Applying New Urbanism principles in urban planning of Kochi CityRegion

Chikku Abraham

What makes a city? Is it the infrastructural giganticness? Is it the cosmopolitan culture which springs up in a city? What is city life? Whether it

is only a lifestyle which can be practiced even in rural areas also? When sets out to plan for the development of a city, where no one is having

a perfect clue for answering these questions, the whole process of planning can be felt as utopian. It is too difficult to plan for development.

According to Campbell and Cowan(2002) we have a a development control system, not a development planning system. There are lot many

questions which need intensive deliberations and analyses and most of them will remain unanswered even after that. But that cannot be an

excuse for us to escape from trying for better and creative concepts of urban planning which can be adopted from the experiences of

 the world.    Kerala accounts for only 1% of India’s geographical area, but nearly 3% of India’s population

dwells in this state. Its population density is 859/km2  , which is approximately 3 times the national average(382/km2)   . Land use

patterns of the state shows a craving for the commercial lands and in this process agricultural lands in and around the cities like Kochi are

converted into commercial lands under the urban sprawl of the city. This land conversion is choking the agricultural production of the state and

is also causing a serious dent environmental quality of the areas. Uncontrolled lateral growth of city can have very serious economic, social

and environmental implications on the natural resources of the state. This leads to the need for adopting new approaches in city planning like

‘new urbanism’ which promotes densification of cities checking their lateral growth.   New urbanism   New

Urbanism is an approach in the urban planning realm, emerged in US in 1980’s, which argues for the densification of cities instead of

the horizontal urban sprawling of the cities. The vertical growth advocated by the concept by increasing the Floor Area Ratio(FAR) follows a

closely knit community building approach where the cosmopolitan feature of cultural inter mixing happens. It calls for a mixed approach in the

planning of urban areas where the industrial, housing, shopping, recreational facilities will be provided in the walkable distances so that the

need to commute will be lessened inside the core cities. These highly pedestrianised cities are the major feature of new urbanism. The model

plans to have mixed housing facilities affordable for the differential economic stratas. This planning movement promotes eco friendly and

sustainable urban development strategies.   Separating the different spheres of the human life has been the modus operandi of planning

till now. New Urbanism tries for an integrated and comprehensive urban development planning approach. And it is sure that not as in

conventional urban planning, in this concept more planning will be there than controlling the development. In a way new urbanism can be

considered as the urban versions of self sustained village life envisioned by Gandhiji for the rural areas. These new urbanists can also be

aligned with the decentralization concepts of proposed area sabhas in Indian context where the governance of the neighborhood is carried out

by the people of the area.   Why Kochi should go for new urbanism?    Kochi with its most famous sobriquet ‘the

queen of Arabian sea’ continues to be the most urbanized place in Kerala, a semi-urban state. And it is sure that this city will be the

driving force thrusting the future spreading of urban areas. Currently the dreams and hopes about Kochi on raising it to the levels of Metro

cities, even to the levels of global city, is being envisaged.                      

                                   

      Kochi is becoming the land of opportunities. With the massive investment regime the city is undergoing, the

economy of the city is sure to boom and will be enticing not only the Keralites, but investors, businesses, professionals from outside Kerala

and abroad  also. With heavily funded projects like smart city on the anvil, how Kochi is planning to handle this influx of population is a

complex question whose answer may not be a single one.   Kochi is supposed to cater to diverse needs of urban development since the

developmental fronts of the city is multiple in nature. Some of the major contexts are:   1.Kochi is going to see a large inflow of

Information technology professionals from all over the country once the Smart City Project is completed. 2.Kochi needs to act as hinterland

port for the southern side of the country for ensuring the viability of the Vallarpadam container terminal 3.Kochi is the gateway for tourists

visiting Kerala and it cannot afford to lose its aesthetic charms for ensuring urban development.   Thus this brings in a jig saw puzzle

where diverse and difficult aspirations of the city will be traded off with the constraints on land resources of the region. Here the new urbanism

can do a lot of help with its key concepts like eco-friendly technologies, transect planning , walkability, smart public transportation etc. A highly

pedestrianised urban core, with efficient mass rapid, multi modal public transport systems connecting this area with the extended metro

regions can help the city core to be made accessible for more number of people. MG road can be a good laboratory for this experiment.

     Smart City and Kakkanad: An ideal place for applying new urbanist concepts   Smart city is going to be the largest

IT park in India and is supposed to create 90,000 direct jobs in the coming 5 years. The number of indirect jobs created will be far more. Such

a large population getting influxed to the city can create serious bottle necks to the already insufficient infrastructure facilities.   

  Smart city envisages an integrated and mixed approach in land usage similar to new urbanist views. This project, since a Greenfield

one, can adopt a new urbanist approach in its true spirit because this project does not involve the hassles of redeveloping an existing town.

  Smart city project can be an ideal test case for experimenting a New Urbanist approach by making provisions for the residential,

commercial, recreational, etc. needs of the 90,000 employees inside the Smart City campus. Mixing the commercial area with the residential

and work place area may help in emerging a vehicle unfriendly culture by giving priority to pedestrian walkways and use of cycles inside the

Smart City.    Taking a broader view, Kakkanad should undergo a planned development so as to accommodate the needs and

demands of inhabitants of the region. Providing adequate education and health care facilities is a must. The employees of the Smart city,

Infopark and other IT firms , most of them falling in the upper middle class category, are avid consumers and their purchasing powers are

comparatively high. Avenues for satisfying their shopping spree should be provided as close as possible, which will help in reducing the private

commutation to the core city. And an efficient metro rail system connecting Kakkanad to the core city region can help in catering to the high

purchasing power of these employees without making them to use their private vehicles .  Conclusion:    New urbanism is a

model which will be more suiting for areas where planned urbanizations can be executed. It will be difficult to imprint and establish a new

urbanist approach in the already saturated core areas of the Kochi. In those places, even though the whole concept cannot be practiced, the

areas can be remodeled to emulate the main principles of new urbanism like pedestrianisation of streetsetc. And newly developing centres of

the greater Cochin region like Kakkanadu can be the places for establishing townships based on the principles of new urbanist approach.

        New urbanism strives for efficient and eco friendly use of scarce resources for ensuring the sustainability

of the cities. Kochi with its diverse fronts of development cannot lose its scenic appeal while addressing the problems of its urban citizens.

Though full mode urbanization in the new urbanistic approach may be impossible, the principles of the concept in isolation can also be

emulated in the city. That will be the practical approach in Kochi’s case. At present what we need is a series of  participatory,

informed discussions  involving urban planning experts, civil society, governments of state and local bodies, on the suitability of applying

new approaches like New Urbanism in the planning of  Kochi city region .     References:   1.

http://www.newurbanism.org/ 2.http://www.cnu.org/ 3.http://michaelearth.com/herc_IX-b.html