| Subsequent to his appointment as Chairman, Technical Advisory Group (TAG) – Urban planning, the writer here tries to put together a theme paper for visualising and initiating a sustainable decentralised urban development model for Kerala state. |
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| Present scenario |
| The state receives Rs. 25,000 cr every year as remittances from Keralites abroad. Taking this as an opportunity, we have to try and devise an instrument which |
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Local bodies can adopt to improve infrastructure such as water supply, sanitation, transport, power etc. |
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Makes use of established land use instruments such as zoning, coverage and FAR to arrest speculation in land prices |
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is advantageous for genuine investors, the ethical among builders and the business community |
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Convenient for the middle class and caring for the EWS |
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Which preserves and enhances the environment |
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In short, provides a win-win situation for all. |
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| SDZ (Sustainable Development Zone) is a land use cum financial model which attempts to reach such a balanced solution. A city or town is divided into a number of SDZs depending on expected investment opportunity, present land use, population density, and carrying capacity of the land. A typical SDZ can be optimally designed to take a population increase of around 12000 people in the next 20 years. Constituents of SDZ include |
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| HDPC (High Density Pedestrianised Core) |
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The basic assumption in an HDPC is that all daily activities of at least 60% of the people in the core such as going to work, going to school, shopping for essentials, everyday essential services, recreation, sports and cultural facilities are all with in a walking distance of less than 500m. |
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To facilitate this, a mixed land use of residential, commercial and recreation spaces are given a high FAR of 5 or more, coverage of less than 25%, thus interspersed with large open spaces and playgrounds, with in this 500m distance. |
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Inside this compact core, there will be only bicycle (and tri-cycle for goods, handicapped or elderly persons) and pedestrian movement, making it automobile unfriendly. Ample parking facility will be provided in the periphery. |
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A typical 30 acre HDPC will have 12,000 people staying and around 3000 people working mostly in IT, ITES or similar commercial office based works. |
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30 to 50 acres with a maximum population of 15000, will be the optimum size for residential part of HDPC considering 500m walking distance as comfortable scale. If the economic activity of a particular HDPC demands more space, then size may have to be flexible to accommodate that activity. |
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| NDZ (No Development Zone) |
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Natural heritage features such as forests, wetlands, beaches and coastal areas, paddy fields, sacred groves, lakes, ponds etc. has to be conserved as No Development Zones. |
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Similarly built heritage areas should also be conserved as No Development Zones. |
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Owners of privately owned such areas will get compensation as development rights in HDPCs by a concept of Transfer of Development Rights. (TDR). |
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| EWS (Economic Weaker Section) Zone |
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Reasonably comfortable space for accommodation, recreation, education etc of the Economically Weaker Sections of the population has to be provided near their work places. |
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Considering 15% of the population belonging to EWS, land for built up area of an average of 75 sqft per person should be planned for, at 2 FAR. |
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| Service Areas
In a typical SDZ, the following services may need service areas. |
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Water tanks, pump houses and space for main lines of water supply. |
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Roads, foot paths, street lights and storm water lines. |
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Transformers, power stations, space for high tension lines and buffer zones. |
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Decentralized solid waste, sewage and liquid waste treatment / management areas and buffer zones. |
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Buffer zone for hazardous chemical storage and transfer. |
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In water scarce regions, it is advised that an SDZ be equipped with its own rain water harvesting reservoir to meet peak summer short fall. |
Parks, playgrounds and community open spaces can be in and around the HDPC in a typical SDZ.
Public spaces such as community halls, markets, bus stand, rail or mass transit stations etc. also will find its place in HDPCs. |
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| LDZ (Low Development Zone) |
| The rest of the areas in the SDZ will be demarcated as Low Development Zones with 1 FAR and less than 33% coverage. These will have |
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Villas with its own gardens and open spaces |
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Plant nurseries, automobile workshops and other small industries and enterprises which need land. |
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Religious institutions. |
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These areas will be encouraged to have maximum green cover, to harvest rain water, treat ones own solid and liquid wastes in own premises etc. by means of tax relaxations and other incentives. |
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Feeder buses with in an SDZ will all parts of SDZ to the HDPC from where mass transit lines or trunk buses will take commuters to more distant places. |
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| Advantages |
| The present central government initiated Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and large Technology parks will mean large concentration of work spaces alone in a comparative small area. This will mean long commuting distances for a large population, result in unplanned urban sprawl and multiplication of automobile users. World over, these three are now considered the big three evils of urban development.
Concept of SDZ is mooted as an alternative to SEZ. Advantages include |
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Improvement of Infrastructure
By selling developed HDPC land with high FAR to builders to develop as mid and high end housing and mixed use facilities, local bodies can meet the cost of |
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Purchase of land at market price for HDPC, for EWS housing, for service areas such as solid and liquid waste management, rain water storage reservoir, internal road widening, playgrounds and parks, buffer areas for hazardous chemical storage etc. |
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Actual capital expense for basic needs such as sewage treatment, solid waste treatment and disposal, critical water reservoir, essential drainage, water harvesting and tree planting in the whole of SDZ. |
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Top class infrastructure for HDPC such as good road link from main road, parking facilities all around and linkage with MRT lines |
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Conservation
With proper land use tools such as zoning and Transfer of Development Rights (TDR), natural heritage areas (such as mangroves, paddy fields, sacred groves, beach etc.) and built heritage areas can be conserved as no development zone (NDZ). By concept of TDR, those loosing out on development rights in their land in NDZ will get proportionate development rights in the HDPC with in that SDZ, which they can sell to developers in HDPC. |
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Urban planning
In an existing city, if three or four existing wards are combined together and declared as SDZ, and if proper mass transit systems such as elevated metro rail is laid, then it can arrest a) urban sprawl b) commuting distances and c) automobiles, these three being the biggest enemies of scientific urban planning. Life within an HDPC can be child friendly, elderly friendly and pollution free as there are no automobiles. Money does not get wasted in road widening, flyovers and petrol consumption with in a city. |
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Funding, investment and economic development
Local bodies, state government and town and country planning department does not have to go after central government or other infrastructure loans ( except for seed capital), as remittances from abroad will finance SDZs and enhance employment generation too. |
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Decentralisation of economy.
Declaration of small towns as an SDZ will help in decentralized growth. Local bodies will be able to plan their own SDZ as the constituents with the SDZ gets reasonably standardized, needing only little adaptations from place to place. Small towns can even compete with each other to attract investment in their SDZ. |
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Arrests speculation in land prices.
As high (5 or 6) FAR land will be consolidated and auctioned only by local bodies, private land speculators will have to content with low FAR lands. This will arrest land price speculation considerably. |
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| How to take this concept forward |
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Take an existing state government + private participation project (such as smart city, cybercity in HMT land etc.) as a case study in comparing SDZ and SEZ or Technology park concepts. Simultaneously take two or three other diverse areas too for case study. Document and put to public debate, the results of these case studies – which is expected to establish the clear advantages of SDZ for all sections of the population |
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Computerise all land records, and establish all natural heritage and built heritage areas for conservation. |
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Declare a cut off date from which existing building rules cease to apply and amend Kerala Building Rules (KBR) so as to bring FAR everywhere as 1, so as to establish level playing fields. |
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Demarcate physical boundaries of SDZs. |
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Get world standard designers to design and set guide lines for initial pilot SDZ designs, with local body and peoples' participation. |
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Train and strengthen local bodies with technical and managerial capabilities (perhaps an administrative cadre similar to IAS). |
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Initiate decentralised planning and implementation in all SDZs. |
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Case study
A case study including all technical and financial model of a 3.1 Sq.km area in Cochin Corporation region, if converted into an SDZ is available. |
