EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF URBAN RENEWAL IN THE INDIAN CONTEXT

PREETI ONKARLecturer, Department of Architecture and Planning, MANIT Bhopal

DR. KRISHNA KUMAR DHOTEAssistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, MANIT Bhopal

DR. ASHUTOSH SHARMAProfessor,HoD and Dean Admin, Department of Architecture and Planning, MANIT Bhopal

ABSTRACT

Transformation is the single most consistent factor in the life of a city. How to control or direct transformations to get the bestcombination of benefits from renewal and redevelopment is perpetual issue for the planners, as how to decide for the spatialsustainability as per its available potentials, they are also dynamic in nature and inevitable for change. The prevailing planning systememphasizes mostly on the future planning and development of urban areas by acquisition of land and does not address distinctly theproblems of existing cities. Because, planning in India has followed the western role models of technocratic planning. Technocraticplanning is now obsolete, and that planning tools have not been able to contain growth in sustainable ways. In India there is anamazing amalgamation of infrastructure from several centuries in the form of haphazardly built layers of urban fabric under which thecommon urbanite of India feels suffocated and crushed. Unlike their western counterparts the Indian urban settlements never hadthe fortune (or the misfortune) of being reduced as ruins of war and thereby necessitating the need for fresh development andrenewal. The paper attempts to highlight the understanding of the concept of urban renewal.

1. INTRODUCTION

Every city is affected by trends of transformations

or the process of change. The term decline in the

context of urban development is used to describe

undesirable changes. Local policies and strategies

designed to deal with urban decline, decay or

transformation are termed as urban renewal.

Roberts and Sykes (2000) state that ‘Urban

renewal can be defined as a comprehensive and

integrated vision and action which leads to the

resolution of urban problems and which seeks to

bring about a lasting improvement in the

economic, physical, social and environmental

conditions of an area that has been subject to

change’. In Eurocities (1996) it is noted that urban

renewal is about the sustainable development of

cities which is holistic in approach, and targeted

at economic and cultural redevelopment, social

cohesion and physical rehabilitation of cities.

2. DIMENSIONS OF URBAN RENEWAL

Different definitions given by planners,

academicians and researchers aim at sustainability

by integrating the different dimensions of urban

renewal. These are:

• Physical renewal leads to improvement of

urban fabric;

• Social renewal leads to improvement of

community and housing;

• Cultural renewal promotes enhancement of

culture and traditions;

• Economic renewal leads to new generation of

employment and revenue; and

• Environmental renewal leads to minimizing

ecological imbalances in urban environment

Urban renewal is a dynamic term, which is evolved

with reference to transformations of city and its

economy. It refers to the various attempts to

reverse the decline in cities that have been worst

hit by the capitalist urbanization.

Most of the cities have large blighted areas, with

severe stress on the existing, aged infrastructure

and services. Many of them have lost businesses,

and are functioning at sub-optimal productivity

levels. Notwithstanding the valuable land on which

such areas stand, they contribute little to city

finances. Maintaining them in their present state

without any returns has become a liability.

It is important also to recognize that renewal

embraces more holistic perspectives such as

economic and social improvement. Urban renewal

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Fig. 1 Dimensions of Urban Renewal

seeks ways to improve disadvantaged places andthe lives of people who live and work there.Regeneration and renewal activities are varied andmay reflect joined-up holistic or relatively lessintegrated programmes of physical, social andeconomic change.

3. CHANGING PERSPECTIVES OF

URBAN RENEWAL

Urban renewal is controversial, as it often impliesthe use of eminent domain law to enforcereclaiming private property for civic projects.While envisioned as a way to redevelop residentialslums and blighted commercial areas, ‘renewal’often resulted in the creation of urban sprawl -vast areas being demolished and replaced byfreeways and expressways, housing projects, andvacant lots - some of which remained vacant atthe beginning of the 21st century. Urban renewalwas widely resisted by movements of residents ofUS in it is the then contemporary form. In 1961the book ‘The Death and Life of Great AmericanCities’ by Jane Jacobs led to organizedmovements to oppose urban renewal.

While renewal projects did revitalize many cities, itwas often at a high cost to existing communities,and in many cases simply resulted in thedestruction of vibrant - if run down -neighborhoods. Urban renewal in its original formhas been called a failure by many urban plannersand civic leaders, and has since been reformulatedwith a focus on redevelopment of existingcommunities. However, many cities link therevitalization of the central business district andgentrification of residential neighborhoods to earlierurban renewal programs. Over time, urban renewal

evolved into a policy based less on destructionand more on renovation and investment, andtoday is an integral part of many localgovernments, often combined with small and bigbusiness incentives.

Urban renewal has become a multi-dimensionaltask. Whilst traditionally urban renewal in Europewas mainly concerned with physical improvement,over time the aims and the means of regenerationhave become multi-faceted and more complexto deal with. They integrate different sectors andactors on several levels and contexts, combiningphysical investment in ‘hardware’ with investmentin the social ‘software’ of a neighborhood. It isagainst in this background that partnership ledregeneration becomes pivotal.

Cases and experience suggests strongly that anew set of regeneration aim is emerging thatreflects the objectives to integrate ‘people,business and place’ and bring about appropriatepolicies to achieve this aim. They are embeddedin wider city and national aims and strategies; theypromote the objective of community capacitybuilding and aim at delivering tangible changes andexploit the geographical competitiveness of theneighborhood in the long run.

As urban renewal is becoming a multi-dimensionaltask it not only integrates various dimensions ofurban development. It also has to manage tensionsand conflicts between them. In order to balancethe occurring ambiguities, urban renewal policiesoften work with a hierarchical system of primaryand secondary aims – the more aims there are,the more important is the need to prioritize aims.In some cases, at the local level there are effortsto make this agenda setting more transparentand more based on democratic processes.

Traditional physical approaches to urban renewalwere mainly concerned with outputs. They wereconceived in a static fashion as objectives to beachieved: to improve the physical environment.The new integrated approaches are much moreconcerned with processes of neighborhooddevelopment themselves. They are flexible andsee the renewal process as a learning system.

Renewal is being redefined yet again, this timefitting into a politics concerned with social inclusion.

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Fig. 3 Conceptual Framework of Urban Renewal: Indian interpretation

Fig. 2 Paradigm Shifts: Concept of Urban Renewal in Developed and Developing Nations.

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Period 1950’s 1960’s 1970’s 1980’s 1990’s 1990’s to date

Policy Type

Major strategy Reconstruction Continuation Focus on Many major Move towards Focus on urban

and orientation and extension with some institutional schemes of a more living qualityof older areas early attempts and development comprehensive

of towns and of neighborhood and form of policy

cities often rehabilitation schemes in redevelopment and practicebased on a continuation to projects more emphasis

Master Plan, development on integrated

suburban of peripheries treatments

growth

Key actors National and Move towards Growing role Emphasis on Devolution of Public privateand stake local a greater of private private sector power to the partnership,

holders government balance sector and and special local Governments,

private sector between decentralization agencies, authorities. semi publicdevelopers public and of local growth of Community

private sectors government partnership empowerment

Spatial Local and site Regional level Local Site level Strategic City andactivity level and activity emphasis perspective, regional level

level emerged growth of

regional activity

Economic Public sector Private Economic Private sector Greater Private sector

focus investment investment renewal dominant with balance taxation

with some Resource selective public public,

private sector constraints in funds private and

involvement public sector voluntary

and growth of funding

private

investment

Social Improvement Social and Community Community Emphasis Emergence of

context and housing welfare based action self help with on the role of new social

and living improvement and greater very selective community organization,

standards empowerment state support, community

High rise participation

housing for

displaced

citizens

Became centers

of social ills

Physical Replacement Rehabilitation More extensive Major Heritage and Revitalization,

context of inner areas of existing renewal of schemes or retention comprehensive

and peripheral areas older urban replacement renewal

development areas and new

Gentrification development

in UK

Environmental Landscaping Selective Environmental Growth of Introduction Environmental

approach and some improvements improvement concern for of broader sustainability

greenery with some wider idea of impactinnovation approach to environmental assessments.

environment sustainability

Table 1 Evolution of Urban Renewal

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It seems to recognize that there is such a thing ascommunities and that these communities,damaged by deindustrialization and neglect, needhelp. It is not socialism and certainly not municipalsocialism, the pressure is on local government tosupport, not dictate to, local people. If there is a‘third way’ it might be found in the best of therenewal initiatives.

4. URBAN RENEWAL IN INDIAN

CONTEXT

Indian cities in history emerged with two primarycharacteristics first - a high density of populationconcentrated within a limited space and second apredominantly nonagricultural, particularly non-cultivating occupation of these people (Amos andHawley, 1971). Indians by and large have beennature oriented rather than city oriented. Thereport of the National Commission on Urbanization(National Commission on Urbanization ReportsVolume - II, 1988) made commendable proposalsto change the paradigm of urban planning tobecome more responsive to the existing urbancondition, but without success.

Indian experience of urban renewal is fairly recent,though several cities, particularly metropolises,have been attempting to tackle the problem ofdecline and dilapidation through ad-hoc initiatives.In diverse and complex nature of Indian society,problems are different, contexts differ, needschange, and therefore, policies and programmeto deal with each city and town would also differ.For example, urban renewal of Jaipur city wouldbe conservation and restoration of its culturalheritage of being a pink city while in Delhi it wouldbe of effective use of traditional core areas or inCalcutta it would revolve around the phenomenonof bastis as providing ameliorative measures.Basically it can be at macro level like redevelopmentof inner city core or at micro scale like trafficoperation plan, conservation of old buildings andup gradation of services, depending upon thecharacter or issues of town or a city.

There is absence of holistic and integratedapproach in understanding the term urbanrenewal. The six dimensions of urban renewalshould be integrated focusing at quality of life. Theprevailing planning tool, master plan, does notincorporate the integrated concept of renewal.

The concept of renewal was restricted toconservation of heritage sites in early master planof metro cities. No specific efforts were made fordevelopment of heritage zones. Even the presenturban renewal mission is more inclined towardsprovision of infrastructure rather than renewal.The redevelopment is taking place only on theprime locations of the cities occupied by slumswithout proper social and economic interventionsresulting into displacement of slums.

5. CONCLUSIONS

For the success of any planning, diagnosis andmeasurement of urban health is a prerequisite.Unfortunately there is no scale for measuringurban decline, urban stress or deprivation whichdo not alarm when the city reaches the threshold.There is a need to establish causal relationship andcorrelation between the six dimensions of urbanrenewal. This can be achieved by further breakingup each dimension in the form of indicators whichcan be measured and scaled quantitatively as wellas qualitatively.

Proper understanding of the concept of urbanrenewal we can target changing problem spacesto opportunity spaces. In Long term perspectiveof the cities can manage to grow old gracefully.

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