Urban Renewal ?

An important aspect of urban renewal is to get rid of slums , by resettling slum-dwellers in better houses

Then convert those vacated slum areas into gardens

But slum-dwellers are unwilling to vacate their huts .

Why  ?

Over the past 25 / 30 years , the standard method was to move the slum-dwellers into some temporary , make-shift transit camps , pending permanent rehabilitation

But that promised " permanent rehabilitation " never came  !

Those who agreed to get shifted into those transit camps , continue to live there for generations - without any hope of ever moving into multi-story concrete buildings with running water / electricity / toilets

Given this broken promises , who would agree to shift out  ?

Second problem is availability of jobs nearby where they are forced to move - even if these buildings happen to be well-built , modern and permanent multi-storied buildings

Who would want to move to a better / permanent house , if it is 30 Km away from a work-place  ?

No one wants to spend 4 hours on the road every day , commuting to a place of work in dense traffic , riding a crowded bus / train  !

But most slum-dwellers would happily vacate their slums and move 150 Km away , if ,

*  It is a well built building with all amenities

*  It is a  permanent home ( - and not a transit facility  )

*  It is given FREE , on ownership basis

*  There is a job within 1 Km of the new home

This is exactly what China is doing , by building ONE brand new Mega City , EVERY 20 DAYS  !

And moving 250 million slum-dwellers into those cities over the next 20 years ( - nearly ONE MILLION people , EVERY MONTH  !  )

May be this is what NaMo was thinking when he dreamt of constructing 100 Mega Cities in next 5 years - at the rate of ONE city EVERY 18 DAYS  !

OLD  cities cannot " Re-new " themselves , until well-planned NEW cities are built first and ready to receive those old city slum-dwellers and offer them jobs

Only problem :

* Mega City of Dholera ( in Gujarat ) is under construction for over last 3

 years and expected to cost , Rs 70,000 Crores

* Central Government has neither the money needed to construct 100 cities,

nor the administrative / technical competence for such a project

*  Democratic Institutions are un-suited for taking bold / harsh /

 controversial decisions - then bulldoze !

It seems urban renewal will remain a mirage  !

*   hemen  parekh  (  05 June 2014 / Mumbai  )

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Make    Yourself    Heard

Dear Visitor :

It is time for YOU to speak up - and demand that YOU are heard

By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

(  Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :

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