New Delhi: From using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in urban planning to exploring the relevance of ancient city plans written in Sanskrit in the modern context, the four Centres of Excellence (CoEs) selected by the Narendra Modi government plan to focus on research work and projects with the aim to develop “India specific knowledge’ in urban planning, ThePrint has learnt.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has finalised the names of four academic institutions — Indian Institute of Technology – Kharagpur, CEPT University in Ahmedabad, School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi, and National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Calicut — that will be developed as CoEs in urban planning and design.
The institutes were informed about it last week, said senior ministry officials. These will be given Rs 250 crore each for research, developing India-specific knowledge and capacity building, according to senior MoHUA officials.
The decision is in line with the announcement made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the 2022-23 Budget to bring about a “paradigm shift” in urban planning to address the growing challenges our cities face today. The aim of developing these CoEs is also to handhold cities in developing infrastructure in a planned manner to cater to future requirements, as nearly half of the country’s population will be living in cities by 2047, officials said.
A senior ministry official said to ThePrint, “These institutes will be given around six months to identify their area of expertise and also prepare a team. The team will then train urban planners and also work with cities to solve critical issues related to urban planning. The institutes have been asked to take necessary steps as per the guideline that was circulated last year”.
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How to address urban challenges
While the institutes are yet to prepare a detailed plan on the road ahead and the kind of projects that will be undertaken, a broad outline was mentioned in their proposals.
For instance, P.S.N Rao, dean of planning and development at Delhi’s School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), told ThePrint that the institute plans to work on a series of initiatives, such as setting up a separate cell for urban planning for hill states — especially in the Northeastern region — transportation projects and the conservation of historic buildings.
The institute also plans to go through ancient Sanskrit texts about city planning and explore its relevance in the present-day context, said Rao, adding that this was one of the projects mentioned in the proposal that the institute had submitted to the ministry while applying for CoE.
“There are many ancient texts in Sanskrit about city planning. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University to explore the ancient city plan and assess to what extent these are relevant in the modern context,” he said. “We want to develop that knowledge base as well and this will be highly India-specific. Apart from this, we have also proposed to look into the application of Artificial intelligence in urban planning.”
At a time when cities are facing multiple challenges such as rapid urbanisation due to migration, rise in pollution levels, and urban flooding due to climate change, experts say that there is a need to focus on urban planning in cities.
Bimal Patel, president of CEPT University and the architect behind the Central Vista Redevelopment project in Delhi told ThePrint that urban planning and design are central to India’s development.
“City regions are key contributors to our economy. As we become more urban, we will need to greatly improve our towns and cities to reap the benefits of urbanisation for a better quality of life and economic growth,” Patel said.
With the central government investing in the development of smart cities and pushing for the use of technology, other institutions plan to focus on how technology can be used in improving infrastructure and services.
P.P. Anil Kumar, professor and team lead on the CoE project at NIT Calicut, told ThePrint that their centre will focus on capacity building, addressing urban challenges to improve the quality of life in cities, and also use technology in urban planning. Kumar said that climate change and its impact on cities will be another area of focus.
“The idea is to develop the institute as a resource centre for urban planning focusing on knowledge generation that will help in the development of urban areas in India, especially South India. There are various urban planning issues plaguing urban centres in the country,” he said. “There are cities where people feel excluded when it comes to basic facilities. With proper planning at the conception stages and the use of technology such as GIS, a lot of issues can be addressed in urban centres. We will also look at how new developments in cities are environment-friendly and sustainable.”
Integration of various disciplines such as engineering, especially infrastructure development, infrastructure management, and economic planning in the city context, will also be looked at by the Centre, he said.
Need for Centres of Excellence
With large-scale investments being made in cities through various schemes of the central and state governments, urban development experts say there is a need for better planning. But in a majority of cities, including metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai, there is an acute shortage of urban planners.
In 2021, NITI Aayog — a think tank of the government of India — came out with a report called ‘Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India’ to highlight the shortage of urban planners in the country and recommended the need for capacity building and regulatory framework.
According to the report, 63 percent of India’s 7,933 towns and cities (urban settlements) do not have master plans, which are considered critical for managing urbanisation challenges. While large-scale investment was being made in cities, most cities faced urban planning-related issues.
Based on the NITI Aayog’s report, the central government decided to focus on strengthening urban planning in cities.
While presenting the budget in February 2022, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that urban planning requires a “paradigm” shift and the “business as usual” approach cannot continue as nearly half of the country’s population will be living in cities by 2047.
According to the guidelines for selection — issued last year — institutes were judged on parametres such as faculty strength, number of projects undertaken with urban local bodies or development authorities or state government or the Centre in the past five years, involvement in training, and research and development activities.
“The proposal should bring out clearly how the CoE expects to carry out training and capacity building, conduct research, engage with practitioners, create knowledge, engage and collaborate with other institutions, its proposals for fund utilisation and all other relevant activities required to be undertaken at the CoE,” the guidelines said.
Though the finance minister had announced that five academic institutes will be designated as CoEs for capacity building and for developing India-specific knowledge, the ministry has finalised the names of four centres so far, said a senior ministry official.
Apart from setting up centres of excellence, the central government had also decided to constitute a high-level committee of experts on urban planning. The committee submitted its draft report to MoHUA earlier this year.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)