Paper

Transformations of Urban Green Spaces (UGS) in Sub-Cities: A Case of New Town of Kolkata and Gurgaon of Delhi

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Abstract

Sub-cities offer affordable houses and often better living quality when compared to a mother city. One of the major causes of such better living quality is a greater share of land earmarked as urban green spaces in the prevailing master plan. The mega cities in India like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and their sub-cities accommodate a larger share of the total urban population compared to the other million population cities and fewer than million cities. For example, under national capital region (NCR) planning, Delhi, several such sub-cities are planned around the city of Delhi, such as Gurgaon, Noida, Dwarka, Rohini & Greater Noida. On the other hand, the Perspective Plan of Kolkata (KMDA) proposed several sub-cities, such as New Town (elsewhere also termed as Rajarhat), Bidhan Nagar (also termed as Salt Lake City), Kalyani, West Howrah etc. Among all those sub-cities, Gurgaon (population about 40 lakh) of Delhi and New Town (population 10 lakh) of Kolkata are the largest. These two sub-cities have also been developed with major investment from developers, with minimal financial involvement of city authorities. It is found that Urban Green Spaces (UGS) has been vulnerable to contraction, distortion and depletion, during the whole life cycle of sub-cities due to many reasons. The paper takes up the case of two contemporary sub cities developed around two major megacities (Delhi and Kolkata) in India to understand the nature and causes of such vulnerability. First, it gives an overview of such transformations from the literature. Second, it presents a narrative on the nature of transformation at spatial and temporal levels. It identifies the inherent causes of such transformations at various levels. Lastly, it discusses various issues and possible solutions at the planning and management level, community involvement and for use of technologies. The subject of the paper will open the discourses of management of green spaces in a better way, if predicted and foreseen at the time of planning and policy making.

Keywords: Urban Green Spaces, Sub-cities, Management, Transformations, New Towns

How to Cite:

Roy, U., (2019) “Transformations of Urban Green Spaces (UGS) in Sub-Cities: A Case of New Town of Kolkata and Gurgaon of Delhi”, Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning 6(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/5mss-5856