ReWire

Manthan Topic: Future Cities

Hidayatullah National Law University Raipur

Akshay Shandilya Shaleen Tiwari Subhro Bhattacharya Piyush Singh Mahip Singh Sikarwar

Green Cities: Making Sense of a Better Future

Current performances of Indian cities are poor in ensuring basic civic amenities

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Housing

Transport

Air Quality

Water Supply

Waste Management

Air pollution levels in Indian megacities between 02’-10’ were the highest among 189 major cities in the world

63,000 Tonnes of plastic waste per day are neither collected nor recycled and find their way into drains, coasts rivers and railway tracks

India faced a loss of US$ 10.8 billion due to traffic congestion and slow speed of freight goods in 11’-12’

By 2025, nearly half a billion Indians will need new, urban homes as city capacity will grow nearly 400% in less than 50 years

By 2050, India will be the highest water demanding country in the world requiring 2413 billion litres/day Classification for the purposes of policy

Population (In million)

Tier I cities (>10 mn)

Tier II cities (4-10 mn)

Tier III Cities (1-4 mn)

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Unbalanced Emphasis on Construction

Antediluvian Planning Norms

Neglect for Common Spaces

Want of PPP

based projects

Lack of Focus on Service

Standards

An Unsound Housing Sector

Eg. In the scenario of a modern day Delhi this would imply, for instance, that a Government housing colony like RK Puram could be replaced by efficient eco friendly modern tower blocks, financed by the private sector, with the availability and quality of Government housing improving dramatically

Imagine a situation where large tracts of low density, poor quality Government housing were selectively replaced by high quality housing with a plot FSI/FAR of 5 or 7, at no cost to the Government

An “equitable” Land Acquisition Act will result in the creation of fresh housing stock, without it being largely a private sector activity with minimal contribution to affordable housing

A more equitable and just land acquisition law to make declaration and enforcement of change in land use mandatory prior to a State mandated acquisition process

Urban Housing

Obsolete

Approach

Future Approach

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Implications

• State leverages its stock of land to augment the housing stock. Creates quality housing for Government employees; balance for private developers focused on affordable housing. Economic upside would lower house prices, boost economic activity with a surge in housing activity.

•Singapore HDB (Housing Development Board) encompasses housing for all categories in the same complex, thereby, precluding the creation of ghettos, slums

New Urbanism:

Eco-Friendly

Housing

Illustrations

• Creating extra margins via improved productivity by overcoming management and logistical bottlenecks, we can encourage sustainable sourcing, effective use of materials and recyclability throughout the production chain, ensuring that developers use the materials they bring to building sites and that no streams of waste are transferred to landfills

• Some organizations that are engaging in this area include BRAC (increasing access to a range of water, sanitation, and hygiene services); d.light (widening electricity access); Sunlabob (renewable energy and clean water solutions).

• SELCO (internal and external solar heating); Sulabh International (toilets linked with a biogas plants and effluent treatment systems), and Promigas (natural gas service connections)

Proposals: Augmenting Feasible Housing Adopting environmental sustainability (in a sector where such practice currently stands virtually at 0)

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Urban Traffic Management

•Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) be set up in Tier I & II cities

•Traffic Management and Engineering Cell (TRAMEC), all manned by trained Urban Transport professionals, be set up in Tier III cities

Managing Traffic Congestion

•Parking policies to indirectly manage access to road network & directly influencing road travel in city limits

•Road pricing policies targeting use of/or access to roads/urban areas

Affordably Accessible Public Transport

•Rate structure to suit travel demands of low income households

•High capacity metro system cities to also have feeder buses with priority on-street facilities

Viable Roadways

•High speed road network to connect financial sectors of South – Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai

•Lanes for non-motorized transport and walking in Tier I & II cities

Future cities to inculcate efficient traffic management

Metro rail systems in

Tier I & II cities

To have carrying capacity of 40,000 –

60,000 persons per hour per direction (pphpd)

Will reduce time of travel, personal transport use, traffic congestion, pollution and road

traffic crashes

6 Hybrid Transport NUTP

Old Tires Recycle

Execution of National Urban Transport Policy with planned budget of Rupees 10 billion for making future cities sustainable

Investment in hybrid transport CNG-Electric hybrid buses to improve cities' public green quotient

Environmental laws be amended to ban burying and burning of old tires Available capacity for procured tires retreading is approx. 9.3 million tires per year

Asphalt that uses recycled tires makes roads easier to brake on, is environment friendly and cost effective Recycling these tires to construct/repair roads will reduce carbon footprint hugely

Implementing sustainable transport system

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1. India's air monitoring

regime is primitive

2. Cannot deal with toxic gases

3. Notification of health-based and legally enforceable standards for toxic gases in ambient air to be fast-tracked

1. EURO V for diesel &

petrol vehicles in Tier I

& II cities

2. EURO IV in Tier III

cities

3. Diesel cars be phased

out from city limits in

the next 10 years

1. Fuel efficiency of

vehicles to carry BFE

(Bureau of Fuel

Efficiency) rating

system similar to BEE

rating system

2. Financial incentives for

hybrid-electric vehicles

Air Quality Regime Fuel Efficiency Banning Old Vehicles

1. Old Commercial

vehicles be banned in

city limits

2. Scrappage program

from buses and trucks

that don’t have any

emissions controls on

them

Vehicular Emissions

Ambient air quality will enhance productivity and livability

be substituted with

Govt. owned/public transport vehicles be made mandatory to use clean fuels such as CNG

• GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) be made mandatory under the National Building Code

• Scheme on construction of pollution free “Energy Efficient Green Buildings” through financial & promotional incentives

Green Buildings

• Incentivise states for environmental performance through budgetary allocations

• List of categories for EPI be amended to include “carbon monoxide” and “carbon dioxide” as variables

Environment Performance Index

(EPI)

• Upward revision in the quantum of penalties

• Enabling provision for civil administrative adjudication to fast-track levy of penalty

Quantum of Penalties

(Environment Protection Act ‘86)

Revenue to be invested in sustainable development practices and pollution

control measures

Pollution will be costly in future cities

Outdoor air pollution has become the fifth largest killer in India

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Mandatory Rain Water Harvesting

Leakage in Distribution

Better Treatment Facilities and Sanitation

• Bylaws to make rainwater harvesting mandatory in residential buildings, offices and commercial complexes

• Prevent run-off of rain water and ensure maximum rain water collection

• 40% - 50% of portable water is lost during transmission

• Check the same by repairing the existing transmission systems, reducing the procurement of water from far off sources and using local sources

• Integrated waste water management to ensure maximum utilization of waste water and its reallocation for landscaping

• Residential/office buildings to have their individual self-sustaining waste treatment plants

Water resources will be utilized judiciously in future cities

Packaging Waste

• Packaged waste management system with participation of all stakeholders

• Quantification & characterization of non-plastic packaging waste reaching landfill be carried out

• Their recycling potential be assessed with most recent tech

E-Waste

• Port Auth./Customs capability in terms of scanning of goods at high seas be ↑

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) – strategy that makes producer responsible for entire life cycle of product

• Govt. to ensure distribution of refurbished computers to students

Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste

• Technical and institutional support for good data analysis and for evolving means for use of C&D waste

• Amendment be made in the MSWM Rules, 2000 to include C&D waste

Bio-Medical Waste

• All Health Care Facilities (HCFs) be brought under the ambit of BMWM Rules

• All HCFs in operation be registered with the State/UT Deptt. of Health/ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Domestic Waste Treatment

• Urban residential buildings to have three waste chutes to allow for separation into three main waste categories

• A Waste Management Centre (WMC) to sort recyclables before being transported to reprocessing units

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Future cities will be self sustaining in waste management

Municipal Solid Waste

Management

• Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 be amended to incorporate waste reducing, reusing and recycling methods

• National and State level Data Banks to disseminate information on characteristics of waste generated, potential for segregation, reuse, recycling and management of MSW

Plastic Waste Management

• Plastic bags be banned strictly in all Tier I & II cities and gradually phased out from Tier III cities

• Capacity building for segregation of plastic waste at collection sites and safe handling by rag pickers in Tier III cities

• Demonstration units be set up based on the technologies of converting plastic waste into value added products

• Channelizing the waste collection through waste collectors’ associations who practice safe and environmentally sound options

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Disposal will be the least preferred option

Minimise waste disposal to

landfill

Encouraging Reuse,

Recycling, Composting and

Recovery of energy

Maximising the resource

potential of waste materials

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References

• KPMG, Infrastrcuture 100: World Cities Edition

• Volume 2 Transport infrastructure — Engine or hand brake for global supply chains? Transportation and

Logistics 2030

• Water and Energy Framework and Footprints for Sustainable Communities

• Transitioning to Water Sensitive Cities: Historical, Current and Future Transition States

Rebekah Brown, Nina Keath and Tony Wong, National Urban Water Governance Program, School of

Geography & Environmental Science, Monash University, Victoria, Australia

• Urban Water and Energy Use From Current US Use to Cities of the Future-Vladimir Novotny, Northeastern

University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Centre for Policy Research, Unacknowledged Urbanization: The New Census Towns of India.

• Solutions for Cities: An analysis of the feasibility studies from the Future Cities Demonstrator Programme

• Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017): Faster, More Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

• International Council on Clean Transportation, The Potential of Lower Vehicular Emissions in Indian Cities