Renovate, repair, retrofit

Vizag’s word of the year is “Smart”! Ever since the US offered to develop Vizag as a smart city along with Ajmer and Allahabad the word “Smart” has permeated every Vizagite’s conscience. All you have to do to charge up a dull party is ask loudly “what exactly is this Smart city everyone is talking about?” Once that question is injected into the conversation a riot follows. The mild and polite conversation suddenly becomes animated and opinionated.  Interpretation of what a “Smart City” means flies around like a bug in a can creating quite a buzz. In the end the wise man in the corner, nursing his drink, says that it simply means that the citizens of the city should be “happy”. Then, suddenly, exhausted by the arguments, everyone calms down and becomes happy.

Smartness is the answer

If we go by the Webster dictionary meaning the word “smart” is defined as (a) “very good at learning or thinking about things “, (b) showing intelligence or good judgment”, (c) “behaving or talking in a rude or impolite way or showing a lack of respect for someone”. Of the several definitions of the word the only one that comes close to how the term is conceived for our city it is “operating by automation”. Aha! Now we understand! Vizag will be automated! Automation is the panacea for all our problems! All we need for a smart city is a “smart” phone, some smart apps and bingo; all of life’s problems will evaporate. It doesn’t matter that our roads cannot carry any more vehicles; that we have no parking space, that pavements do not exist and pedestrians, dubbed as “Pedasaurs” because they are becoming extinct like dinosaurs, have no place to walk. That we have no parks, no facilities for the old and infirm, health care is unaffordable, education is in doldrums; that our solid waste management system stinks and that our air and water is polluted. Heck, who cares about all that when cops have iPads?

Forget the old – bring in the new

Before the world became overwhelmed by consumerism people used to repair things. We darned our silk saris, altered our jeans, repaired our cassette recorders, re-wound our fan motors, re-soled our shoes, re-bored our bike engines, patched our tubes and retreaded our tires. We were frugal. When earnings went up and production costs came down it was cheaper and more convenient to buy new stuff rather than repair broken ones.  To meet the demands of our burgeoning population we went on to bigger things. Old cities are an unholy mess, difficult to repair, with illegal encroachers ready to litigate at the drop of a hat. So we would rather build new towns. Considering our poor maintenance record, it is logical to assume that these new developments will themselves become a mess soon. We hate to maintain anything we build in the public domain. Therefore we make new projects. These new projects are called “greenfield” projects evoking image of pristine green meadows with cows mooing, birds chirping, goats prancing about and butterflies fluttering around flowers.  We wave a magic wand and presto! We have a gleaming new city here. Builders tell us proudly “we don’t make buildings anymore, we create townships”.

Vizag’s terminal cases

Vizag’s old town, earlier called “Soldierpeta”, or “One Town” was once the vibrant business, social and cultural heart of Vizag for more than 400 years and was alive and kicking till just 50 years ago. Then the port became gross polluters, new areas were developed and many families moved north. Now “Old Town” looks decayed and dilapidated. Dabagardens with its gracious tree lined median and Dwarakanagar with its stately bungalows and tree shaded avenues were once charming parts of the city, both wonderful places to live and work in. Now they have become densely crowded with no place to park or walk. Unruly auto rickshaws, like wolf packs rule the road. Office buildings look rundown and their pan stained walls are filthy inside. When the APSRTC bus depot was first built in the early 1980’s it was a nice modern building but it is now a ramshackle old eye sore that is in a constant state of chaos. TSR (Town Supply Reservoir) complex – a row of hideous buildings parallel to the flyover near RTC is one of the ugliest parts of town.  Now driving on the Telugu Talli Flyover we can get an even more ghastly view of this monstrosity.

Retrofitting & brownfield projects

Instead of building new cities spending thousands of crores wouldn’t it be sensible to repair old parts of our cities spending only a fraction of that money? This type of project is called “brownfield” projects. Modern cities throughout the world are going for such “retrofitting” projects. It is not easy but it’s certainly cheaper to repair old sections of our cities. All we have to do is build a few multi-level car parks, revamp the drainage and sewerage systems, get the electrical wires and other utilities below ground, remove transformers and other obstructions blocking the footpaths, align and level the pavements and throw encroachers out of the pedestrian paths.

Ruthlessly take back our pavements

It is not politically correct to talk about evicting the poor little vendors selling idles, dosas and tea on our pavements, bribing the local push cart shop mafia to stay there, chucking their plastic cups into the choking drains and making their surroundings filthy. They have rights you know. But what about us folks who have to walk on the roads and get knocked down by Rambo on a bike? Don’t we have the right to life? Those feeling so bad about evicting that poor vendor should consider giving him space in their homes. We must remember that land here costs Rs. 80,000 – Rs. 90,000 a square yard, so an illegal food stall occupying 12 sq. yards (including customer standing space) is occupying Rs. 10 L worth of Prime Public Property in Perpetuity lets dub it the “PPPP” mode.  Since there are so many of them in commercial areas their impact is huge. If you want to be a smart city, first be ruthless about taking back public spaces and our pavements.

A project to demonstrate our vision

A sample of a precinct retrofit could be to build a 20 floor RTC complex, the below ground and a few floors above ground could be allotted to basement parking, bus bays, and passenger terminals and access areas. A few floors in the middle could comprise shopping malls, economical transit lodges, recreational areas, canteens and the top few floors for medium cost offices.  Elevated pedestrian walkways from here could cross the street on the west and lead to a new revamped shopping area replacing the TSR complex and another pedestrian walkway to the South could lead to the “Central Park” green recreational area. With appropriate pricing, leasing and financing arrangements such a building will help decongest the nearby Dwarakanagar and Dabagardens commercial areas by sucking up the excess commercial activity from there. Once this is done the entire Dabagardens and Dwarakanagar area could be retrofitted proper roads and tree shaded pavements corridors that can be traversed by foot. Many of the residential buildings could go back to serve as apartment homes.

Repair and complete before building anew

Before we consider any new grandiose plans we must first complete all the incomplete projects including BRTS. It would be smarter to repair our roads, pavements and drains and retrofit the dying areas of our city. There is a smart city contest on. We must demonstrate our ability to infuse fresh life into asphyxiating portions of our once beautiful city from old town, to fishing harbour to Poorna market, to Dabagardens to Dwarakanagar. It would show that we are smart because we know how to make money go a longer way, it would demonstrate fiscal discipline and it would prove that renovating, repairing and retrofitting really works. Now, where did I keep that old record player my dad left me?