April 13 is the Foundation Day of Bhubaneswar. It was on this day in 1948 that India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had laid the foundation stone for the new capital city.
The Master Plan of Bhubaneswar was prepared by internationally acclaimed urban planner, Otto H Koenigsberger in 1948 for a population of 40,000 over an area of 16.48 sq km with a density of 10 to 12 families per acre. The city was developed on neighborhood principles. Each residential neighborhood is planned around an educational and recreational centre with open spaces for community functions.
Local shopping for every two sets of neighborhoods is grouped together with the intention of improving business prospects. The town centre consisted of the market building, weekly market, and daily market. Koenigsberger suggested seven types of roads – footpaths, parkways, cycle paths, minor housing streets, major housing streets, main roads and main arteries – for seven groups of users for seven different functions. The overall widths of land earmarked for roads determined by traffic and the requirements for storm water drainage services and avenue trees.
The city has now undergone various transformations. Bhubaneswar was a small sacred town in 1921 with population of 8,110 persons only. Later on the city became a class IV town and retained the same status until 1951. In 1951 the population increased to 16,512. Population further increased to 38,211 in 1961, 1,05,491 in 1971 and 2,19, 211 in 1981. In 1991 population was 4, 11,542.
Bhubaneswar got the NAC status in 1952. It became a Class III town in the next Census of 1961 and a Class I city with municipality status in 1971, depending on its population strength and other urban characteristics.
The city was declared a Municipal Corporation in the year 1994 and according to the 2001 census it accommodated 6,48,032 people in the city. As per the 2011 census, the population of Bhubaneswar is 837,737 and covers an area of 135 sqkm. The decadal growth rate of the city is 30.2 per cent indicating that Bhubaneswar is growing very fast.
To meet the changing needs, the city requires more land. Today, the city’s growth is so fast that it is spreading towards Khurda and Jatani. To formulate a meaningful physical development plan, to regulate and guide the urban growth in Bhubaneswar by 2030 in a planned and healthy manner, a Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for Bhubaneswar Development Planned Area (BDPA) was prepared.
The city was declared as Smart City by the Government of India under its Smart City Mission in 2015. Bhubaneswar ranks number one in the smart city pilot project. American Planning Association awards Bhubaneswar Smart City Plan the 'Pierre L’Enfant International Planning Excellence Award' as part of the 2017 National Planning Excellence Awards. This award recognizes planning practices and efforts undertaken outside the United States to promote communities of lasting value. The award criteria are based on a set of goals developed by the Global Planners Network.
A vital component of a Smart City is sustainability, which may be threatened by extreme use of resources. This may result environmental degradation of the city. A report by the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) revealed that pollutants in the ambient air were found to be far above the permissible limit at all the six pollution monitoring stations in the city, such as at Patrapada, the IRC village, the OSPCB office, the Capital police station, Rasulgarh and at the OSPCB laboratory in Chandrasekharpur.
Based on air pollution, the city is categorized into Highly Critical Areas, Moderately Critical Areas, and Critical Areas. Highly Critical Areas are Bhagabanpur, Patrapada, Aignia, Unit – 20, Shankarpur, Khandagiri, Udaygiri, Dumuduma and areas all along National Highway 5 and 203. Moderately Critical Areas are Core area of the city. Critical Areas are Jaganath prasad, Sundarpur, Chandrasekharpur, Bharatpur, Sampur, Malipada, Andharua areas of the city.
The State Pollution Control Board has analyzed daily pollution data from the manual monitors to indicate the proportion of days in a year that have exceeded the national ambient air quality standards for PM10 between 2008 and 2017. In Bhubaneswar the percentage of days violating the daily standards has increased from 26 per cent in 2008 to 45 per cent in 2017.
Control of vehicular pollution requires transportation and mobility strategies to reduce traffic volumes and total vehicle kilometers travelled in the city. Such action has already started in Bhubaneswar that includes bus sector reform, infrastructure for non-motorized transport (NMT), street design guidelines, transit oriented urban planning, parking management and electric mobility etc.
As per the Smart City Plan, Bhubaneswar Smart City Ltd has launched several schemes to advocate and implement NMT plan and policies. As part of the clean air action plan comprehensive street design guidelines and non-motorised transport policy may help to promote zero emissions mode and leverage the high share of walking and cycling practice.
Besides, there are number of native trees which can be able to trap pollutants in the city. The value of Air Pollution Tolerance Index (APTI) of the native trees is important for the preparation of landscape development plan.
(Dr Praharaj is a teacher at the Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar)
