THANE: The collapse of t he Krishna Niwas on Tuesday has once again brought to the fore the issue of redevelopment of buildings in congested areas of the city.
Hundreds of buildings in Naupada, Wagale Estate or Kalwa are dang erous and need to be redeveloped. It is, however, stalled as most of these buildings may not satisfy MRTP norms of fire safety or open spaces.
A civic official said, “As per the MRTP rules, there should be 9m refuge area around the building to allow free movement of f i re vehicles. The nor ms also include providing parking facility and open areas for each building. There is no space for the fire vehicle to pass in the congested areas so how can it be provided in redeveloped building?”
Sulakshana Mahajan, urban town planner, said systematic planning will help the city deal with the issue rather than just implementing the government schemes. “The building which collapsed was close to the railway line. There are other such buildings in the area. It is not possible to redevelop only one building but there needs to be one plan for a group of 10 to 15 buildings in one area,” she added.
“Most of these decisions are taken by politicians, most of whom are developers themselves. They also play vote bank politics by promising free homes to the people. However, none of this will solve the problems of the city,” she said.
A single proposal will help follow the MRTP nor ms of f ire safety, building safety, open spaces and ventilation. However, it is difficult to make all tenants agree with the proposal.
Mahajan said the draft of cluster development was prepared for congested areas by a group of urban planners after a ground study of areas in Mumbai and nearby cities. She added, “The scheme, however, distorted. The problem is that no one takes into account the views of planners or architects while making policies on dangerous constructions.”
The urban town planner said the cluster scheme will be different for every city depending on its geographical area and the socio- economic f actors. “A single scheme cannot benefit everyone and it should be planned area-wise for each of these congested areas,” she added.
No comments:
Post a Comment