As Panaji is poised to become a smart city (some doubt if this status can ever be achieved) the disturbing prospect that stares us in the face is that the future of all our cities is dependent on our elected representatives. Curse them or embrace them, the truth is we have no choice but to depend on politicians to bring about a political consensus on the subject. This job cannot be done by planners, activists or NGOs. It's a job for the politicians and should they fail us we will have to wait for another breed of leaders to lead us to the promised land, so to speak.
On Wednesday, Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar announced that the model for Panaji would be replicated in other cities. There was no mention of funds which might mean that Margao, Vasco and Mapusa might have to fund their own dreams of smart city status unlike Panaji which will get a tranche of Rs 500 crore from the Centre over five years. In comparison with larger cities in the country, cities here are less cluttered and the traffic snarls and jams are on a smaller scale. But the overall impression is that they are going from bad to worse as the number of vehicles grow.
The greatest challenge to urban planners, and ICLEI, which has been entrusted with drafting a plan for Panaji, is private transport. Cars in particular are problem even though they are a convenient form of transport. Traffic in London moves at the speed of a horse carriage and commuters in Los Angeles, USA spend an average of 90 hours a year stuck in traffic. All planners, without exception agree that public transport is the answer to urban congestion and pollution, but convincing drivers to leave their cars at home is a daunting task and this is where politicians step in.
ICLEI might draw up a mind-boggling plan and when it is finally put before the city for scrutiny it will be the fourth plan, the first three having failed at the implementation stage. Why? Blame it on the lack of political will, inability of politicians to see the plan through or plain laziness. A new factor that makes implementation difficult is the tendency of politicians to go with the people instead of hammering a consensus. So when Parrikar announced that the Panaji model would be replicated in other cities, the question that pops up is, whether the Panaji model will see the light of day considering that city councillors do not seem to be pro-active about it. The future of the plan and the city is in the hands of councillors who are least equipped to push it through. Councillors practically know every family in the ward and they could be the best ambassadors for the plan. But if the plan does not have a component dedicated to implementation it is doomed to fail. It might be recalled that world-renowned architect and urban planner Jaime Lerner was able to formulate and implement revolutionary plans for Curitiba, Brazil only after he was elected as mayor of the city and became a politician. If the councillor and MLA are not placed at the centre of the plan, it will fail because stakeholders cannot reach a consensus on their own. Just like a good book cannot sell itself, a good plan cannot sell itself either.
