The Author was blowing hot and cold. On one hand he was against infrastructure development (probably to help Lataji's cause), and then comes up with solutions in the other half of the article. E-world will change our lives, on how we work and live. With increasing number of e-application in our day to day lives, you probably do not have to live in cities, and compute to various offices to complete your transactions, thus reducing the load on city, which is now becoming exhorbitantly costly for common man. Of course there should be think tank teams, who should chart the future requirement of a city, by looking into the crystal ball, and come with recommendations for implimentations. We have a tendancy to always conduct fire fighting, but no solutions to pre-empt a situation.
time and again I see people who talk living in 18th century to avoid congestion. Traveling in Delhi is so so much better with the new over bridges that that I am convinced that Flyovers are the future. I would even suggest an elevated Madhya Marg for Delhi.
As far as comparison with 5000 year old civilization is concerned I think their mode of transport is known to all of us. Author also says "Sindhu Valley Civilisation 5000 years ago -- where encroachment was strictly forbidden" as if the author was the DC of that city...
I wonder if the reporter has travelled around in the country like his instance of MKG.
The shift it demographics and politics after the independence and after Y2K is evident in rapid urbanization yet Bombay and Delhi remain nations by themselves. There are several regional hubs and local politics now shapes the regional development...
Unlike the post independence India, there is no longer a two party rule, ShivSena, Telagu Desham, Mizo National Front and so on ..decisive on local turf regardless of 'India Shining' in cities. It would be good to pass judgements on small towns, if not villages from small towns. The perspective from the city is fuzzy.
Why do you need a fly over in a town like Latur? It starts from the Collectorate and goes towards market dividing the city .. its like escalator in a Hyderabaad cinema theater that starts from no where and goes no where.. but you are free to ride it just for the fun of it... and offcourse the dynamics of new construction and corruption keeps the country moving... a quake or a flood fails to reshape the city but alien technology and policy suceeds
Recongnizing existing urban/rural diversity and community assets is the Key.
Hi there, This article is so true and reminds me of Movie- "Rang De Basanti" only the context is different. We all blame govt. who is just playing thir poltical games.. None of them plan things for future, but they think only today and thier Next election seat.. this is not thier fault, but thier age is like this. They think let me make good use of the time I am left with. this is a call to all young generationa nd youth of India to be ready now.. otherwise after sometime all our cities will become like Bangalore-"Filled with people and No infrastruture planed for that."
What to do, actually today's youth also think of just my next job in some big city, but not of thier ambition and career and FUTURE & thir family's lifstyle... They are ready to saty in 6x6 room, struggle in traffic for 3-4 hr. to get that 20,000-30,000 Rs. salary. They don't participate in any govt. excercise if some good option comes.
We all should be awake.. and big planning is required.
vehicular traffic is now out of control and the consequences are devastating.take pollution for example. it is the supreme court's CNG decision in Delhi that has saved us from total disaster.
it is a world-wide problem.people love car ,manufaturer love making them and governments love them for employment.the circle is vicious and cannot be broken .so it will be. supreme court cannot be expected to intervene each and everytime. then why dont we do this-let the car manufacturer(with government departments ) themselves build the roads ? some formula may be devised. when the raod-car ratio falls short ,the number of car manufactured has also to be scaled down !!! in this way an in-built mechanism will be at work.
I agree with the views of the author about the emerging fly overs and the traffic problems associated with them. I think that the political pressure from netas and babus is hampering the pace of development and implementation of the planning laws. As far as the conntruction of flyovers is concerned, WHY do we want to make DELHi a city of flyovers rather than providing a high class transport infrastructure. This will curtail the traffic congestions, pollution levels and lot many things. For eg. the Ashram Chowk, is always blocked, the flyover has not really solved the problem there
The need of the hour is strong political leadership who can be ruthless in execution of projects for public good. It seems wishful thinking atleast for now. Most of our politicians who should be taking hard decisions are themselves in some way interested in perputating the statusquo or the chaos. I fail to understand why these politicans don't seem to think of their own children and grand children's future. I am sure the children of the rich and powerful too would like to travel on good roads and live in planned and pollution free zones.
