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Recently,two national weeklies, "India Today" and "Outlook - Money"
carried articles giving the findings of the studies they carried out to arrive
at the rankings of the places to live in. The article in India Today was on
"Which are the Best and the Worst states of India" on the basis of
quality of life and work. The article in the other weekly was on "Which
are the Best cities to live in." For the readers of the Real state Reporters
the studies are of immense value in making decisions about the places to live
in, work or to invest. Earlier too there have been studies, but they were
mostly confined to some specific purposes. Also they were based on hunches,
expert views or interviews. For past few years a few foreign firms in real
estate leasing like CB Richard Ellis Ltd, Jones Laing Lasalle have been
regularly doing surveys to know about investment climate and trends in major
metropolitan cities, mainly for their clients, since their post liberalization
arrival.
Confederation
of Indian Industries got a survey done recently but that was to find out most
favourable climate from the investment point of view of industries. Rajeev
Gandhi Institute of contemporary tudies too, I am told, carried out a study but
that was to find the market condition, size and potentials. In both the
studies, Delhi beats other metros hands down. But study conducted by OUTLOOK is
different. It is to find out which city is better to live. By whom, may we ask?
By all means. Market researchers have a particular jargon to defme this. They
say most research done by them is for See A & B of the population. They are
the people who had good education, enjoy steady income, their children go to
English medium school, they love comforts, like to spend and dislike hassles.
The rich have a place in every town. The poor have to eke out a living
anywhere, any slum, any city where they can find a place to rest their head.
The parameters for the study and the ranking were cushy jobs and income opportunities,
finance network, prices of commodities of daily need, consumption levels, good
housing, and safety from crime, transport, entertainment, pollution and
weather. Quite a bagful.
The
study considered 55 cities. The article goes on to describe how the data was
collected and what weightage was given to each one of them. These are of
interest to market researchers not for us, the see A & B crowd. Both S M
Krishna and Chandrababu N aidugaru may explode in rage as neither Bangalore nor
Hyderabad could get to the top. The pride of the place goes to Chandigarh. The
credit, of course, goes to Le Corbusier and his Colleague Jenre, its designers
who laid it out with a great vision of the future and the spirit of Punjabi who
has a Zest for living and wants to live well. For living well a Punjabi can go
to any extent and if required disciplines himself. That's why they form the
bulk of army.
A
westerner whichever assignment he is given makes through job of it. He places a
great importance on planning. He collects substantial amount of data. The
designers of Chandigarh studied climate, topography, natural wealth of the
region, habits and idiosyncrasies of the people who are likely to inhabit the
city and accommodated all of them. First and foremost I must mention Corbusier
took a pledge from the government that there will be no personal statues in the
city. Not stopping at it he also got it engraved in stone and got it embedded
in the city hall. He knew what a great idolaters we are! One has to go around
our Vidhana Soudha to observe how statues are springing up on the lawns. I have
seen also statues of Anna, Gandhi, etc., in dilapidated conditions in many of
the southern towns, definitely eyesores in busy places.
He
has laid out the city in grid pattern with very wide arterial roads and got
them paved fully at the start. He made sectors of habitation look inwards i.e.
no house or building has a front on the arterial roads. He knew how we encroach
roads at the front. Bazaars were tucked into the heart of the sectors so that
the chaos remains deep with in; Created green strips all along the city and
forbade vehicles in them; Placed parks along natural valleys and fenced to
prevent slums springing along them; dammed a seasonal rivulet to create a lake
for recreational purpose. He also undertook a pledge from the Government that
there will be no polluting industries in or near the town.
He
encouraged private initiatives in beautification efforts. Otherwise how could
Mr. Nekchand, a mere class IV employee of PWD create a world famous Rock Garden
to the Lake? I was fortunate to be arrison Engineer of Chandhigarh Cantonment,
which was still in initial stages of development, and by Nehru's order we had
to ensure that everything planned there was to conform the Chandigarh planning
egulations. This provided me with many opportunities of interacting with the
town's planning team.
One
could learn from the vision these masters have. Le Corbusier was known for his
preference to vertical growth of the city. But as for as Chandigarh is
concerned he has spread it far and wide and has given it low vertical growth,
most appropriate for hot and dry climate. The top ten cities for good living
according to survey are Chandhigarh, Chennai, Kolkatta, Hyderabad, Mumbai,
Bangalore, Bhopal, Goa, Pondicherry and Ahmedabad. The six metros in the study
are, Kolkatta, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Let us confine
to Metros and see how Bangalore fares in this group.
Among
the Metros the first place goes to Chennai in the overall ranking for all the
parameters. Bangalore is 5th out of 6. Not something to boast of for people who
dream of it as Singapore of India. This should not dishearten us but spur us to
greater thinking and action. However, how Bangalore ranks with respect to each
parameter should be interest to us.
For
jobs and income Bangalore is at the top followed closely by Chennai and
Hyderabad. For banking and finance net work, Kolkatta comes first followed by
Mumbai and Bangalore. The quality lag between successive rankings is big. While
Kolkatta hogs 86.4, Mumbai is 69.7 and Bangalore is 30.8. Anyone who has been
to a Bank in Bangalore cannot but agree with the ranking. The leisurely
dejaview attitude of banking staff is a class by itself. It takes anything
between 15 minutes to half an hour to take out cash, twice that time to
deposit. It . takes 6 weeks to get an ATM card after handing over the
application.
This
is my experience with a busy branch of a nationalized South based bank. Again
in the prices, which matter to See A & B, which takes into account fruit
and vegetable prices, education, medical fees, wages for services like maids
and . servants Bangalore ranks fifth. The ranks of the rest of the Metros are
Kolkatta, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi. I am sure the researches might
not have taken into account the quality of service and the dependability of the
service providers. If we take into consideration quality of service I might
place Mumbai at the top. I have lived in almost all Metros except Secunderabad.
In
consumption, Hyderabad tops the ranking; Bangalore is at the bottom. It should
come as no surprise knowing the life style of Reddy's. But one wonders how
Chennai could be two ranks above Bangalore. May be sober and prudent Madarasis
have taken to conspicuous consumption in the footsteps of their leader, Amma
Jayalalitha after her birthday bashes (or was it adopted son's marriage?). In
housing too Bangalore is last but one, Kolkatta being at the bottom of the
heap. This is no surprise, as the laws are antiquated, the cost of construction
being one of the highest (cement costs nearly 1.3 times what it costs in
Mumbai), t~e registration charges were the highest till a month ago, and
landlords have the habit of providing minimum facility and expecting maximum
rent. No built in furniture, ceiling fan, etc. In Delhi all these come along
with the built space.
Here
I must remind, once again, that the survey covers only Upper middle class. How
does the housing statistics for the city as a whole look? Bangalore is
deficient by 71,000 dwelling units. Less than 25% fthe population has access to
household connection of both water and sewerage. About half the water
connections get water once in two or three days. Bangalore has 289 registered
slums. According to Karnataka Kolegeri Nivasagala Samyuktha Sanghatane, 66% of
the dwellers do not have access to a toilet. Toilet complexes built under
Nirmal Bangalore are unaffordable. The pipeline made by civic authorities in
the slums is substandard and they are clogged, leaking and overflowing.
But,
we the See A & B can turn a Nelson eye to these urban festers and walk past
them covering our noses. In education too, Bangalore is 5th• Hyderabad and
Chennai take the first and the second place. May be there is an overabundance of
educational set ups in Bangalore, but the quality is abysmally low. Reader may
recall, a decade ago, there used to be advertisements for vacancies, especially
in engineering, with the rider, that Bangalore University graduates need not
apply. In Health facilities, Bangalore is 3rd and Chennai stands first.
Surprisingly, Bangalore is ranked first in safety and Delhi the worst. Police
commissioners may note and department
may rejoice. In transport Bangaloreranks the last and Hyderabad occupies the first place.
Thanks
to tunnel vision of our city planners and their ostrich like attitude towards
MRT we may still stay in the same place for quite some time. In pollution
Bangalore is 4th and Chennai is the least polluted. In weather, of course,
Bangalore is first. One sincerely would like to believe that city planners do
not take the credit for it. If anything the credit should go to Almighty and
Kempegowda for founding the city.
Another surprising result is Bangalore's ranking in
entertainment. It is at the last place (sixth). Bangalore some time ago,
boasted of highest number of cinema halls in the country. With so many gayana
sabhas, western music concerts, pubs, racecourse with yearlong betting facility
it's ranking should have been higher. The article also carries interviews with
one or two prominent citizens of each- city. As far as Bangalore is concerned
as could be guessed, they have gone over to Mr. Nandan Nilekani, the Infosys
chief and taken his opinion. In his opinion it is the most livable city in
India, has excellent climate, quality of life and a sense of warmth. It has
great sense of community and high degree of inclusiveness. He also says it can
do with better public transportation and town planning. What else can Head of
Bangalore Agenda Task Force can say? He has said what is expected of him to
say. But when I attend the World Environment Day, World Habitat Day and World
Clean Air Day organized by Institution of Engineers I get a different feeling.
In these celebrations we hear of the drinking water
scarcity, the widening gap between haves and have-nots and the high levels of
Carbon mono oxide, Carbon di-oxide, Sulphur and suspended particles.
Actually the place to live in depends upon what key factor
one is looking for which changes from time to time, age and from need to need.
Even in the case of employment it depends upon the speciality, hetherit is IT,
Finance, Stock market, Real Estate, Construction, etc. Once one has the decent
employment one starts looking for other factors.
The strength of the outlook survey is that it provides
ranking for 55 cities on key factors. Thus it provides a data base on which a
person can narrow down his choice and then make further enquiry. As the article
has said most of us fantasize about the distant hills, balmy air, raising kids
in the lap of nature, away from the hustle bustle. It may not always be
possible, even after retirement. With the absence of reliable social security
and old age care, one may have to live with or near children unless they are all
in USA or in some such distant land.
Which direction Bangalore has to take if the living and
working conditions have improved? It is very difficult question. There are no
packaged answers. But there is a great unanimity among urban planners that the
migration should be drastically reduced. Migration accounts for half the growth
of the city. It is only possible if employment opportunities of similar
standards are created elsewhere in the state. The old concept of satellite town
development near the city has failed miserably. New Bombay, Yalhanka and
Kengeri can be quoted as examples. Ultimately they are absorbed into urban
conglomeration and add to longer vehicular movement. Towns and cities far from
Bangalore should be developed.
Cities which already have some infrastructure in place need
to be taken up as new cities are a costly gamble. Karnataka fortunately is
blessed with many cities which hold promise. Mysore, Tumkur, harwad, Mangalore
are some of cities one can think of. Of them, Mysore and Dharwad are blessed
with mild climate. Accessibility to Bangalore and to other global destinations,
if ensured Mysore could rival Bangalore in becoming an attracti ve growth
centre. Doubling of railway line between the two cities, its electrification
and upgrading the present Bangalore - Mysore highway to 6 lane dual carriage
way, improving the water supply of Mysore city are some of the investment
friendly schemes.
We are told that Mr. Aziz Premji, Chairman WIPRO is so
enamoured by Mysore that he would not mind developing its airstrip. Both the
centre and state could think of private participation in all these projects
including Railways.
Completion
of the Railway line between Mangalore and Hassan, inclusion of it in the newly
created railway zone, pri vatising of power generation and - distribution in
the city, improving the municipal infrastructure, improving the aerodrome are
some of the measures one can think of. Dharwad has a history of neglect dating
back to the old Bombay province. State reorganization has not brought any
noticeable development. The blame rests with the politicians of the area.
This apart what else to improve Bangalore? I would go with
three simple suggestions put forward by Bittu Sahgal, well known
environmentalist. He suggests government to be facilitator for more housing,
beefing up of water services, health services, education and transport. Develop
the rural inter connectivity with good roads, restore the health of lakes,
detoxify the lakes, and encourage non polluting cottage industries.
For those who are looking for far from the maddening crowd
retirement around Bangalore, one would recommend Hosur, specially the township
Titan is creating there. Hosur was known as Little England for its climate, is
now well connected by road from Bangalore, and has good educational facility,
healthcare centres have developed in Electronic City.
Titan township is designed by well known architects and
town planners, well laid out, has plenty flandscaping and greenery, round the
clock electric and water supply and a decent crowd. And lastly no pollution.
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