At a time when cities witnessing unbridled urban sprawls are tapping into sustainable and strategic planning, the Guntur Municipal Corporation too has taken a leaf out of many tier-1 and tier-2 cities, and is now using the expertise from urban planners to form sustainable strategies.
A team of urban planners from the United Nations Human Settlement Programme, working in areas of human settlement and sustainable development, has come up with a blueprint for the development of the city.
The Sustainable Cities Integrated Pilot project for Guntur has come up with several interesting findings that could be used in urban planning and in making of zonal master plans to meet the rising demand.
The team presented its findings to Municipal Commissioner C. Anuradha on Tuesday and has come up with broad issues identified during the survey done in the city. The findings are glaring and demand attention.
Inadequate public green spaces, conservation of water bodies, sprawling and scattered growth patterns, poor public transport system and multiple deprivation in informal settlements (slums) are among the key issues identified during the survey.
The survey has revealed that 45% of the city’s population has access to organised public parks, while the open space per capita is just around 0.92 sq. m as against the bench mark of 10-12 sq. m. The recreational and open space areas out of total development areas is 1% as against the recommended 15%.
Water bodies
The encroachment of water bodies has emerged as a major concern. The city of Guntur derives its name from the abundant water tanks (guntalu), and there were about 50 water tanks in the past. Presently, the area under water bodies is just 3.3% of the total area (416.65 ha) and about 30% of water bodies are encroached. Guntur is one among 256 water stressed districts (overexploited ground water levels) in India under Jal Shakti Abhiyan Mission.
There are few policies aimed at conservation of water bodies, such as, AP Building Rules 2017 that provides for buffer zone of 5% in every plot above 750 sq.m to be developed as open space, AMRUT 2.0/Jal Jeevan Misson, Jagananna Pacha Thoranam, Swachh Bharat Mission, but they exist only on paper and little is done on the ground.
The second issue is a scattered and sprawling growth pattern with development focussed on corridors in north, northeast and west (Ribbon development), inadequate service coverage and loss of agricultural land and presence of a large extent of vacant land.
The third issue to be flagged is the poor public transport system. The city which does not have a formal public transport system relies on autorickshaws resulting in greenhouse gas emissions.
Suggestions
The suggestions included, re-densification of areas witnessing growth, by encouraging nodal development along the Ribbon corridors, reducing travel to city centres, provision of public transport system and creating employment opportunities near areas experiencing growth and proposed housing layouts, creating economic activity.
“We have been working in an urban planning module in Guntur for over a year and we will come out with a complete report within a month. We hope that the GMC would use the findings and prepare a road map for sustainable development,” said Sajith, a team member of UN Habitat.
