The Pune Riverfront Development – designed by HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt. Ltd. is the same company behind projects like Central Vista and Sabarmati River Front. The riverfront development in Pune is claimed to be a “copy paste” of that from Sabarmati River – a river basin with completely different landscape and conditions than the Mula -Mutha Basin. Experts and researchers flag various faults with this riverfront development. Here’s what architect and river front researcher Sarang Yadwadkar has to say about this particular project from an urban planning lens through his presentation. In this presentation he connects the project DPR, correspondence with and amongst departments, government reports, and government circulars. He connects these to flag the discrepancies in the project which highlights the violation of guidelines and how the rights of citizens to be free from adverse impacts of climate change are violated.
Continue reading “Unravelling Pune River Front Development: The Five Questions”Tag: CWPRS
PUNE RIVER FRONT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
GUEST ARTICLE BY SARANG YADWADKAR
Pune,
A city along the banks of five rivers,
A city with 7 dams on the upstream,
A city surrounded by pristine green hills,
Hence probably the only city to enjoy abundance of water even in drought like situation.
Due to this abundant availability of water, the city of Pune grew very rapidly. But this situation has a darker side of frequent flooding as well, which the citizens have witnessed and experienced quite a few times. The most recent example, is the floods in 2019. In a few hours hundreds of houses were washed away; properties worth Crores of rupees were destroyed and 25 innocent people lost their lives. The flood water breached the flood levels to inundate innumerable houses and even a hospital. In 2020 too, Bhairoba Nala breached its limits.
Continue reading “PUNE RIVER FRONT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT”
CWPRS: A 100-year-old institute remains uni-dimensional; has no achievement to show
Jawaharlal Nehru who famously celebrated large dams as “temples of modern India” later termed them as “disease of giganticism”.[i] The fascination wore out after witnessing the huge sacrifice of the vulnerable and unfulfilled promises. Government of India however has continued with the worship of giant structures such as big dams, ports, hydropower projects etc. Even after nearly seven decades of independence, ‘engineering approach’ still dominates the idea of river planning which views river as an entity to be engineered and planned for irrigation, hydropower, industrial and urban water use rather than as a living eco-system. 17 study models that were displayed at Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) open house day at Khadakwasla near Pune on June 14, 2016, its completion of 100 years of existence, stood testimony to this. Continue reading “CWPRS: A 100-year-old institute remains uni-dimensional; has no achievement to show”
SANDRP 