‘Utopia and the City’, a recent two-day conference organised by the Goethe Institute, Chennai, and IIT, Madras, brought together planners, academia and students on the verdant IIT campus to ­debate whether it would be possible, and how, to move ­towards utopian models in, as one participant rightly remarked, “our developing, messed up cities”!

Among the liveliest discussions were those on the Second Master Plan, following a presentation on ‘Sustainable and Inclusive Development’ by S. Chithra, Senior Planner, CMDA. Referring to public transport, she pointed out the following:

• A major reason for fall in patronage for public transport has been the low interest rate-driven sale of private vehicles, especially two-wheelers that constitute 76 per cent of the private vehicle population.
• Even as early as 2004, 64.57 per cent of the city’s population depended on private modes of transport. The population of private vehicles in the city was 27 lakh, a four-fold rise from what it was 10 years earlier, according to the traffic police.
• 14.54 per cent of the city’s population currently uses rail transport, whereas 85.46 per cent of the population uses road transport.

According to the Second Master Plan, the ratio of public dependence on rail transport to road transport was envisaged as 40:60 by 2026. But Murthy Bondada, Senior Fulbright Scholar in Transport Engineering, pointed out that the Master Plan itself did not seem to lay much emphasis on creating road infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists!

Karen Coelho, a researcher from the voluntary organi­sation, ‘Walking Classes Unite’, felt that road expansion works done by government agencies have eaten into pavements, and that guidelines laid down by the Indian Roads Congress are not followed. Residents in localities need to have a say regarding their “specific pedestrian and cycling needs”.

Strategies suggested included integrating the various modes of transport, intensifying development along transport corridors by increasing Floor Space Index, and restricting the growth of private transport in the city. However, that urban planners and transport agencies certainly seem to have a long way to go before patronage for public transport improves in Chennai was the consensus!

Within the framework of ‘Environmental and Development Policy – Here and Abroad’ was the presentation by Dr. Jutta’s Emig (of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Germany) on ‘Stakeholders’ Cooperation in German Environmental Policy’ and one by S. Amrtha from the Consumer and citizens action Group (CAG) on ‘Public Participation in Development’. Amrtha point­ed out that, under the Jawa­harlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNN­URM), 60 cities had been chosen for seven years, beginning from 2005-06, for special attention. The programme that was mandated to involve extensive stakeholder and civil society participants from all constituent areas was, according to Amrtha, handicapped by:

• Quality of information: Data was banal and outdated, there was a lack of information on ground realities, of detailed analysis, and on laws and links between sectors
• Access to information: There were difficulties in accessing information, there is a lack of vernacular language translations, and few efforts to ensure that people understood the scope of the information presented
• Addressing concerns of people: There was a lack of proper response to the problems/concerns identified by people and there was a crying need for accountability.

At the level of legislation, for instance, the law has even been modified to narrow the scope of public participation, as in the EIA Notification 1994-2006! “There is an urgent need for a commitment from the Government to ensure that public participation becomes inherent in development; there is enhanced transparency in the functioning of the Government; the public must be equipped to understand proposed development activities and their consequences; informed response must be ­solicited and public participation must be ensured in all stages – planning, implementation and monitoring,” Amrtha urged.

‘Utopias in the Making’ also offered presentations on ‘Bogota’s vision of a sustainable, equitable and livable city’ by Shreya Gadepalli, Senior Program Officer, ITDP, USA. This focussed on the amazing transformation of Bogota in Colombia, a city with a population of 7 million inhabitants, 55% of whom are below the poverty line, to a model city and the sense of achievement and belonging fostered among the citizens in just three years. This could be replicated in any Indian city, provided the political will exists, experts in the audience were confident.

Other aspects discussed were ‘Green Buildings’, and ‘Citizen’s Utopic Attempts’ like Restore Collective’s work towards sustainability in urban consumption by ‘connecting health, livelihoods and nature’, besides Exnora’s efforts towards a carbon-neutral Chennai.