VIZAG matters - Sohan Hatangadi's Blog

Our beach road is already bursting at the seams. A once quiet place to enjoy the beauty of the sea and relax has become a 24X7 Mela. Loudspeakers blaring, protesters protesting, traffic crawling slowly, frequent traffic jams and the relentless press of humanity. We do not seem to understand the importance of quiet common areas. On one hand GVMC with chosen beach road development consultants are  working on plans to decongest our beach road and on the other hand bodies like VUDA and others are planning to take up a completely unnecessary project with our tax money.  There is no parking for the existing aircraft and submarine museum. Now we want to integrate the aircraft museum, the submarine museum and the Victory at Sea memorial at a humongous cost of Rs. 40 crores! Meanwhile really important jobs that have been pending for years are ignored. For example our tourism department cannot find a few lakhs to print tourist guides for the tourist season. The interpr...

VUDA'S BUDGET for this year appeared in the media last week. So many crores being spent on future projects. Not even small change for our valuable heritage buildings. Every one of our historical buildings is crumbling. For years our administration have made promises that they will take up repairs but NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS!!! Every glowing report in the papers is talking of the future. No one asks what happened to the hundreds of promises made every year. Meanwhile our histo ry becomes dust. In front of our eyes. I have dozens of stories of neglect and supreme apathy. On one hand we talk of being smart and on the other hand we are dumb enough to allow our history to vanish. WORLD HERITAGE DAY IS ON 18 APRIL 2018. This is a good time for Vizagites to raise their voices. And for our media to go beyond just reporting bulletins and ask the questions that matter. IF YOU CARE, PLEASE SHARE

World tourism day 2016 Times of India dated 25 September 2016 On 27 September, the world will celebrate World Tourism Day. You must wonder if this is just another one of those silly days like friendship day, cell phone day, ice cream day, pet day, beer drinking day, open defecation free day and so on. Does World Tourism Day have any real significance? If it does, what does it mean for us here in Vizag?   What UNWTO does The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has 157 countries as members plus several associate members, Affiliate Members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities.  They are responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable tourism worldwide. As the leading international organisation in the field of tourism, UNWTO promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmentally sustainable tourism. The organisation generates d...

My article in the Times of India dated 7 Feb 2016 How the International Fleet Review changed Vizag Our city has recently gone through a transformative change. Several parts of Vizag have gone from ugly to beautiful in a month. Encroachments have been cleared, greenery has been laid, walls have been painted, pavements have been tiled and the city has a clean new look. We must admit that Vizag has never ever looked so bright and shining. The challenge Getting an existing city like Vizag spruced up so quickly is not an easy job. Those of us who have got a house renovated realise that every work looks simple until we start. But then things go wrong. Workers don’t turn up, wrong materials are purchased, things break, unanticipated jobs crop up and the journey to completion is never smooth. Old parts of the city that has grown organically over many decades are never easy to fix. Plans were to be made, money had to come in quickly, contractors with adequate human and monetary reso...

Most of Vizag’s older residents lived in what we called “One Town” because the pin code for that area was simply “1”. While most parts of the old town were densely packed it also had several gracious old buildings like the recruiting office and officer’s accommodation that stood under the shade of massive banyan trees. The trees spread like an aerial city with sturdy roots supporting stout branches for hundreds of feet in all directions. Soldierpeta As the area was home to British soldiers it was also called “Soldierpeta”. In the 1960s and 70s when the port expanded its operations, coal and iron ore dust spread like a cancer over that part of town. Nice big structures were razed to the ground and slum like quarters sprang up everywhere. No one bothered about aesthetics and elegance; someone just pointed at the ground and simply said “build here” and that was it. Consequently from being the pulsating heart of Vizag it went to a scar that no one bothered to heal. The charac...

Click on this link or read the document below VUDA Version 3, is bigger better? VUDA version 3 Sohan Hatangadi Appeared on 23 Aug 2015 You may have heard that the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) is soon to become Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Development Authority (VMDA). Somehow the word “Vuda” had a nice ring to it. It sounded much like that wonderful snack, with a hole in the middle and a loyal partner of the humble idly. How easily “Vuda” rolled off the tongue. Now we have to deal with this completely unpronounceable word VMDA! Try pronouncing that word … “vamda, vumda, vmda” … gosh, there is no easy way to say it; we must get accustomed to say it alphabet wise “Vee, Em, Dee, Ay”. Genesis VUDA started out as the “Town Planning Trust” way back in 1962. Vizagites perceived it as a benevolent organization with the objective of planned development and housing and infrastructure in Vizag. Old timers remember that the TPT had a fair reputation for deve...

Vizag’s dirty secret Nallah nostalgia Storm water drains form naturally over time when rain water runs-off the land towards slopes. We also call them “nallahs” or “geddas”. Vizag has hillocks on three sides and a sea on one side. It is natural that all the rain water to gush quite quickly down the slopes and into the sea. Along the way the storm water gathered in some of the low lying areas forming natural reservoirs before making its way to the sea. Vizag always had an excellent natural storm water drainage system. A survey of India map of Vizag in 1929 shows that we had 31 km of storm water drains within the smaller Vizag at that time and 300 acres of water bodies that these storm water drains drained into. Fascinating ecosystem This system of natural storm water drains was an ecological wonderland. Tall grass grew all along the nallahs and played host to myriad creatures. At the bottom of the food chain were the worms, grasshoppers, mantis, tadpoles, frogs, snai...

Being practical is being smart Published in The Times of India on 21st December 2014 Every morning our heart leaps with joy when we read about the wondrous developments that are planned for Vizag. Apparently we are going to be a smart city. The mental imagery of this idea is quite enticing. I can visualize eager young executives riding gleaming Metro coaches and the BRTS to work and back. Stylish hospitals delivering babies, who go to smart schools and universities, get qualified, and go on to work in factories and ITES companies. Tourists descending on Vizag and spend bushels of money, they go swimming, wind surfing and sun bathing in swim suits. Our elderly, fortified by excellent health services, sit at the beach (with their binoculars, ensuring that the sun bathers in swim suits are safe). All citizens living in clean green living spaces with parks and houses like in Singapore. Children play in the park and the sound of their laughter permeates the air. What a glorious wonder...

Hello again Please read my article that appeared in the Times of India last Sunday titled "What's your civic quotient?". I am pasting the image below as it appeared in the press, but am also pasting the word document below which you may find easier to read. Please take a moment to comment on the blog or directly to me at sohan.hatangadi@gmail.com Dodging bricks Many decades ago, on my way to school, I encountered a wall being constructed across the dirt path I took every day. On the wall was a mason, puffing a chutta (local cigar), as he laid bricks. Being a latent activist, I was upset by the obstruction and asked why the wall was being built there. He looked down on me kindly. Something in my chubby, inquiring face must have touched him. He threw a brick at me! Thanks to my quick reflexes honed by dodging assorted missiles in class, the brick missed but I learnt an important lesson. If we ask inconvenient questions, we must be adept at dodging a brick or two....

This was the article as it appeared in the newspaper As I drive around Vizag, I am quite convinced that there is a shadowy group of experts, secretly meeting in an underground control centre somewhere, to work out how to create complete chaos on Vizag roads. They sit in a dimly lit room, around a table, faces lit up by large monitors showing road maps and traffic data. They are busy working out how to design roads to create daily disorder, continuous confusion, terrible turmoil, permanent pandemonium, maximum mayhem and … well you get the point.  Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the secret underground “Chaos Club”. This club, comprising members of local administration, which I cannot name due to the secret nature of their work, has succeeded in permanently fouling up traffic at the infamous Gajuwaka, NAD Kotha Road and Sathyam junctions. They have ensured that those junctions will drive drivers crazy in perpetuity. At Aseelmetta this secret group has ensured that o...