As the recently released Ease of Living Index placed rank of Srinagar at the bottom of 111 cities across the country, questions are being raised about the proper planning and infrastructure development of the city
Srinagar, once called Venice of the East, has been ranked at the bottom of the list of 111 cities across India in the Ease of Living Index launched in 2018 by the Government of India to measure the quality of life of people living in the cities across the country.
The poor performance of Srinagar in the EoLI and Municipal Performance Index – in both the indices, Srinagar has figured at the rank 49 among big cities with a population of more than 1 million – has only confirmed what the people living in the city already knew and were crying about for long.
Technically speaking, Srinagar is a metropolitan city with a population of more than 1.5 million people. But devoid of the basic infrastructure, which is considered the backbone of a modern city. Be it good roads, proper means of mobility, public transports, waste disposal mechanism, water or electricity facilities, or any other such basic infrastructure. None of its existing facilities passes the basic standard test.
The biggest of all the problems is that the city lacks proper planning and foresight of the people at the helm of affairs. Many of the decisions taken in the last three decades have adversely affected the lives of people in this city.
The unplanned expansion of the city, which has now crossed all the boundaries of the Srinagar district, has wreaked havoc on its green cover and environment. The pollution in the form of dust, particle matter in Srinagar is even worse than that of an industrial town. The unauthorised and unplanned construction is going on unabatedly in every nook and corner of the city. The formation of residential colonies is allowed without proper roads or sanitation.
Similarly, some of the decisions of the administration without weighing the consequences have taken a heavy toll on public life. For example, in the last two decades, all the bus stands were uprooted from the main city and were pushed towards the peripheries of the city. It spelt doom for the public transport of Srinagar, as boarding became inconvenient for the people, particularly for the office-goers, students and those who would visit hospitals or other government institutions regularly. It became the reason for the influx of private cars in the city, resulting in frequent traffic jams. This decision has also affected the trade and commerce of the city centre. Instead of addressing the problem, authorities are building parking spaces, thinking of it as the panacea for all traffic issues.
Likewise, the road construction of the city has happened in such a way, as if there are no engineers present in Kashmir. You won’t find a single bus-bay in the entire Srinagar city. The footpaths – a good number of them are though occupied by shopkeepers and vendors – are build in a way that they are not accessible to a normal person. Not to talk of persons with disabilities or old age people. Pedestrians have to walk in the same lane meant for automobiles, while hampering the traffic as well as endangering their own lives. Even at the busiest junction in the heart of the city, there is no pedestrian crossing facility, a zebra crossing is a far-fetched dream. We need to mind that no traffic management will work without proper road infrastructure.
Under the National Smart Cities Mission, Srinagar too was awarded a project to develop it as a ‘smart city’. The purpose of a smart city is to provide better infrastructure and services with the help of data and new technologies to improve the quality of life of the people and drive economic growth. But, so far, the role of Srinagar Smart City has been only seen in putting up a façade. Painting a few walls, installing TV screens and night lights in public places don’t make a city smart. Smart Cities Mission has the mandate to make Srinagar a better place to live, and it should work towards that by providing better infra and services.