Regional Integrated Approach for Smart Master Planning: A Case of Kochi, Kerala, India

Abstract

Kochi, the commercial capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala, though a city largely interwoven with water bodies, the urbanism did not grow with the water but rather was side-lined and largely unutilized. Though the city grew beyond its boundaries in terms of physical development, there had been little active efforts or move toward administrative level merging of the city region bringing together the numerous towns around it to form an efficiently working larger city. Conventional master planning mechanisms and processes, which were prevalent in the city to a large extent often perceived this phenomenon through a blurred lens and failed to generate an output which tackled these regional dynamics. In this context, this chapter attempted to evaluate and analyze the approach of town planning process and mechanisms which lead to the development of the city’s master plan document through an extensive literature based as well as consultative study. It further investigated the extent of existing collaborations between the urban local bodies (ULB) and other institutions within the metropolitan area and their role in decision making during master planning. Further, it analyzed the factors of success/failures of Kochi Master plans in achieving the goals of regulatory and area development capability. Subsequently, it suggested innovative solutions and strategies to increase the efficiency of the Master plans to develop a Smart Master planning approach for the city of Kochi. The study indicated that the inactivity or low level of city’s planned interventions after the series of urban planning and design projects spearheaded by various agencies during the 1980s, left the city’s growth for organic haphazard development leading to a weak urban structure with a few centers of activity across its geography. Though the Kochi Municipal Corporation had the power to prepare and execute the master plan for the city, it had to continue to rely on the state departments due to the institutional capacity gap. Similarly, though several smart city schemes and programs in the city dealt with various development projects within the city, it lacked focus on bringing a holistic regional development. As a result, the master planning process in the city region happened as isolated efforts to form individual local level master plans for the city as well as for the other municipalities around it. The weak collaboration between the ULBs which constituted the metropolitan area contributed largely to the scenarios in the city region. Further to this, the drastic changes brought in largely by revolutionary or disruptive global trends/innovations as well as quicker shifts in activity distribution patterns within the city’s geography has turned master planning processes done through conventional methods to be too myopic or ineffective soon after they are prepared. Therefore, current study put forth smart master planning strategies that would address the regional challenges faced by the city and at the same time speed up the master planning process and thereby improve the efficiency of the Master plans in the city.