While in case of Singapore, the Ministry of
Manpower is the chief regulating body to control working conditions. In Germany
the provision for mandatory insurance of employees is in place, and the cost of
insurance is paid by the employer as well as the employee equally. Whereas in
UAE the federal law is designed to regulate labor matters like injuries, hazards,
medical care, facilities, etc. In India, although the Act exists, the enforcement
of these Acts and other legislation is not found to be stringent and punitive. Too
many loopholes exist and are used to circumvent good legislation.
4.4 Project Delivery Stage

4.4.1 Standard Area Measurement System (carpet / built-up / super built-up).
In the UK, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors which defines the bases
of measurement for different uses and purposes, issues the Code of Measuring
Practices. In Singapore, the measurement based on built-in floor space. While in
Germany the sale area is the same area as registered in land records, and German
Public Law defines regulations for measurement. In India a single standard system
for calculating the built-up area does not exist and the sale area might differ
from the registered measurement in many cities and states.
4.4.2 Provision to Safeguard the Interests of End User

In the UK the provision changes from contract to contract, but typically these
provisions include delivery date, and arbitration clauses for dispute. Also the
Property Misdescription Act, 1991 prohibits false or misleading statements by
estate agencies and property developers, whereas, the contracts are the only
basis for details like allotment date and specification in Singapore. In case of
Germany, the German Civil Code regulates the property description matter and
defines legal means for delayed delivery compensation. In UAE, the real estate

investor protection law is under review and if passed, this law will provide details
for cancellation of contracts, refund or replacement of property by developer. In
India, there is absence of a specific law, which is binding on the contractors and
developers. As on date the deviations from conditions specified in the contract
are the only basis for petitioning against the developers and mostly through
consumer courts.
5. Absence of Strong Real Estate Association

Associations globally play a significant role in setting industry standards for
practice as well as advocacy of industry status and other issues, for business.
In case of all mature real estate markets at the global level it has been found
that these associations serve as an effective bridge between the business and
the regulators. A range of issues covering codes of ethics, standards of practice,
legislation, education and training, licensing, self-regulation, etc; help to raise
overall standards. The Government too finds it easier to deal with credible
associations to dialogue with when introducing reforms or legislation. Another
positive effect of recognized industry status is that access to institutional finance
would be easier for industry players. CREDAI is the only association, which claims
a membership of over 6,000 and representing over 18 member associations.
It aims to slowly set quality and service standards for real estate through its
‘Preferred Partners’ initiative.
6. Foreign Investment in the Indian real estate sector

In India building construction activity has grown manifold since 2006 when the
Government allowed 100 percent foreign investment in real estate industry.
The inflow of foreign capital funds in India has created a lucrative opportunity
for local developers. In 2010 the
Fig. 3: Growth Trends of FDI in Indian Realty Sector
net FDI inflow was US$20 billion,
which was 11 percent higher than
the previous year. As shown in Fig.
3, the flow of funds is marginally
higher in the housing sector when
compared to other construction
activities in the year 2011.
However, the trends in the

first quarter of 2011 portend a
lower rate of investments when
compared to 2010. There may be
many reasons for the lower rate
of investments and not just the
global slowdown. Brazil, Russia, Source: Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government
India and Chinese economies are of India, May 2011

Fig. 4: FDI inflows in Indian Real Estate
Source: Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, July 2011
growing at a higher rate as compared to the developed countries in Europe and

the USA, but amongst them, India’s inflationary problems may not help foreign
investment coming to India. Fig. 3 shows a fall in investment while a degree
of recovery is witnessed in the second quarter. In spite of the stringent rules
in the Indian real estate market, foreign investments view India as a potential
market. This was also driven by the global crisis involving the Greek sovereign
debt default, followed by Italy and Spain being financially precarious, in the
European Union. The American recovery based on quarter on quarter recovery is
still not encouraging since 2008, while Japan has taken a hit after the devastating
tsunami in 2011. In case of FDI which is vital for India, the sectors worst affected
by a predicted reduction in investment are construction, real estate, mining, and
business financial services (Fig. 4).
7. Accounting Risks as deterrents for global investments

directed towards India
Experts attribute a number of reasons for the slowdown in foreign investment
in India ranging from changes in policy, the existence of black money as a
parallel economy, and delays in policy and programme implementation, etc. The
change in government decisions and actions is not the only factor, but include
factors such as labor and material costs that affect the timely completion and
success of the projects, which in turn, act as a positive multiplier, inducing
further investments. There is another greater perceived risk articulated by
many representative bodies such as the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
(RICS), and International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC), which has through
their various forums pointed to the absence of strong governance structures
that hamper the sustained growth of the real estate industry. The regulatory
framework in the developed countries is very well established, planned and
transparent and it acts as an overseer of all the transactions. On the contrary, the

regulatory scenario is in a very embryonic stage in India. As a result of the above,

business analysts fear that investor sentiment over the coming years is likely to
be adversely affected by concerns about lack of transparency issues in India,
compounded with issues in land acquisition, and inadequate design, planning
and project execution capability. This with an historic culture of common scope
creep, material cost escalations, non-availability of quality vendors for material
supply, and a record of missed delivery dates, could all have an impact on project
program and cost. These derail the calculated rate of return on investments by
the lenders and equity holders.
Economic growth rate of country’s economy is one of the major factors that is
considered by the financial institutions before directing investment into a specific
country. It is a well known fact that the demographics of a developing nation are
more favorable than those of a developed economy, and the developing economies
are resistant to economic crisis to a larger extent due to high pent up demand.
The growth rate of population in the developing economies also therefore drives
the demand for housing and other property types in such economies. As the
demand always supersedes the supply in such countries, the potential for real
estate development is high. Therefore, in India the real estate market contains to
remain unorganized and fragmented. This results in a yawning gap between the
potential for development and the actual level of development of the market.
7.1 Absence of a Market Regulator and its Effects on Real Estate Financing
The real-estate industry not only lacks transparency in its functioning but is
also highly speculative in nature. At present in India there is no regulatory body
to certify property developers and regulate property transactions. It is claimed
by industry experts that developers issue advertisements to launch projects
in the absence of fulfilling all the land acquisition and registration formalities
and launch projects without obtaining prior approval of competent authorities;
etc. Many times they neither specify the total area of the plot, flat or house
declaring clearly the carpet area and utility area, nor the date of delivery and
consequential remedies available to the consumer in case of project completion
delays. Also, the amount collected from the allottees against a particular project
is neither deposited in a designated escrow account nor utilized only for the
construction of the concerned building. It is a very common practice to divert
funds from an ongoing project to buy land for a new project, thus jeopardizing
the prospects of the previous project. The information relating to the progress of
works and status of account of each allottee is not made available to buyers in a
transparent manner. Also, developers build in hidden costs, other than the initial
price and do not make relevant information public. There are often inordinate
delays in execution of the project beyond previously agreed upon durations.
Also, due to the unorganized nature of the real estate sector, lack of yield-
generating assets of institutional quality in real estate is a major deterrent to

many investors. According to Competition Commission of India, “The absence

of any single sectoral regulator to regulate the real estate sector in totality, to
ensure adoption of transparent and ethical business practices and protect the
consumers, has only made the situation in the real estate sector worse.”
7.2 Circular Flow of Black Money

Another reason which is attributed for high investment risk in real estate apart
from the absence of a market regulator is the circulation of black money in the
real estate market in the form of investment. The first step that brings black
money into the real estate market is the high stamp duty rates applicable on
property transaction. According to the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh,
“I think as far as black money in real estate is concerned, unfortunately that
is a reality and one way out of this would be to lower the stamp duties, so
that is one way, in which we can work towards a system whereby black money
would be less of a menace in transactions relating to real estate” (PTI, March
2011). High percentage of stamp duty on any real estate transaction results
in the firms’ under-quoting the property prices to save on the duty, thereby
paying lesser revenue to the government. The difference in the price is paid in
terms of unaccounted cash. The entire unaccounted cash from various sources is
laundered to various tax free, low tax countries and brought back to India as NRI
deposits and foreign investments by non-listed companies. The laundered money
along with the unaccounted money is employed in funding of real estate projects
and purchase of land banks in the name of builders in form of private equity.
Table 2 clearly shows that 20 percent of capital funds are invested in the real
estate sector in the first quarter of 2011. It is therefore essential that state level
regulators (land being a state subject) should set up to oversee these issues and
provide an enabling framework so as to facilitate institutionalizing real estate in
India. Although the Real Estate Regulation Bill, which was proposed in 2007 by
Table 2: Industry wise Cumulative Investment Details of SEBI Registered VCFs and
FCIs (INR Crores)
Source: SEBI May 2011

the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA), is long delayed,
it is yet to pass muster. Based on the past government record of delays, in the
meantime chaos prevails in the absence of a single regulator.
Another area is the conversion of agricultural land into urban land. The
unauthorized portion of the transaction varies depending upon the location.
According to the Economic Survey of India, 2010-2011, “Once conversion from
agricultural to urban use is permitted, a difficult regulatory process - land prices
can jump twenty times”.
7.3 Property Valuation Challenges at consumer level and project level

With the backdrop of the above-mentioned problems, it becomes even more
essential to standardize the valuation procedures. Proper training and awareness
programs can be held for improving buyer awareness; a demand for professionally
qualified and registered valuation personnel is already very high. Established
standards for valuation would reduce the challenges pertaining to market value
of land banks and sale of property at rates which are in alignment with the
government rates. There is great need of globally accepted valuation practices
like the RICS Redbook.
7.4 Adoption of IFRS as One Global Accounting and Valuation Standard

With the globalization of Indian companies in either accessing capital from
abroad or making acquisitions abroad, it is essential to follow a standard norm
that is accepted worldwide. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
enforces all the companies to disclose valuation of the real estate assets used
for their business or operation, assets leased out for any industrial, commercial
or residential purpose or taken on lease, valuation of all the investments in
properties either for capital appreciation or to generate rental income and
value their stock in trade. As Indian companies go global, convergence with IFRS
would eliminate the need for multiple reporting in most cases as the same set of
financial statements can be used for reporting for all the entities.
Fig. 5 mentions the gradual improvement of transparency levels in Indian cities.

The market fundamentals are considerably lower in case of Tier-III cities. The
level of transparency can be attributed to the improved accounting standards
followed in India. There exist huge differences between India’s accounting
standards and practices, the internationally Generally Accepted Accounting
Procedures (GAAP) and the IFRS. According to Rajiv Chugh Partner Tax and
Advisory Ernst and Young, real estate companies would have to take a re-look at
their construction agreements for the purposes of revenue recognition. Under
IFRS, a company would be able to recognize revenue with reference to the stage
of completion. But the guidance note and accounting standards issued under
Indian GAAP considers it appropriate to recognize revenues once there is a legally
enforceable agreement for sale.

Fig. 5: Transparency of Indian Cities by Tiers
Under fair value measurement of IFRS in India, property leases may be complicated
with limited period or perpetuity leases; government or private leases; sub
Fig. 6: Comparative Construction Costs Breakdown of Fig. 7: Gross Domestic Product at

India and USA (1999) Factor Cost by Industry of Origin
(Rs Crores, at current prices)
Year Financing, Percentage
insurance, Change in
real estate and growth
business services
1950-51 1162 -
1955-56 1638 41
1960-61 2360 44
1965-66 3517 49
1970-71 5169 47
1975-76 8813 70
1980-81 14010 59
1985-86 28557 104
1990-91 59856 110
1995-96 133235 123
2000-01 292862 120
2005-06 493102 68
2009-10 1027158 108
Source: Economic Survey 2010-2011, www.

Source: S Khan, S Shah, IVCJ, 2006 indiabudget.nic.in

Box 1: Nature of Indian Real Estate Market
Real estate markets are fraught with problems of information asymmetry,

moral hazard, liquidity and heterogeneity. Market failures are therefore
common and state intervention is imperative at many levels to ensure
fair economic outcomes. Our assessment is that the share of real estate
finance sector, as well as that of cluster of real estate related industries
in India’s GDP is significantly less than corresponding shares in market-
oriented economics. For example, total outstanding mortgages are on an
average about 40 percent of GDP for countries of the European Union, the
US and Japan, whereas it is a relatively new activity in India. The recently
concluded first ever survey of household amenities and assets by Census of
India has thrown up statistics that clearly point to the immense potential
that the sectors offer for growth. There are only 179 million houses for 192
million families in the country. There is thus significant gap of 13 million in
availability of dwellings. The situation is in fact worse about 10 percent of
the dwellings are vacant, perhaps because of the archaic statutes.
Close to 50 percent of the households live in non-permanent constructions.

About one in every five houses has a concrete roof and only about a third
have cement floors. About two-thirds of the residences do not get water at
home and just over 50 percent of houses have electricity connection though
they may not be receiving any electricity because of the poor state of the
electricity sector. In short, the assessed gap in requirement and availability
of housing in fact severely underestimates the real gap if bare minimum
standards for space amenities are specified. There is therefore scope and
a crying need for action by the Government to improve the situation.
Along with appropriate changes in the laws and the regulatory framework,
adequate public funding for the sector is called for to act as a catalyst for
attracting private capital and management. The value in exchange for the
public resources spent and in terms of an active public-private partnership
would be immense (Accommodation Times, April 2011).
leases and special leases, like on cantonment land. These complicated lease
transactions will need to be reported at fair value, which may not be an easy
task, given the limited information available in the public domain. Nearly 90
pecent of 143 world leaders from 91 countries, surveyed by the International
Federation of Accountants, affirmed that a single set of reporting standards was
important for economic growth. In real estate valuation standards implementation
of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) requirements for current
value accounting on all assets and liabilities is driving the need for truly global

valuation standards. The RICS Red Book provides an implementation or practice

framework for the application of International Valuation Standards (IVS) globally
ensuring that valuers follow consistent methodologies throughout the world.
Foreign investors would have greater confidence due to the transparency in
valuation and financial reporting.
8. Conclusions
Indian real estate has strong potential due to the enormous demand supply gap
compared to the saturated global markets. It is indeed strange that activities
involving a basic need of human beings is found wanting in fair and wholesome
regulation. After decades of Independence, India has been unable to provide
access to shelter to the majority of its population. The contradiction of
excessive regulation in supply of housing leading to inordinate delays coexisting
with absolutely no regulation in granting entry to new entrants defies logical
explanation. Current market practices in Indian real estate are not transparent
and competitive enough for the long term wellbeing of the players and inclusive
growth considerations of the society. The real estate sector is not an independent
and closed industry; it is interrelated with multiple industries, services, and
stakeholders. To ensure the long term sustained growth of property sector,
transparent practices should be established in the industry. For smooth running
of the business and fair competition between the players of the industry, and
to protect the end users and investors interest, strong diligence systems and
rigorous implementation to avoid regulatory capture is essential. The real
estate sector is no more limited to the local, state, or national levels as the
scope of the industry has broadened to a global level. Hence, it is important for
real estate players to keep up with the global best practices in the real estate
sector and dispel the predominant belief that those indulging in substandard
practices dominate it. The onus lies on the serious and long standing players
to transform the industry from a ‘business’ orientation to that of an organized,
professionally qualified industry by setting up new benchmarks and standards of
practice. It must do so with the help of government agencies much like the many
industries in IT and manufacturing sector have successfully done in the past.
Self regulation, establishing transparent business practices, a genuine consumer
focus, subjecting one’s companies to regular public scrutiny, and actively engaging
with the governmental agencies to alter archaic laws and usher in transparency
in dealings, are some ways by this could be achieved.
References
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Institute of Town Planners, India Journal 11 x 4, October - December 2014

Cover Design by Dr. Diwakar S. Meshram i

Dr. Ashok Kumar

Planning for a Smart City – Critical to the Context : 1

Walkability for Urban Sustainability : 9

Opportunities and Challenges of Employing 19

Methodological Enforcement of Specifically Planned 26

Impact of Urbanization on Urban Lakes : 46

World Class Cities : An Overview 62

Indian Real Estate : Will Awarding an Industry Status, 85

Cover Design by Dr. Diwakar S. Meshram iii

INSTITUTE OF TOWN PLANNERS,

Planning for a Smart City - Critical to the

Priya Sasidharan, Professor, MEASI Academy of Architecture, Chennai

2. Components of a Smart City – From

3. Sustainable is Smart - Traditional

4. Urban Rural Nexus – Striking the Equilibrium

5. Reflections from models – Spatial connotations

6. Learning Quotient – Best Practices Mode

7. Community Participation Model

The ladder of citizen partnership model (Fig. 7)

Fig. 8: Inclusive Smart Participation Model campaign to clarify myths, superlative

Adopting villages by corporate sector

I like the idea of trying to look after great cities, trying to

Walkability for Urban Sustainability:

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal

The expansion of transport infrastructure is widely acknowledged as a symbol

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, GNDU, Amritsar.

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 9

Transportation is critical to human activities and greatly determines the city

Automobile dependence has extremely high environmental and socio-economic

2. Recreating livability through walkability

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 10

Walkability implies shorter distances to destinations; an environment which

3. Walkability in the Indian urban context : Facts and issues

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 11

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 12

3.2 Average Trip Length

Source: Ministry of Urban development, 2008

Fig. 2: Average Trip Lengths for the Selected Cities

Source: Ministry of Urban development, 2008

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 13

3.3 Walkability Index

Walkability Index = [(W1 x Availability) + (W2 x Facility rating)], where,

Source: Ministry of Urban development, 2008

Fig. 4: Average Pedestrian Facility Rank of Cities based on Population

Source: Ministry of Urban development, 2008

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 14

The condition of pedestrian facilities were assessed based on various parameters

3.4 Apathy of the Pedestrian

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 15

Fig. 5: Share of Pedestrians (%) in Road Accidents (2005)

Source: Ministry of Urban development, 2008

4. Walking as a viable choice in India cities

4.1 Recognition of Pedestrian as an Important Road User

Meenakshi Singhal Nohria and Karamjit Singh Chahal 16

4.2 Policies for Pedestrians

4.3 Planning and Designing for Pedestrians

4.4 Community Involvement