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Urban Planning

Civic body to review, overhaul its disaster management programme

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The Times of India        09.10.2014   

Civic body to review, overhaul its disaster management programme

 

NAVI MUMBAI: The civic body has chalked out a three-phase programme to review its disaster management plan. The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation's (NMMC) disaster management cell has also made plans to conduct a year-long study on how well the city is equipped to handle any hazard as well as its impact on the society.

In the first phase, the disaster management plan will be reviewed by Tata Institute of Social Sciences. "The institute will be reviewing the steps taken by the civic body in any disaster. It will study in detail the impact of various disasters on the city and the different actions taken by the disaster management team to deal with it," said a senior official from the disaster management cell.

The institute is expected to conduct its study specifically on the impacts of nine disasters such as earthquakes, floods, dilapidated building collapse, chemical accidents, tsunami, riots and landslides. Work on the month-long project has already started.

The cell will be updated about any new course of action to be implemented and ways to better its ways of functioning.

The second and third phases will be a study of how vulnerable the city is to any hazard and its social impact. "This will be a year-long process where we will test the infrastructure's vulnerability to hazards such as earthquakes with the help of simulation techniques. A decision will be taken at the earliest," added the official.

J Sinnarkar, in-charge of disaster management department, said that they are engaged in lot of activities. "Reviewing the disaster management plans is one of the processes," he added.

 

BDA drags its feet over plan approval

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The Times of India          07.10.2014  

BDA drags its feet over plan approval

 

BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Development Authority is taking an average 104 days to approve a building plan compared to the stipulation of maximum 60 days set in the Odisha Right to Public Services Act, 2012. BDA authorization is a must to begin any construction by individuals or real estate developers in the state capital.

BDA plan approval figures between March 2013 and September released on its website bdabbsr.in, shows the planning branch disposed only around 21 per cent applications within 60 days. The time to dispose plan approval applications ranged from a minimum seven days to maximum of over 400 days in the period.

Though Odisha implemented the right to public service in January 2013, building plan approval was brought under purview of the Act two months later in March that year.

BDA data showed it disposed of 3,829 applications between March 2013 and September 2014. Of them, 3,599 applications were approved while the remaining 230 were rejected. Only 814 applications (21.25%) were disposed in 60 days while the rest exceeded the upper time limit.

The planning branch, led by a member (planning), is responsible for disposing the applications. BDA member (planning) Pitabasa Sahoo, when contacted, declined to comment as he said he was "not authorized to speak to the media".

Another senior BDA officer said the planning branch was missing the deadline because of two major reasons. First, the applicants are not submitting applications that are complete in all respects with all the required documents. Secondly, some applicants did not deposit fees for several months even after their requests were processed. This delayed issuance of the plan approval by the authority. Applications complete in all respects were disposed much earlier than the allowed time of 60 days, he said.

According to provisions of the Act, if the designated officer (junior town planner/assistant town planner) fails to provide the service without sufficient and reasonable cause by the deadline, s/he may be imposed a penalty of Rs 250 per each day of delay and a maximum penalty of Rs 5000.

Developers feel the inordinate delay in plan approval by BDA is because of the complicated process. "The process should be simplified so that it becomes easy to understand and comply with the stipulations for the common man," said Pradipta Kumar Biswasroy, president, Real Estate Developers Association of Odisha.

Step 2: The architect/engineer/planner prepares a plan following BDA norms, helps the developer fill up the building plan approval form and submits it to the BDA planning branch along with proof of land ownership and fees (for scrutiny and processing). The amount varies depending on project size and type

Step 3: A BDA officer (Amin) or a team (depending on project size) inspects the project site. Depending on their recommendations, the planning branch processes the request and asks developers to submit no objection certificates from the fire department, municipal authorities, highway authorities (if it is located near the highway), among others. Individuals applying to build houses for residential purposes don't need such NOCs

Step 4: The development plan and building plan (DP&BP) committee of the BDA considers the site inspection report and NOCs and issues the plan approval by charging a sanction fee of Rs 15 per square feet. In case of individuals, the assistant town planner of the planning branch issues such approval

 

Bangalore learns Swedish lessons in urban planning

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The Times of India        23.09.2014   

Bangalore learns Swedish lessons in urban planning

 

BANGALORE: Sweden is at least 600 times bigger than Bangalore city but their population is almost the same. On an average, 250 people die in Swedish road mishaps against 750 in Bangalore. Sweden has also managed to cut down on its carbon emissions by about 10% over the last 15 years.

With the Scandinavian republic's roads having become the world's safest and pollution free, a workshop here on Monday provided a perfect opportunity for Bangalore to look at that nation's best practices.

How did Sweden do this? In 1997 the Swedish devised a plan called "Vision Zero", promising to eliminate road fatalities and injuries altogether. "We simply do not accept any deaths or injuries on our roads considering the impact it makes on families if he or she is the sole bread-winner. Sustainable urban transport coupled with better planning played the biggest part in reducing accidents. Roads were built with safety prioritized over speed or convenience. Low urban speed limits, pedestrian zones, cycle tracks and barriers that separate cars from bikes and oncoming traffic helped," said Matts-Ake Belin, project manager, Vision Zero Academy, Swedish Transport Administration.

Jonas Hafstrom, ambassador and senior advisor to the minister of trade in Sweden, said: "We developed companies that could offer solutions to sustainable urban transport."

Additional chief secretary K Ratna Prabha, who led a six-member delegation recently to Sweden to study urban transport, solid waste management and investments, said: "Their solid waste management plant looks exactly like a mall in Bangalore and is located in the heart of the city without causing any harm to public health. They recycle their entire waste and convert it into biogas and biofuel for use in public transport. They even import waste to recycle."

A round table conference later in the day looked at SymbioCity — a Swedish concept that integrates community planning and urban development from an ecological, social, economic and spatial perspective.

 


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