Phased Development

The memorial for the Bhopal Gas tragedy holds universal significance. However for the victims, the immediate surrounding settlement and for the City of Bhopal, the site has added relevance.

A mixed land use strategy is critical for the regeneration of the site. The new alignment of the road purposefully restructures the Site into zones which can be allocated different land use. These zones can be developed and managed by different stakeholders.

This offers opportunity for implementing an incremental development plan, corresponding to the inflow of funds.

This process also provides the flexibility for a participatory planning that involves and provides incentives to the various stakeholders. If the final development reflects the aspirations of the affected parties, it will establish a relevance and financial sustainability of this project in the long run.

The site has been closed to the public for 20 years. A flexible regeneration process could help the Authorities execute soil and ground water remediation, building restoration, cultural enterprise, and park development in parallel. Specific areas in the site could be leased out on short-term basis for cultural events. An ongoing cultural agenda and a constant flow of activities could raise interest in the space and help change the perception of the people regarding its latent potential.

PHASE 1

1.1 DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRIMARY ROAD THROUGH THE SITE

This component will include -

  • Main road and peripheral area
  • Pedestrian Over bridge
  • Roadside Development – Lighting, Seating, Landscape

By opening the site to the city, developing new connections and establishing a visual contact with the neigbourhood is the Memorial’s primary contribution to the City. Boundaries have to be broken down to allow the site to be part of the City, while the City has to reconnect with the Factories to be reminded of the tragedy.

Transparency would imply reexamining and redefining the existing sense of visibility, accessibility and opportunity the Factory complex shares with the rest of the City.

The main road turning in to cut through the factory complex would define a new physical relationship between the factory and neighbourhood.

The new alignment of the road purposefully slices the Site into pieces that can be allocated to different landuse and developed in phases overtime. This strategy of dividing the site into smaller ‘workable’ zones could provide flexibility for an incremental development plan. Various zones are put to different landuse which can be developed and managed by different stakeholders over a period of time. A multi layered planning exercise would need to be carried out which can be led by monetary concerns helping the developmental agency to prioritize. This kind of multi layered approach over time is good incase inflow of funds for the development of the memorial are spread over a period of time.

1.2 DEVELOPMENT OF SITE & SERVICES IN THE COMPLEX

This component will include –

  • Site development including clearing, dismantling & disposal
  • HTLT Distribution & ESS
  • Water Supply Network -Drainage, plumbing & rainwater harvesting, water storage tanks
  • Telecommunication Network
  • Internal Roads

1.3 MEMORIAL CIRCLE - REINSTATING THE STATUE OF THE LADY

This component will include –

  • Landscaping of chowk around the Statue
  • Refurbishment of road with roadside beautification
  • Development of public greens

For the past 20 years the statue of the Wailing Lady and the Child, was the only memorial to the tragedy in the city. With the consent of the artist and the community , this ‘People’s Memorial’ needs to be reinstated as the anchor point of the new memorial from its current location from the fringes of the site towards a prominent location at the opposite end of the factory, a human counterpoint to the industrial monument. It will symbolize and represent the peoples movement that has sustained the memory of the disaster. Here it will be the physical and notional connector between the survivors living in the neighborhood and the “Factory”.

1.4 RETROFITTING THE FACTORY & RESTORING THE BAOLIS

This component will include –

  • Detailed Structural Assessment of the Existing Structures – Main plants, Tower & Baolis
  • Structural Retrofitting
  • Adaptive Reuse as a Museum Structure

Strongly associated with the Bhopal gas Tragedy the factory is its last physical relic and a constant reminder of the tragedy.

The remains of the structures that sheltered workers on the night of the Gas leak are historic. Whatever remains of it should be treated as more than just a symbol. A subterranean path connects the structure to the memorial forming an extension of the memorial walk as well as point of entry from the Park. The plinth of the structures acts as the sun dial.

1.5 THE MEMORIAL WALK- MUSEUM & MEMORIAL COMPONENT

This component will include –

  • Construction of the partially subterranean Memorial cum Museum
  • Landscaping of the Plaza & immediate surroundings
  • Interiors of the Museum including permanent installations by Bastar artists

We propose to preserve and reuse the two factories as “industrial monuments” and as relics of the tragedy for the future generations.

In the partially subterranean museum that connects the memorial, the visitor embarks on a "journey" through the exhibits, navigating a series of challenging and awkward walkways, designed to elicit a degree of physical discomfort. The route winds from the lower ground to the ground, until it reaches the memorial hall, a glass cube encasing the plinths of the two factories. The walk attempts to educate the public about the tragedy, illustrate the plight of the victims and acknowledge their spirit of resurgence.

An internal elevator allows visitors to see the interior of the space as they ascend to the roof, from which they have a sweeping view of the entire area. The idea is about creating a contemplative space where each visitor can still interpret a memorial in his or her own way.

PHASE 2

2.1 DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY FACILITIES

This component will include –

  • Development of outdoor public spaces, maidans and aanganwaadis
  • Community School
  • Youth Vocational Training Facilities
  • Bazaar
  • Community Hall & Congregation space for the aged & the disabled

The planning approach to the project is also sensitive to public participation and income generation. A sensitive land use planning has to reflect the aspirations of the various stakeholders while being financially sustainable in the long term generating. An abandoned site such as this could offer an excellent opportunity to raise for the urban regeneration of an area through the introduction of much-needed green and community spaces.

The southern edge of the site would be treated a public place for the neighboring communities where much needed community facilities like a School cum Youth Center, training halls, community hall, playing fields are located, to be planned, developed and maintained through a participatory process. It is an attempt, a healing gesture to give back to the city what the tragedy took away from it.

2.2 DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH CENTRE

This component will include –

  • Research Centre
  • Office Space
  • Convention Centre
  • Auditorium
  • Landscaping of areas around the Centre

One of the biggest environmental challenges facing the world today is reclamation of land from toxic dumps and industrial contamination. In the immediate backdrop of one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, the research center would be devoted to research on the coexistence of Industry and Ecology.

The Research Center will contribute to the revitalization process by enabling artists, scholars of engineering, the social sciences, economics, landscape, urban & environmental planning and to develop a comprehensive, multi-level understanding of the challenges facing the city as it seeks to return abandoned industrial landscapes to productive use.

The Center would be built on the existing plinths of the abandoned factories and would house offices for various NGOs and developmental agencies involved towards the benefit of the City. Office space would provide an opportunity to build the tax base and rejuvenate decaying infrastructure of the whole site through rents and corporate involvement.

Site redevelopment for institutional use can also provide an opportunity to build the tax base and rejuvenate decaying infrastructure. With ever increasing pressures on existing infrastructure from development, time and limited resources for renewal, more rational approaches to abandoned, idled or underused industrial site remediation and their associated infrastructure are needed.

It is based on the belief that former industrial sites offer an excellent opportunity to raise the overall attractiveness of an area through the introduction of much-needed green and community spaces

PHASE 3

3.1 REVITALIZING THE GREENS INTO A PUBLIC PARK

This component will include –

  • Soil Stabilization & Earthwork
  • Soil reclamation & Treatment
  • Landscaping the open area including soft/hard paving, plantation etc.
  • Design of walkways, cycling/jogging tracks, waterways with lighting, signage etc.
  • Irrigation network
  • Development of onsite science activity areas for children
  • Demonstration areas for alternate technology prototypes, decontamination kiosks etc for the public as awareness/educational tools
  • Open air exhibition spaces

A green cover on the contaminated site that lay abandoned for decades is therapeutic gesture- environmentally and socially. The Park weaves together the memorial, research and community functions at the site and gives the contaminated land back to the city as a dynamic park for the community.

The tragedy of Bhopal illustrates how a rapidly developing city sought to obtain sophisticated industry without making commensurate investments in industrial safety and pollution control.

By virtue of its context, the park can be a destination for exploration and learning—a place that defines and practices sustainability education.

The park must capitalize on the views/ adjacency to/of the factory that is unique to this site. Cyclists, joggers, picnickers and pedestrians will find in the Park an interconnected web of pathways that offer a seemingly inexhaustible array of experiences. Various theme walks, cycling routes and trails serve several purposes: to create and improve green infrastructure, provide more recreational opportunities, appeal to tourists, and increase the understanding of the site’s history among local residents as well as visitors

This theme is integrated in the landscape though theme based paths that tell the story of the “Industry” and “Ecology”—with a pronounced emphasis on decontamination.

All these components of the landscape – the onsite labs, testing pits and wells, green houses and bioremediation plantation –come together as a dynamic public laboratory to the research facility.

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