#dnaedit | Failing cities

With heavy rains exposing the fragile state of urban infrastructure in many cities across the country, it reveals the long road ahead for the Centre’s much–touted smart cities mission which promises to infuse a technological edge to urban development plan. On Thursday night and Friday, rain waters caused water logging and submerged major roads in Gurugram bringing life to a standstill in one of India’s newest cities. Water-logging and massive traffic congestion have also been reported from other major Indian cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai. While the problems of older cities where rain repeatedly causes havoc have been linked to legacy issues, what explains the plight of Gurugram, until recently known as Gurgaon, and often referred to as the Millennium City? The problems appear to be the same everywhere. Cities have come up without addressing basic infrastructure issues like water supply, drainage, solid waste management, and urban mobility.

What happened at Gurugram where motorists were stranded for several hours on roads is an instance where the entire infrastructure of the city – institutional, physical, social and economic – came to a grinding halt. Police personnel from the law and order or traffic departments were slow to react as the water logging began. Haryana chief minister ML Khattar blamed the neighbouring Delhi government for blocking a major canal that drains Gurugram but he was silent on the failure of state and civic authorities to take timely action and prompt Delhi to do the needful. Roads and drains — two vital aspects of a city’s physical infrastructure — were overstretched and created a domino effect. As far as social infrastructure goes, Gurugram has very little on that front to showcase. As major intersections in the city started choking, people were at a loss on how to respond. In countries like the US, during power failures at intersections where traffic signals do not work, it is an accepted social and driving norm to allow the first vehicles to reach the intersection pass while the others wait their turn. Such social behaviour or awareness is non-existent in India. Our traffic departments just do not have enough tow trucks or emergency rescue vehicles to assist cars stranded on roads. Street-level drainage ducts are intended only for water to flow but in India civic bodies spend considerable time desilting these drains. Often the silt is composed of solid non-degradable wastes dumped on roads. The Swacch Bharat Mission’s urban component initiated a celebrity-driven awareness campaign on keeping streets clean but it swiftly petered out. The solution to some of our urban planning woes can be found in public participation but it will require a certain amount of communitarian spirit and civic sense.

Social media was quick to attack the Haryana government for focusing on the optics of giving the city a new name without attempting to fix the woeful infrastructure. But in a city where the rich and middle class live behind gated communities, it is important to realise that paying taxes alone will not lead to better governance or better living conditions. Unless people take greater interest in municipal matters and demand greater devolution of funds, powers and responsibilities for municipal corporations including in matters of law and order, the idea of changing Indian cities from the top through schemes like the erstwhile Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission or the Smart Cities Mission is a non-starter. It is time to involve local communities in basic issues like waste management, traffic control and road design, but this will depend upon state governments relaxing its grip on cities and allowing them to run in a manner that satisfies the aspirations of the city’s residents.