Old Nagpur Vs New Nagpur! -- III

 

 

 

YES, livability is the only parameter by which a city’s worth is to be judged. It is on this count that numberless people in our city will want to go back in time to start living in what the loosefooter describes as ‘old’ Nagpur. Not just him but also countless others in the city feel strongly that Nagpur in its old avtar was better than the current new avtar. And, there are substantial reasons for them to feel so, no matter, then, the angry reactions of the so-called modernists and developmentalists to that simple wish. Many global organisations have issued definitions and standards that decide the livability count of a city.

 

Those standards are, of course, debatable -- since definitions may differ from consideration to consideration. However, in Nagpur’s context, what is most clear is the fact that its current development is haphazard -- though its promoters would never agree. For, they have their own agenda to serve, their own ideas to implement, their own goals to reach. But all those put together only prove one point -- that the city’s current development is haphazard, ill-planned, and hastily implemented. And that is the reason why the citizens do not feel comfortable with all the ruckus of new construction all over the place -- private and public. Private construction may be considered separately. But first, public construction -- roads, bridges, fly-overs et al. Let us be frank here. There is not one single fly-over in the city that is fully well-designed. Every fly-over has some or the other design problem that causes so much discomfort to the users. Most fly-overs in the city have issues with approach at both ends. Some of those problems are so complicated that the authorities have made make-shift arrangements to make things work, in the sense help the traffic somehow to maintain its flow.

 

However, in most places, those make-shift efforts have only landed the people in deeper trouble. We must, of course, admit that in some place the authorities have been able to find an effective arrangement for a smooth traffic-flow. But in most other places, the people are put to so much of inconvenience that they would want to avoid those points totally, if that were possible. This is also the case with many intersections in the city. Either they are ill-designed, or they are ill-managed. About a year ago, the loosefooter had described the conditions of most intersections on the road from the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport straight to the Katol Road Square. He had found most of those intersections ill-designed or ill-managed or ill-lighted. But there are several other counts that lower the livability quotient of new Nagpur -- traffic congestion because of bad management and bad road-design, indiscipline on the road, haphazard parking, ill-managed public places, messy market places, absence of proper public hygiene and sanitation, bad conditions of public hospitals, expensive private healthcare, abominable management of public places by civic administration ...! Is this just senseless whining? -- the loosefooter asks himself. And then he replies to his own question: ‘Of course, this is not just whining.

 

This is a genuine public grievance that stems from a badly-managed city in which there is no correlation between the people’s actual needs and the efforts. This is one grievance that has not been addressed so far by the civic planners and managers in Nagpur. This is a grievance about the city being in wrong hands for years on end. Where do we go from here, then? Actually nowhere, so to say. For, when the city-leaders are so confused about what they should do to make the city better, then there is nowhere to go for the common public. This is where the difference comes -- between old Nagpur and new Nagpur. In new Nagpur, things are haphazard, to say the least. In old Nagpur, they were far better organised than what we see today. That is where the livability counts differ. n