The latecomer advantage

We only need to modify solutions that have been used before for improving the infrastructure of cities but all residents have to work together

September 26, 2014 07:11 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:46 pm IST

Bimal Patel

Bimal Patel

In a freewheeling chat during the MASA convention, architect and planner Bimal Patel speaks to Suchitra Deep about his ideas on how to transform our cities.

Question: What improvements need to be initiated in our cities today?

Answer: Architects might do great buildings but it’s the space between the buildings that make a difference, and that needs to be fixed. Buildings themselves need to work together instead of everybody doing their own thing. We need to make our cities more liveable, more efficient. We need good governance and administration, but more importantly, good cities come from good societies, when the people in the city all work together to make it better.

How are the problems different today, from say, the times when these towns developed?

When you have 2-3 million people living jampacked in an industrial city, you will have very different problems. No society has ever tackled a challenge like this before 300 years. When Indians get disheartened they must look at images of London or New York in the 19 century! London was in a much worse state 150 years ago and it took them three generations to fix theirs, and now, we will fix ours!

But they had the advantage of colonial wealth…

Yes, you are right, but we have the latecomers’ advantage. We only need to modify solutions that have been used before. Remember that when London urbanised, nobody knew that germs caused disease! Look at the handicap that the lack of knowledge and being a ‘first comer’ brings you, and play it off against the fact that they had the wealth and the self-confidence. We need that self-confidence.

Do you see these changes happening in our cities now?

Yes, of course! We crossed a big threshold when we did the Sabarmati riverfront project and with the PM touting the project everywhere, it does so much for building up the confidence that you can do something! But we have to learn how to work in these projects and it’s the same learning curve that you will have in any place.

We cannot sit back and say “I want a red carpet and people should call me.” The other problem is that even when there is the political will, the government does not have the managerial support to convert political will into an action programme. On the other side, in the private sector, we have huge managerial capacity. So we need to bring the two together.

What do you see as the critical prerequisites for such projects to come to fruition?

It is a three-point formula. Firstly, costs and benefits should be distributed such that everybody has some benefit. It should appear to be fair to a large section of people.

Second, the project must be self-financed. When you say that “I will make you money, and then I will use the money to do this,” everybody says, “Sure, go ahead!” Thirdly, we have to figure out how to manage it.

A project has to be like a group portrait, which everyone can relate to and be proud of. That is what the riverfront project does. It’s as simple as that.

So you are optimistic about the future of our cities?

Absolutely! Ten years ago, nobody was willing to talk about cities. Today in a real estate fair that is going on in Ahmedabad, we have put up views of the proposed CBD (Central Business District) that are 18 ft. across, and when you stand there, you get a sense of that space. The urban development authority is showing the citizens, “See this is where we are going.”

We are going to need major transformations in the way we think. Professionals have to realise that they have been looking at the problems in the wrong way.

Instead of criticising and saying what cannot be done, let’s find out what can be done. And let’s give the next generation the spirit and the skills necessary to do it.

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