Mega City Mumbai

There are several World Cities that are classified as being of supreme importance to the entire planet. Washington, New York, and Los Angeles are good examples. Another world city is Chicago, often referred to as the Windy City. It is a place where people love their sports, outdoors, and cars. It is a unique place with some of the tallest buildings in the world, a thriving arts community, some of the most beautiful beaches, and other areas in the entire city.

It is only natural then that when people want to talk Chicago, they group with others who have an interest in discussing the Windy City, its sports, cars and politics. However, finding those people can be difficult, unless you just want to stand around the streets and talk to people about this particular city.

Some people have attempted to find groups through churches or organizations that will advertise at either coffee shops or the local library. The ones that have been able to know where to look on the Internet have been able to really dig deep into the events that are part of the deep Chicago culture. This has been even more profound with the Windy City being considered as both a transitional city from the Eastern and the Western United States, and also as a global hub to all over the United States and also the European Union. The global hub is one thing that only two cities in the Central United States can truly claim, Atlanta and Chicago.

With the many cultural groups and ethnic oriented organizations, Chicago has developed a lasting need for those that are willing to build a city infrastructure that can provide not just information on the city, but also on the many options that a person can have in this metropolis and the respective Chicago community.

Despite not being one of the mega-cities of the world, Chicago has a strong base in sports, industry, and also in various world consumer bases. Unlike many larger cities, Chicago has proven that a large city can develop a personality and not sell itself to the corporate domination. The one irony in this though is the depth of topics that can arise in the individual aspects of the Chicago community. It is truly one of the few cities that have shown a unity and also a type of tension that can about only in well-formulated words.

In the sports world alone, there are many that are discussing the Windy City and its magnitude of teams. As one of the few cities to have had sports dynasties and also hard luck cases, it is one that has brought forth a huge level of attention in the national and global media.

With the importance that the virtual world has taken in the world, it is no surprise that many of these topics have surfaced in many forms. Whether it is the professional sports that have made a blockbuster trade or a scandal of a political leader, few cities have been able to compete with Chicago in the media limelight.

To truly know any location a person really needs to speak to the individuals of the place. This is where many of the social gatherings on the Internet have developed a number of focal points for the many members of the Chicago community and also those that have traveled through this majestic city.

Since inception man's aim has always been to improve one's standard of life and to attain happiness. Further man is a need as well as desire driven being. However, life is a continuous activity surrounded with problems. If these problems left unsolved gradually it leads to chaos. Therefore, the purpose of knowledge as well as man's activities has always been to solve the problems.

As our knowledge about the beginning of human race is very limited, therefore it is impossible to precisely know the way of life of primitive humans. As human race emerges from a pair of a man and a woman, Adam and Eve, over a very long period of time humans multiplied exponentially. For varied reasons they split into sub groups and start moving away from the herd. There emerges the concept of migration. As they were forced to move they have to find a habitat that fulfills their basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and comparative security. Water is the very basic human need. 

Therefore, there is historical trend that human habitation has always been in proximity to resources of potable water, like rivers and wells. After fertile land and water resources are secured that provide the fundamental sources for basic needs, man strives for luxuries. Trading is the means of securing the rare, precious, value added and better goods. Traditionally, sea was the most advanced way of transferring goods and people with comparatively greater ease and speed to far away places. For this reason, we also find the emergence of large cities bordering coasts.

Problems and Growth of cities:

The desire for improving one's standard of life is innate. Trade and favorable geographical location of cities results in bringing prosperity to the cities. Mainly construction and trade activities increase because of prosperity that increases the demand for artisans and workers. Higher compensation attracts the artisans and workers from far off areas, with the passage of long time these migrants also settle in cities and grows exponentially. This kind of increase generally leads to haphazard growth of cities that creates multifarious problems like sanitation, housing, traffic, water, pollution, crime, disease etc. From the study of archaeological sites like Mohnjedaro we found a highly developed city with a web of roads and sanitation system.

Administration of cities:

Whenever some people start living together there emerges the need for some organization as well as laws for the running of the day-to-day affairs for business transactions, as well as resolving conflicts arising due to social interaction and for maintenance of law and order. Large cities with citizens from different races and religions require greater need for administration. This need results in analyzing and formulating plans and polices according to the prevalent technology, knowledge and social thought of the populace.

Mega cities, as we know today, are similarly established on these grounds. However, there is a significant difference in their organization, which is also result of technological factors, is that they is much more planning and similarity in their organization than their ancient simulacrum.

Urban Studies and Urban Economics:

The emergence of big as well as mega cities calls for specialized field of study. Therefore, academia has extensively worked on the problems faced by cities under the fields of Urban Studies and Urban Economics. Under Studies is a more comprehensive, holistic and objective oriented approach for catering the theoretical as well as practical requirements of the cities. It encompasses all the technical, social, political, economic and legal areas pertaining to cities. On the other hand, Urban Economics focuses on the monetary and financial aspects of all the areas studied under urban studies.

Urban economics is mainly focused on the study of urban domains focusing on the context of geographical location, transportation cost, and placement in production and consumption decisions. Besides it also tries to find the raison d'être of cities viz. the reasons for their emergence, how urban area is used with in cities, and the relative location of one city with other city and their suburbs, and density of its population. Furthermore it also studies the problems and their economic impact, costs and their solutions like: housing, pollution, crime, health issues, education, sewage and sanitation, urban sprawl, economic agglomeration, infrastructure development, public recreation facilities, economic planning, inflation, wage rate, mobilization & transit costs, and public finance.

The modern issues, as a result of unprecedented economic and technological growth, that urban economists faced and to find their solution along with other urban study specialists are:

 1. Environmentalism/Eco-cities/Externalities: They are costs or benefits resulting from any economic activity that the unrelated parties incur. There are both negative and positive externalities. Pollution is an example of negative externality while planting trees around the boundary of any business establishment is an example of positive externality. Ecological sanitation is also a method used for attainting goal of healthy sustainable environment. It can be viewed as a three-step process dealing with human excreta: (1) Containment, (2) Sanitization, (3) Recycling and finding the best way of managing them. Establishment of an eco-industrial park is of special focus in it where  businesses cooperate with each other and with the local community in an attempt to reduce waste, efficiently share resources (such as information, materials, water, energy, infrastructure, and natural resources), and produce sustainable development, with the intention of increasing economic gains and improving environmental quality.

2. Infra structure development & Transportation:  Because of the impact of transportation, it is studies as an independent subject as Transportation economics associated with civil and mechanical engineering. Commuting and transportation are integral parts of any economic activity; therefore transportation is of main concern in urban economics. It has both positive and negative externalities. Further congestion, colloquially known as traffic jams, are a big problem as they result in slower speeds and longer lead times. The effects of congestion are:

 Stress and frustration of commuters that may boost road rage and affect their health. It causes fuel waste and air pollution.

A special demand and supply study is undertaken in it. Where demand is measured as total distance traveled during all trips and supply is the available capacity of transportation options. Moreover financial implications to build and to support a transportation network are also special area of study.

Moreover transit-oriented development, traffic calming and sustainable urban infrastructure are also areas of special interest in this category.

3. Public Finance/ Municipal Finance/Government. Finance: Revenue and expenditures are the essential features of any organizational activity. There financing methods and budgeting are the area of study under the topic of public finance.

4. Population studies:  In it the characteristics of the urban citizens are studied. Another phenomenon is that of Urban Migration is also of key importance.

5. Housing: Burgeoning population causes a problem among other things of housing. Affordable and environmentally sustainable housing are the tasks concerning Specialists of Urban studies and as well as economists. Landscape urbanism as well as public housing projects are some of the measures to resolve this issue.

6. Urban planning: Urban planning is a branch of land use planning and deals with the efficient placement of land use activities, infrastructure and settlement growth across an individual city or town The problems arising out of urban sprawl (unplanned, rapid and expansive urbanization) are a special area of interest for city planners. However, in it we also study various other issues. Another task of urban planning became urban renewal, and re-invigorating inner cities by adapting urban planning methods to existing cities, some with much long-term infrastructural decay. Some extreme measures like urban secession is a city's secession from its surrounding region; to form a new political unit are suggested for this purpose
 

7. Problem of Poverty, crime & Unemployment: Poverty is the main cause of crime and unemployment is another feature promoting crime. These features are important part of urban economics for the aim of economics is towards better standard of living and prosperity.

8. Urban Economic policy: It refers to the actions that local governments take in the economic field. It covers the systems for setting government deficit as well as the labor market, national ownership, and many other areas of government.

9. Economic geography: It is the study of the location, distribution and spatial organization of economic activities across the cities and its suburbs. It focuses on the Location theory, like industrial zones & economies of agglomeration and retail and wholesale businesses, on transportation and trade, and on the changing value of real estate. Urban economic geography is closely connected with topics as transportation, agriculture, industrial location, world trade the Geographic Information System, and the Spatial planning and function of business activity.

After the detailed media coverage that surrounded the Beijing Olympics highlighted the dubious effect that a highly populated nation can have on the world's environment, some of the earth's major cities are expected to come under the microscope with regards to their CO2 emissions policies. As population hubs, they represent more extreme examples of the human effect on the earth's environment.

Indeed Beijing alone was registered with an estimated population of 12.8m in 2007, and some of the world's other mega cities register more highly still; Tokyo, with its agglomerations Yokohama, Kawasaki and Saitama included, marked a total population of 33.6m, and Seoul, Mexico City and New York all have respective agglomerate populations of 23.4m, 22.4m and 21.9m respectively.

Beijing, then, has more than half the population as a city in its own right as New York has with its agglomerations Newark and Paterson, which is why its environmental and CO2 emissions policy was so heavily reported during the Olympics as a perfect case in point for the effect of mega cities on climate change, CO2 emissions and global warming.

Why, though, are mega cities so important to the problem of climate change? First, they are useful and practical when we are analysing the debate; with large populations, the more extreme results that they produce can be seen as a microcosm of effects in the world at large, making investigation of them fruitful and pertinent. Second, their investigation is warranted based on the fact that - as mega cities with large populations - they are some of the highest contributors to world CO2 emission levels, meaning that climate change and CO2 emissions cannot be separated from the growth of mega cities; the two concepts are interdependent.

A third, perhaps less pivotal but still important factor, is the prevalence of mega cities as cultural leaders. Cities like New York, Tokyo or Beijing are in many ways the 'crowning glory' of human society; population in such cities grow because they have the benefit of government spending and private investment, so that they are often the cities with the most impressive technological or social advances, and are often indeed the places where new concepts and initiatives are piloted. That status makes them some of the places on which new environmental policy might wish to be tested. As they contribute to CO2 emissions, it seems, they are looking to limit them.

Mega cities, then, have a paradoxical relationship with the environment;as centres of excellence, populations have flocked to them, and as cities they have flourished. But as culture and economy has grown, and as populations have grown with them, mega cities have naturally become some of the world's biggest polluters; with CO2 emissions being performed almost solely by humans, and populations in mega cities growing as these mega cities improve, they cannot fail to contribute to growing concerns of over climate change.

So the mega city is very much the keeper of a double edged sword. They at once represent the brilliance of human endeavour, in architecture, arts and technology - including, for example, the most recent Olympic games - but they also show how destructive the genius of the collective human mind can be; as mega cities grow, for that relationship to be overturned, we will perhaps have to think of a new set of terms for the achievement of brilliance.

In a casual dinner evening with a few ‘intellectual type’ friends, I popped the question of ethnic branding for modern habitation hubs. I didn’t realize that the cat was being let amongst the pigeons. Everybody latched on and debated – surprising, most were pro-ethnic branding. Names like ‘creek wood ridge’, ‘Ridgewood creek’, and ‘wood creek ridge’ (pun intended) were rejected outright.

Everyone expressed the desire to live in modern townships, with good infrastructure and public transport system, but with ethnic values & connotations. Some suggestions flowed for names like Harappa, Sampark, Takshila, Sapoorna, Sameeksha, Mannat, Vedanta, Abhimanyu, Lok-vatika, Stupa, Akanksha, Panchvati, Sukoon etc. A few hours of debate, and we all headed home.

A few weeks down the road, I started my research on the emerging scenario, in the Delhi-NCR region, with specific emphasis on the Delhi master plan MPD 2021. I came across the amazing story of the proposed 5 Mega-cities in Delhi. This is how it is unfolding.

Under the MPD 2021 master pan of Delhi, the government is planning five new mega cities. These are cities in the true nature of the word. They would be self contained and would consist of housing, shopping & market-place, universities & education, modern transportation including metro connectivity, leisure, parks & landscape, amusement hubs, exhibition areas, arts & cultural centres, and every form of indulgence and goo health living.

In the words of Mr. Dinesh Rai, Vice-chairman of DDA - "These mega cities have been planned to accommodate 60 per cent of the 230 lakh population by 2021. The DDA board has cleared the draft zonal plans, which provides for these mega cities. These will be finalised shortly."

Another member of the planning committee mentioned that “the intent is to accommodate the growing population within the existing urban limits by active redevelopment of some of the existing areas, and by the extension of the current urban limits.” Having absorbed the official tonality of the comment, I would see this as a drive to urbanize the rural (so-called) areas of Delhi, and create spanking new townships there, rather than just focus on creating housing.

Some of the design features, as proposed are as under:

 
a) Modern urban design – Evolving these cities and integrate with the vision of making Delhi a world class metropolis. (for a change, a government policy document says – “facilitate creation of signature projects”.

b) At least, 20% of the total land under development to be green areas.

c) Allow super tall structures. (A cut away from the plaid DDA built structures). The proposal seems to be to remove unnecessary controls of height etc.

d) Well connected, internally and with the other townships through expressways, Metro-rail, elevated corridors, other mass rapid transport systems and an efficient public transport.

e) Well laid out utility and facility corridors in all the cities. Create influence zones along MRTS and major transport corridor. Promote IT and other new-age businesses.

f) Blend our culture & heritage into the modern development.

g) Public interest sectors like Health, entertainment, education, sports facilities, standards of water supply to be supported with additional FAR & incentives, wherever applicable.

h) Disaster management centre provided in each administrative zone.

i) Elderly and disabled friendly city development.

j) Almost 8-10% of total land for development to be for the use of public & semi-public utilities.

The proposed draft master plan approved by the DDA encompasses more than 60,000 hectares of land, for development. It provisions for providing livelihood and shelter for a population increase by almost 75 lakhs, in Delhi. Almost 2.4 million new dwelling units are forecasted to be created. Almost 35% of these developments into housing & shelter would cater to the economically & socially weaker segments.

To augment this gargantuan task, a very healthy, proprietary and ‘spirit of ownership’ driven approach would be undertaken to involve the private sector in the development of the “Robust Delhi”. Let us now come to the five mega townships, their distribution strategy and how the analysts see the evolution. Let’s not forget that the last mega-city of sorts was Dwarka. (In terms of size).

Graphical notation of the 5 mega cities below.

From the map above, we can theoretically come to a conclusion where these five mega cities would come up. Each talks about some mind numbing number of acres under development. Let us read through them too, before we start analyzing where the money is going to flow into. Going forward, we can also do a SWOT of the same, to ensure that “our money is where the conviction goes!”

AREA – ZONE WISE – PROPOSED UNDER ZONING.

LOCALITY NAME OF ZONE IN MPD-2021 AREA Ha
South Delhi - II                               J                        15178
West Delhi & Dwarka                    K                       12190
West Delhi III                                 L                        22840
North west Delhi III                        N                       13975
North Delhi                                     P                       18400

All above approximate only. Source: draft document for MPD 2021 and www.delhi-masterplan.com

WHAT DO THE ABOVE MEAN FOR US?

The cities that hold the most promise, to my mind, are the ones which can accommodate the aspirations & needs of people seeking to either buy their first home OR upgrade their lifestyle.
They would be concentrated in the following three areas / zones.

a) South Delhi – The huge land tract adjoining the current developments of South Delhi, namely the zone ‘J’, would be one of the most sought after areas. The attractions in this zone would be the proximity to the existing developments, the connectivity including the metro and the lure of being in ‘south’ Delhi. We see the developments in this zone to be skewed towards the premium pricing, compared to some other zones. Developers Beware!!! Most prospective buyers in this new zone would ask for “MORE”. More value, more features & benefits, more value and more differentiation in the product that they would seek to invest. The flip side being that some of the developments would have to be undertaken taking into account the contours of the land available, and the density of population already in the area.

b) South west Delhi – This is one exciting belt for development opportunity for exciting modern townships, with all modern features & amenities. This is the area closest to the existing developments of Dwarka and the Delhi International airport. It would extend from the Bijwasan area upto Najafgarh. It would form part of the L and K zone, under the Delhi master plan MPD 2021. The existing contour of the land is flat, and the soil is soft and loamy, not rocky or marshy. The Najafgarh canal runs through this area, and some enterprising developers can make use of the canal to form part of their developments. There are 100 metre, 90 metre, 75 meter and 60 metre expressways and major roads which are proposed to be running through this zone. This zone also would be connected to Gurgaon through the 150 metre expressway, and would have direct access to the various SEZs planned around the KMP (Kundli-Manesar-Palwal) expressway and Pataudi road. This zone might have all the product categories and price ranges to offer; from Luxurious farm houses to mid end plotted developments to economy apartment projects.

c) North West Delhi – I am personally enthused about the opportunities in this zone, more from the perspective of returns on the investments, at the current levels. This area is north of the Delhi-Rohtak road and touches the developments of Rohini on one end. From the Heart of Delhi and the CBD areas, this zone would be well connected with the metro connectivity on almost 3 sides. This zone also would be connected to the Airport & Gurgaon through the 100 and 150 metre expressway. This zone also would be host to the “MINI INDIA” & “SAUNDARYA EXHIBITION” projects, in Kanjhawala. Also, DSIDC plans to have its projects spread over 950 acres in this zone. Since the Haryana government is planning economic corridors and new townships further down the Delhi-Rohtak road, a township with economic activity and affordable residential areas, within Delhi, would make immense investment sense. Most of all, while investing in land, my utmost consideration is always on how much would it appreciate, rather than how much is it today. When both being conducive, it becomes an immediate investment proposition.

Given the assumption that the projects and products envisaged would be created as it is planned & proposed, I forecast great value in living in these 05 mega cities in the future. I would love to look forward to step out of my 20th floor apartment, walk to work, through tree lined boulevards, take the metro for shopping, have leisure and relaxation avenues close to my home, and generally uplift the standard of living.