....

In the context of India, the professional role of the architect, planner and urban designer is not primarily recognised amongst political leaders, government administration, as also public in general. Although we see development authorities exist in most of the cities in India, one would realise that their work broadly ends with a road pattern layout and distributing land through auctions thereafter. One would expect to see some important projects worked out in three dimensional urban form as significant statements before land is disposed off. It is time that authorities think of attempting processes backed by ideals that will be rewarding. A picture of urban development in all major cities of the country shows that no efforts have been made to recognise essential values emerging out of the site that could give a deeper meaning of achievement to the development. It was possible in the case of Delhi, in the early sixties, when its population had not touched the two million mark and when the Town Planning Act had just come into force, to think of introduction of a system of open spaces linking the Yamuna river and the ridge, embracing important monuments within the framework of spaces, around which the city design could have been conceived. The Ring Railway, which was proposed during Pandit Nehru’s government around the mid fifties, could have located district centres along the rail loop, with a radiating road system, which would have contributed to easing city traffic. However, such a thing was not envisaged and a great opportunity was lost.

Mumbai, likewise, had the possibility of introducing a system of open spaces in form of fingers, linking the sea front and the land mass in the east-west direction which could have become places of leisure and recreation for people. Instead, the sea face is walled up with land speculation to serve the interest of a selected few. In the case of New Bombay, likewise, with the landmass lower than the high tide sea level, there was the possibility of introduction of a canals and water bodies similar to Amsterdam in Netherlands and Venice in Italy. Instead, these water collection bodies have been kept in the backyard of the development. The story of several other towns and cities associated with rivers, lakes and national assets is no different.

....