Shimla: Manoj Kumar was getting ready for work when the bell of his house rang. it changed his life forever
The police were on the other side of the door. Within minutes, the 48-year-old shopkeeper from Shimla lost his house and found himself with his wife and children standing under an umbrella on the side of the road. He was taken aback when the building adjacent to his house was collapsing. Kumar’s only crime was the owner of a flat in a building in Shimla. His family was among several residents of the Kachighat area that were evacuated overnight in September 2021 as Darshan Cottage – a nine-storey building was about to collapse.
“It was the worst time of my life, I don’t even want to remember it. It is annoying,” Kumar said.
He is one of the victims of Shimla’s poor development and gross neglect of the authorities. He could not return to his home for a year as this too is a precarious structure which could meet the same fate as Darshan Cottage.
danger to residents
Shimla is stuck on time, struggling to find the right way to develop infrastructure that keeps its heritage fresh, preserves the environment, and meets the needs of its growing population.
As the largest city of Himachal Pradesh it has a population of around 3 lakhs. Situated at an altitude of 2,276 meters above sea level, Shimla is struggling to accommodate the people. People of Himachal Pradesh prefer to build house in Shimla for better health and education. The city is expanding horizontally but in a non-planned manner. It also has an additional ‘temporary’ population of about 70,000 (according to the 2041 Draft Development Plan). The city experiences massive traffic jams which can be notorious like Bengaluru and running out of parking space. To add to everything, there’s also running out of water in it.
For almost half a century, Shimla’s infrastructure was based on an interim development plan drawn up in 1979. The streets of the city were being carved. The recent plan, the Draft Development Plan for 2041 that was presented by Jai Ram Thakur to the government in February 2022, was quashed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The lack of monitoring development has brought Shimla to the brink of devastation.
According to the Hazard Vulnerability and Risk Assessment Report (HVRA) by the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC), several buildings in the city are collapsing, such as those in the Kachchi Valley – with 65 per cent of the city’s buildings classified under ‘high vulnerability’. , Reports say that between 5,000 and 20,000 people could die if the epicenter of the quake hits Shimla.
Chhatrant Singh, convener of Shimla Upanagar Jan Kalyan Samiti and Shimla Sangharsh Samiti, said, “The townhall building built in 1888 is also earthquake resistant, but not new.” “The northern slope of the ridge is sinking. Going down Grand Hotel West, Lakkar Bazar.
News of landslides are becoming regular in the newspapers. Another four-storey building in Chaupal Bazar in July had collapsed.
Its worst problem is evident in Shimla’s Krishna Nagar, an unauthorized slum area with a population of over 4,000. This mostly includes the working class and migrant workers from Himachal, Bihar and other parts of Uttar Pradesh. The picturesque beauty of a hill station is not to be found here, but there is chaos in the area as people do not have enough to cover themselves properly.
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Growing crisis on the road
On weekends and during busy traffic season, Shimla can give a tough competition to Bengaluru as well.
“If I ever need to be taken to a hospital in case of an emergency, I will never be able to make it,” said Mala Singh, a former councilor who lives in the city.
The average speed of cars in peak traffic is just 10 km/h. The city has a main main road (Cart Road) about 18 km long, and 74.8 km of municipal roads connecting Shimla with the Cart Road. Ironically Sir Colin Douglas Buchanan, author of traffic in townsBritain’s most famous town planner hails from Shimla.
random construction
Shimla was initially planned to accommodate about 25,000 people under the British Raj, which was made possible by the immense wealth and scientific prowess of the colony.
After independence, when Himachal Pradesh got statehood, all planning in Shimla was done on the basis of an interim development plan made in the year 1979. “The interim development plan has led to smooth development in Shimla rather than planned,” Tikender said. Singh Panwar, author on urban development issues and former Deputy Mayor of Shimla. “The plan does not have a disaster risk reduction or mitigation strategy or a dynamics plan,” he said.
About 90 percent of all construction in Shimla is done on 60-degree slopes, which are against architectural and geological norms, making these buildings more susceptible to natural disasters.
Wandering around Shimla, mighty tall structures can be seen in the ‘core’ area as well. Himachal Pradesh High Court located in the core area is a 13-storey building, which has not been repaired since the order of the NGT. This is a pity for its residents who never fail to bring the building up while complaining about their problems.
Published in February this year, the problems with development in the city are spelled out in the Draft Development Plan-Shimla Planning Zone 2041. A Zone IV seismic zone, Shimla has buildings with ‘soft’ stories not only on the ground but also on the upper floors. A ‘soft’ floor is a level that is weaker than the floors below it. The buildings here are also built in irregular L, H, or U designs which cannot withstand earthquakes. They are also built in close proximity, which increases the danger, as smaller buildings may be pounding on the pillars of taller buildings. About four percent of Shimla’s total population lives in slums in submerged areas prone to landslides.
In 2017, the NGT had banned any construction in Shimla’s green zones and allowed construction of only two storeys and one attic outside the main areas, saying that unplanned activities would cause “irreparable damage to the environment, ecology”. There could be further damage, and natural resources”. The tribunal had acted on a 2014 petition by environmental activist Yogesh Mohan Sengupta.
The development plan for 2041, launched on the orders of the NGT, sought some relaxation on construction in the city. The plan allows construction on privately owned land in green areas – 6.28 per cent of the total green areas – provided no trees are cut.
This allows for construction in core areas and non-core areas, and increases the number of floors from two and a half floors to three and a half.
In July, the NGT scrapped this development plan. “It is pointed out that the State of Himachal Pradesh is trying to assume the jurisdiction of the Appellate Authority over the NGT in contravention of the rule of law, not expected of a legitimate Government, which has to act in accordance with the law and the Constitution, nor That appears to be the case as fantasies on its own. The Chief Secretary should be held personally liable for prosecution for such patent illegal acts of the State officials,” the tribunal said. The comments and proposals in the State Plan are deemed illegal in view of the above-mentioned submissions.”
“The NGT has rightly rejected the draft development plan,” Panwar said. “The draft development plan is a land use document and not an infrastructure plan. It is based on the same old formula of dividing the city into zones, as in the plains, which is unscientific. It does not speak about the architecture of the mountain,” he said. “For example, the area near Krishna Nagar is a lush green forest, but has been kept out of the green zone.”
Instead of taking a regional approach, Panwar suggested that such areas should be identified where the mountains can withstand heavy construction. “The north-west region receives plenty of sunlight, which hardens the rock and makes the mountain suitable for building tall buildings, while the south-west region, where sunlight is not sufficient, has moist soil. In those areas, there may be limits on the number of floors,” he said.
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resident conflict
53 year old Avinder Pal Singh has a beautiful house in Shimla. His father, a bureaucrat, had bought large land in the city and built a house in the city in the late 60s. These plots were auctioned by the Municipal Corporation. However, since he could not engage in commercial activity, most of the land was lying vacant.
“I pursued a degree in travel and tourism with the hope of building a hotel on this land, but after the municipal commission declared this land a part of the green zone, I could not do any activity here,” Singh said.
Additional green areas were notified in December 2000 by amending the Interim Development Plan. Among them was the house of the lion.
He is among those who disagree with the NGT order banning any construction in the core area of Shimla and banning construction of more than two storeys and one attic in non-core areas of Shimla.
Pal Singh said that there is more nefarious conspiracy in banning the construction. “Before the NGT ban in Shimla, an investment of Rs 2,000 crore was expected for commercial and infrastructure projects. After the ban, all those investments were diverted to the tri-city Chandigarh. All investments are being lobbying to stay in the tri-city and not come to Shimla,” he said.
Citizen-led movements and organizations are also fighting the ban on construction as it disrupts their livelihoods. Over the years, the SMC has also expanded and taken over new areas which were villages outside Shimla. Chhatrant Singh, convener of Shimla Suburban Jan Kalyan Samiti and Shimla Sangharsh Samiti. Chatranta said that since the village land comes under SMC, their privately owned land has become regularized and they have not been able to build on it as it now falls in the green zone, leading to over-development by the tourism industry. He is going. Non-key areas where tall buildings were built. “This has led to the concretization of Shimla,” said Chatrant.
(Edited by Likes)