PLANNING COMPACT TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT CASE: PUNE, PIMPRI-CHINCHWAD

Abstract

There is a growing concern amongst people all over the world about increasing urban sprawl, decreased open spaces within the city, traffic, congestion and rapid depletion of natural resources. The roots of these problems lie partly in the practice of strict zoning followed in many countries after World War II. Excessive network of highways and promotion of private auto-oriented development has further aggregated the above problems. Several planning and urban design theories have been proposed since the end of the twentieth century which stress on restoring back the pre-World War II planning pattern of transit adjacent urban development. Transit-oriented development (TOD) is one such theory stressing the importance to plan a compact, high-density, mixed-use development which will encourage the use of public-transit instead of private automobile. It is a multi-dimensional process having several qualitative aspects which focus on better place making. In a developing country like India where several high budget transit projects are being planned in many cities, it is possible to plan these projects in accordance with the principles of TOD. TOD needs to be seen as a new paradigm of sustainable development in India. The dissertation is an attempt to consider TOD as one of the toolkits for planning sprawling Indian metropolises like Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. It concentrates on the area within Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation limit and attempts to come up with certain broad recommendations for planning around a public transit corridor. It attempts to plan the Punawale village area along the Aundh-Rawet BRT Corridor as a compact, mixed-density, mixed—use and mixed-income settlement having a high degree of accessibility by means of walking, cycling or by the use of public transport. This could then serve as a demonstrative model for planning future TOD projects in India. [Keywords: compact, high-density, mixed-use, public transit, accessibility, new paradigm] Planning Compact. Transit-Oriented Development: Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad: Manas R. Marathe Foreword Foreword The dissertation, "Planning Compact Transit-Oriented Development: Case-Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad" has been prepared under the joint supervision and guidance of Prof. R. Shankar, IIT Roorkee and Dr-Ing. Annette Rudolf-Cleft, TU Darmstadt. The research is a part of the exchange program DAAD, 2011-2012. DAAD is the abbreviation for Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst or German Academic Exchange Service. The preliminary work on the research like selection of topic, defining the aim and the objectives of the research and primary data collection about the study area was done in India during the months of May 2011-August 2011. The work thereafter was carried out in Germany during the months of September 2011-April 2012. The periodic discussions with Prof. Dr-Ing. Annette and Dipl- Ing Bjorn Hekmati helped in carrying forward the dissertation smoothly. Prof. Shankar also gave his valuable observations via email. The lecture modules of Mundus Urbano program at TU Darmstadt have been very helpful to gain a deeper knowledge about the study topic. Live case studies have been carried out by visiting certain cities in Germany as well as other countries in Europe which have done significant work in promotion of public transit. The recommendations and guidelines given at the end of the report are an outcome of this joint research carried out at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, INDIA and Technical University, Darmstadt, GERMANY.