PLANNING FOR PUBLIC SPACES IN INDIAN CITIES, A CASE OF MUMBAI

Abstract

Cities are engines of the economy of the country. Cities are organic. They grow in terms of population, infrastructure, their physical size and economy. It is the people, who work and live in city are responsible for the success of the city. It is the duty of the city government to provide the people with best possible infrastructure services, facilities and amenities. The rank of a city depends upon the quality of life it can give to its citizens. It is in this context, that a good public realm, improves the standard of living of the citizens eventually making the city work better. To have good quality of life recreation is inevitable part of life. The public spaces in the city are responsible for providing people with leisure and recreation. The public spaces that are available to all the users of the city at all the time having bustling environment and variety of activities to perform are responsible for making the cities more liveable. The dissertation report starts with introduction to the problem with the aim, objectives, scope of work, limitations for the study and methodology followed for the dissertation. This chapter has explored the possible areas for study in relation with the topic. A comprehensive literature survey has been done beginning with the definition of public space, followed by its classification by various authors, benefits of public spaces in an urban scenario, parameters for evaluation of a public space and factors responsible for the failure and success of the public space. Public spaces in the historical period have been briefly discussed in the chapter. This chapter also gives an idea of the development control regulations for the redevelopment of the Mumbai mill land. A comparative note on the planning policies and plan documents like master plans, city development plans and byelaws with building control regulations regarding planning for public realm in major Indian cities, has been written in the same chapter of literature review. The third chapter consists of the case studies covering international as well as Indian examples of successful public spaces. The public realm of the two cities namely Chandigarh and Copenhagen has been studied in the chapter of case studies. The study area being CBD of the Mumbai city, city centres are primarily considered for case studies. The city centres of Chandigarh and Copenhagen have been compared on certain parameters to draw inferences.