-
Latest
Feedback
Mailto: krc12353 [at] gmail.comAbout me
I am a lapsed engineer from here, and an aspiring city planner from here.
My tweets
- Taming street-people: India's grand civilizational project: wp.me/pZUdv-54 1 year ago
- How much more should we give up for parking?: wp.me/pZUdv-4U 1 year ago
- Models of parking provision in urban India: wp.me/pZUdv-4E 1 year ago
- On expertise and public participation | India lives in her cities too! http://wp.me/pZUdv-4x 2 years ago
- Review: Urban Mobility India 2010: wp.me/p15YEC-cH 2 years ago
Archives
- December 2012 (1)
- July 2011 (2)
- June 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (1)
- November 2010 (3)
- October 2010 (2)
- September 2010 (3)
- August 2010 (3)
- July 2010 (12)
Reading now
The politics of the Urban Poor in early 20th century India
RSS Feeds
Blogroll
Search
Categories
- Aizawl (2)
- Bangalore (5)
- Chennai (3)
- China (1)
- Climate Change (1)
- Mitigation (1)
- Delhi (9)
- Environmental Assessment (3)
- Air-conditioning (1)
- Flood Mitigation (1)
- urban heat islands (1)
- Equity in Planning (5)
- Governance (7)
- International Politics (1)
- Local Government (3)
- Metropolitan Government (2)
- Participatory Planning (2)
- Transparency (1)
- History (1)
- homeless persons (2)
- How do cities work? (2)
- Indian National Movement (1)
- Indore (1)
- Informality (2)
- Land-use Planning (2)
- Suburbs (2)
- Maldives (1)
- Master Plans (1)
- Mumbai (14)
- Navi Mumbai (3)
- Needs Assessment (8)
- Cycling needs (2)
- Needs of the poor (6)
- Pedestrian Needs (3)
- New Towns (2)
- New York City (1)
- Planning History (2)
- Planning in Context (3)
- Ranchi (1)
- Rehabilitation (1)
- security (1)
- Slums (1)
- social spaces (2)
- Street Vendors (5)
- Transportation Planning (17)
- Airport (2)
- Automobiles (1)
- Bike-renting (2)
- Bus Rapid Transit (1)
- Buses (2)
- Car-free streets (3)
- Congestion Taxes (2)
- Cycle lanes (2)
- Cycle Rickshaws (1)
- Footpaths (1)
- Gasoline Taxes (2)
- Highways (4)
- Induced Demand (2)
- Licenses (1)
- Metro (2)
- Park-n-ride (2)
- Parking (4)
- Road Widening (1)
- Safety (3)
- Sea-links (1)
- Skywalk (4)
- Suburban Rail (4)
- Water Transport (1)
- Uncategorized (4)
- United States (2)
- Utopias (2)
- Free markets (1)
- Libertarianism (1)
- Yamuna Floodplain (1)
Monthly Archives: July 2010
So much for transparency…
In Delhi, after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) reported scams worth 20 crore rupees in construction projects for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, the Delhi Chief Minister has passed a “gag order” on her colleagues in the cabinet to keep the … Continue reading
Mind your own business, Mr. Patil!
“Miffed at the way things have been handled by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) regarding the numerous potholes on city roads, Mumbai guardian minister Jayant Patil decided to take some officials concerned on ride in his car.” Continue reading
Air-conditioning in transit: A Third-World perspective
If air-conditioning is to be seen as only a culturally-induced necessity, then enforcing it on third-world countries seems to suggest a degree of cultural imperialism that should not go unchallenged. Indians live in a social environment that is vastly different from that of the West. Most commuters do not have air-conditioning either at home or at work – for many slum-dwellers, even an electricity connection is a luxury. They do try to alter their environments to help cope with the heat – common methods are to have high ceilings for better ventilation or to sprinklewater on the roof. But their methods remain ‘passive’, and still require a degree of adaptation by the human body. Continue reading
Posted in Air-conditioning, Bangalore, Mumbai, Needs of the poor, Planning in Context, urban heat islands
Tagged air-conditioning, BMTC, urban heat islands, Volvo
15 Comments
Road widening and the structure of local governance
The constitution envisions a highly decentralized and democratic form of local governance, whereas current practice is quite autocratic and centralized. Bharatlal Meena’s attempts to thwart democracy are mere symptoms of a deeper malaise in the entire system of governance. Continue reading
Posted in Bangalore, Governance, Local Government, Metropolitan Government, Road Widening, Transportation Planning
Tagged 74th Amendment, BBMP, BDA, Bharatlal Meena
1 Comment
What’s Mumbai been upto?
The past month seems to have been a busy month for transportation planners in Mumbai. Here’s a quick round up of what’s going on (with only limited commentary on my part). Continue reading
Posted in Airport, Environmental Assessment, Metro, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Park-n-ride, Sea-links, Skywalk, Suburban Rail, Transportation Planning, Water Transport
Tagged Bandra-Worli Sea-link, MSRDC, Mumbai Metro, MUTP, Navi Mumbai Airport, Trans-harbour sea-link, Worli - Haji Ali Sea-link
Leave a comment
Transportation in the United States: An open letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Mr. Chavan, USA is just beginning to realize that there are big flaws in the way it has planned its transportation infrastructure. These mistakes have resulted in huge petroleum imports that drain USA’s exchequer, in a greenhouse gas footprint that threatens the survival of the human species, in an infrastructure demand that helps no one but the contractors who build the infrastructure, and in the all-round destruction of America’s oldest cities. That is the “world-class” transportation infrastructure that you seek to emulate. Continue reading
Posted in Bike-renting, Bus Rapid Transit, Buses, Car-free streets, Congestion Taxes, Cycle lanes, Cycling needs, Equity in Planning, Footpaths, Governance, Highways, How do cities work?, Land-use Planning, Mumbai, Needs Assessment, Needs of the poor, Participatory Planning, Pedestrian Needs, Planning in Context, Suburban Rail, Suburbs, Transportation Planning, United States
Tagged Ashok Chavan, Bandra-Worli Sea-link, Camden, FreMo, Janmarg, Mulund, New Jersey, NJ Transit, Thane, Western Suburbs, Worli Koliwada
50 Comments
Book Review – Slumming India: A chronicle of slums and their saviours
Slumming India by Gita Dewan Verma is an attempt to make sense of some of the most baffling conflicts surrounding urban slums in the 1990s and early 2000s. In such issues, the maze of allegations and counter-allegations is incredibly deceptive, and even intelligent people are prone to losing track. Verma tries – and arguably succeeds – in untangling the strands and providing the reader with some clarity on the subject. Employing Orwellian satire and Chomskyian matter-of-factness in equal measure, Verma weaves an intricate pattern that explains how, despite more than half a century of planning in India, slums have thrived, feeding on the despair of their residents. Continue reading
Navi Mumbai: Retrofitting a “planned” city
In some sense, Navi Mumbai is just another suburb of Mumbai, but in some other ways, Navi Mumbai is the solution to Mumbai’s problems. Navi Mumbai has a mandate to attract persons from Mumbai and reduce the congestion and over-crowding there. But to achieve that, it needs to make the daily trip to work cheaper and less time-consuming. Continue reading
