Summary of my research so far

In my 2+ months here so far, I think my research is going fairly well. One of things you realize quickly when you arrive is that getting what you need here doesn't work the same way as in the US. You have different expectations of what information you want and what is actually available. For example, in the US you can easily get GIS map layer data for a city, but here that information is simply not available. Of utmost importance is patience because here things take longer, you have to meet the right people to get what you want, and often you have to go through several people to get something accomplished. I have realized that we really value our independence in the US and the ability to do things for ourselves. Along with being patient, you have to let go of your independence and ask other people to help you do things. So overall you have to let go of some of your expectations and the time you want to accomplish things in because otherwise you will be very frustrated.

So to sum up my research, I have spoken with a number of planners and planning professors, have been learning Gandhinagar by traveling there and observing its character, observing how people use space in India, traveled to Chandigarh to compare it to Gandhinagar, and have found and read books on my topic.

Also to understand whether Gandhinagar has been 'Indianized' from its origins as a plan based on the very much western-influenced Chandigarh, I have also been observing how people typically use space in India to be able to compare. Some of the main things I have noticed:

Space in India is very multi-functional and multi-layered.
For example, in the day space may be used for parking while at night or during a festival, it could converted into a celebration area, bazaar, or something else. Sidewalks aren't usually used for walking like in the US. Instead people make their homes there, build small temples, or set up their shop carts. Sometimes that's were the cows are dogs are, so most people just walk on the edge of the street. Similarly, during Diwali firecracker sellers would set up semi-permanent stands on the sidewalk right in front of permanent shops, so that the permanent shop was completely obscured from the road. Do they create some deal with the permanent shop owner? Why is this allowed? I don’t know.

Unless police, etc. are constantly enforcing laws, people will do whatever they want.
I was amazed that in Chandigarh there are very few cows and few beggars, but it is because the local government there strictly enforcing these things. I thought it was amusing that Koenigsberger, the western planner of Bhubaneswar wanted to create separate traffic lanes for every type of vehicle there. In Ahmedabad in some places have separate bike lanes, but I rarely see them used. Often people are again using them as living spaces or selling spaces. If traffic is congested, then people on motorcyles clog up the bike lanes to get through faster. Medians also seem to be a bad idea here. They don't provide enough crossings for pedestrians and plantings in them can make it difficult to see oncoming traffic. If there aren't enough breaks in the median, autorickshaws and motorcyles will simply drive on the side of the road into oncoming traffic rather than drive the correct direction place to U-turn.

Ideas of ownership of space and/or privacy differs.
In the US we really value our individuality, but in India the culture seems to value more the idea of a group consensus, doing what is best for everyone. With its traditions of having joint-family houses and a large overall population, this would make sense. In houses and public buildings I have seen less of an "ownership" of space. For example, at Ball State everyone had his/her desk in studio to keep their things, and they personalized that space. There is a lot less of that happening at CEPT. I have often seen that building layouts omit hallways to maximize space in actual rooms. As a result individuals have to pass through the middle of classrooms or bedrooms and disturb the activities there.

So overall, the best thing seems to be is to create very unencumbered, unrestrictive spaces that allow people to use them in the ways that meet their needs. If a need is not included in a city plan, the informal sector will self-build to meet that need whether it be housing or shops.

Ok, more in the next installment!

The golden temple

10.20.09

Harpreet and I left very early to catch an A/C bus to Amritsar. We got up at 5:30 and his dad drove us to the bus. It took 4 hours to get there. Harpreet had gone to school in undergrad there in Amritsar. We went to this little hole-in-the-wall place where they have this Amritsar specialty called Kulcha that you can only get there. Amritsar is the site of the main Sikh religion's pilgrimage place called the golden temple. It is where the original of their holy book is kept. It is such a beautiful and peaceful place! You walk around the periphery of this holy lake that is supposed to have healing properties, so many people take a bath in it. In the center of the lake is where the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book, is kept. They read aloud from it and sing hymns from it; the singing is accompanied by tabla drums and harmonium and is very beautiful. Someone donated bose speakers to the temple so you can hear the music from everywhere in the complex. There is a bridge to get in to see where the book is kept, and the line is crowded. I think we waited 45 min or so to get in, it was pretty warm and crowded, but the inside was beautiful, too. Lots of ornate painting and a huge chandelier. It was overall a really amazing experience!

I think the best part of the trip though was being around Harpreet's family – even though they spoke in Punjabi sometimes and I couldn’t understand everything, it just reminded me of my own family and their dynamics. His dad was explaining about their religion – he has a little temple room in their house where he reads the holy book in the morning and evening. He was explaining how the book has teachings from saints from all different religions and that it’s accepting of everyone. To name their kids, the priest flips open a page, picks a random word and the letter starting with it is the letter the name should begin with. And there are 5 main things it warns against – like pride and greed. They believe all religions are worshiping the same, one god.

The two brothers are twins and are funny. Hunny lives in Baroda and loves to take trips all around while Harpreet and Sunny stay at home and don’t go out on the weekend. But it was funny to see, their mom saying how Hunny argues with her all the time on the phone. One time he called her only to say, "I can't talk now, I'm busy." I didn’t realize she spoke English for the first day! I didn’t know she knew what I was saying, but she just didn’t feel confident speaking it, but she could fine!

Their mom and dad said the town each is from, has a mental institution so that’s why they are all mental! And they told how they lived in Delhi growing up, and then moved to Chandigarh and their dad bought the land for their row house and how he wanted it designed and how he keeps their garden. When the sons get married he will build up a level for their families. The have a mango tree, a lemon tree, eggplant, bottle gourd. But it was too cute when their mom had made their favorite Chutney with cilantro and and mint and they were so excited.

It was just nice to see them all relaxed in the evening and joking. We were eating and I was going to pass a big platter but Harpreet said, no no it’s too heavy for you. So I said, come on, I’m not some little delicate flower. His mom laughed and said, yeah we’re all fat here! I guess her sisters comment about her weight and she doesn’t like it, but it was so funny, like something we’d say at home. Hunny had been to Italy for work and was talking about the food there, and how he had tried to eat non-veg but didn’t. And his boss from Spain who just wanted to come to India to shop. He’s working in Baroda now which is in Gujarat. He noticed that I ate my paratha with only one hand, and he said, someone in Gujarat told you to eat it that way, right? And they had when I was here before! His Guju roommate had told him the same thing. His mom said you have two hands, you should eat with two hands.

Oh and his mom even had bought me a yellow salwar kameez material to have stiched! It was so nice! And I think she also checked on me while I was sleeping because I didn't put the sheet over me when going to bed, but both nights I woke up covered; so cute! They are all so nice; I really enjoyed it a lot!

More Chandigarh

This is a continued entry from the previous one - So we went to the Capitol Complexl Corbusier's big master piece of his designs for the government buildings - the Secretariat, The Assembly, and the High Court. I must say I was really surprised and really disappointed. The buildings of the capitol complex are of course well designed, but the sighting of them is not great at all. I had read that the scale of the plazas was much too big, and it was, but I didn't feel that this was even the main problem. They are so far apart and there isn’t a clear line of sight between them. And especially it seems there was little thought as to the entry vistas by the road. There is no visual impact until you are directly in front and you can’t really see the buildings unless you go through the police guards. I think the view of the capitol complex is much better in Gandhinagar. There is a main road leading to it with a big linear garden in the median which lines with the center of the capitol buildings and seems to make a much better vista. If Corbusier was so concerned with his buildings, I am surprised he didn't take more care to make them more highly visible. The idea of democracy is quite strong in India, but the kind of 'hiding' the government buildings gives it even more a sense of being inaccessible to the people.


After we had a snack at Sukhna Lake; it was nice to see so many people enjoying the area. The landscaping of the city is really pretty; there are lots of big old mango trees. I really didn’t expect to like Chandigarh at all, because I knew Gandhinagar was based off of it’s plan, and I don’t like Gandhinagar. But Chandigarh was different; it had a lot more of the vibrancy that Gandhinagar lacks. There are all these parks and gardens – a rose garden, Bougain Villa garden…We drove around the campus of the big university there. Actually after seeing Chandigarh, I think you can't really compare Gandhinagar and Chandigarh at all; the similarities are only in the physical planning of sectors and roads. There are so many other factors that have contributed to the unique development of each city. For example, Gandhinagar is so close to Ahmedabad that it is really just a satellite town, while Chandigarh has developed into a major hub of it's region and people come from all around to shop. Also Chandigarh has many more tourist attractions than Gandhinagar. The population of Chandigarh is quite affluent; I have never seen so many cars in an Indian city. However, Gandhinagar's population is mostly lower income groups so they don't have the buying power that Chandigarh has. And the Punjabis are so proud of this city! Proud of the design, the cleanliness, the many plants. When you talk to someone in Gandhinagar, no one likes it, most people seem to prefer to live in Ahmedabad. Overall it was really interesting to finally see this city that I had read so much about! It was really a pleasant surprise!

Then went to one of the oldest sectors in the city to see the housing there. I think the housing doesn’t look sad and drab like it does in Gandhinagar, and people have little gardens with potted plants in front. Even the community commercial areas seem nicer and it looks like there’s a lot less empty, open space like in Gandhinagar.

When we went back to Harpreet’s house, his mom’s sister and her daughter were there. They live close enough that they come almost every day. They have both lived in Australia for awhile, and his aunt took me us in her car for a drive around Mohali. Then we came back and had an awesome Punjabi dinner. The paratha were great! I can see why Harpreet only likes Punjabi food – but he says he only likes it if it’s “oily, rich, and spicy.”

Chandigarh on Scooter

10.19

We took the scooter the next day to see the city. The next day I wanted to go to the Chief Architect/Planner’s office Sumit Kaur, to see if I could get some files of zoning maps and with density and land that was privately and publicly owned, but apparently they don’t even have GIS maps of these things like they do in the US. It’s like we’re speaking different languages when I ask for these things, so it was pretty disappointing. The difficult thing here is that they don’t have the data like we do in the US. Like most cities now have GIS layers for zoning and density and things like that, and if you ask for it, it’s not a big deal for them to send you the files. Before coming to Chandigarh I called the Chief Architect’s office to see if they had these types of digital files that I could get, and they said yes, I could come and get them. So I get there and they don’t have these digital files at all. I’d really like a map of which land is owned by the government and which is privately owned. In the US you can know this type of information for each parcel. I thought they would have this in digital format; they didn’t. And then the City Museum was closed on Mondays, unfortunately! And then the chief architect suggested I look at Norma Evenson's book on Chandigarh about the density. Except that this book was written in the 1960s! So I'm sure it's changed a bit since then!

Then the Nek Chand Rock Garden which was amazing!This city engineer just started making these sculptures out of discarded materials and it grew into this huge, amazing rock garden. When the city found out about it, they were going to destroy it but ended up giving him the land for it, and now it's a big tourist attraction. The spaces in the garden are really great - all these different patterns made with rock. Mosaics made from broken porcelain toilets, huge waterfalls, lots of animal and people sculptures. It was really amazing!

Delhi to Chandigarh

So I flew into Delhi and arrived at around 10 pm. It took a bit to find exactly where Valerie was staying, and it was late, so we pretty much went right to bed. It was Diwali day, so they were shooting of so many crackers the whole city was smoky!

I took an auto early to the main New Delhi railroad station. My train, the Kalka Shabti, left at 7:40. There are 16 platforms and I had to pass them all to get to #2, but the train was really nice, an A/Ccoach. Although it took me forever to find the right seat. I sat in the wrong one like 4 times. It took about 4 hours to get to Chandigarh, but I could even use my internet from the train! Harpreet’s brother, Sunny, who he lives with in Mumbai picked me up in an auto b/c Harpreet had gone with his parents to meet a potential wife.

His brother was really nice, and took me to their row house in Mohali, a suburb to the south of Chandigarh. His twin brother, Hunny, was there too, so we talked for a bit, and then I took a bath, and we all took a nap while we waited for them to get back. They fixed me some great paratha and eggs for breakfast. They got back and we chatted for awhile, they showed me his dad’s little garden in front of the house – lots of potted plants that would be just house plants at home. In the evening we took an auto to sector 17, the city center with all the commercial. There were so many people it was amazing! It was so vibrant, even though many of the shops were closed – so unlike Gandhinagar. He showed me the oldest movie theater, obviously a Corbu design, which they were threatening to tear down a replace with a mall. And we went to the oldest coffee show there form 1957 which started as a coffee co-op. All the shops were really high-end foreign brands, and it’s amazing to see how many cars there were parked there. In Ahmedabad it would be only motorcyles. I hadn’t seen that many cars since leaving the US.

Diwali Rangoli

Some pics of people selling these colored powders to make Rangolis - this sand art on the ground.

Dress Up

My friends Vishal and Riccha invited me and also our friend Ruchi and her family to dinner at their place. It was a lot of fun! Ruchi translated to me for her mom about their cooking preparations for Diwali, their big holiday coming up. Vishal began talking about the different styles of saris in India, and so Riccha pulled out her collection and showed me the different kinds she had. She had several beautiful, elaborate ones from their wedding this past December. She dressed me up in one of them, a heavy, elaborately embrodiered, deep red one, and then she put on her bright yellow one from the wedding. We even dressed Ruchi up, even though she doesn't like wearing saris.

Tibetan dinner

So an American friend of mine invited me to dinner at a Tibetan place. He said to meet him at the National Institute of Design and we would walk from there, so a few other guys joined us. Now I was expecting a regular restaurant, but apparently all these Tibetans come to Ahmedabad during the winter, so they stay in these tiny brick self-built houses and some cook and sell their food until they go back to Tibet in the summer.

So there were all these little houses, and Zach wasn't sure which one he had been to before, but a woman pointed us inside one. It was this tiny, one room house with a sheet up dividing where a woman was cooking. There were already several Indian guys sitting around these plank tables on bricks eating. We had some great hot lemon tea, but they had run out of MoMos - these steamed or fried dumplings, so we went to another place Zach had been to. This place was a bit bigger and apparently NID students had painted decorations on the wall - there was a big dragon. There were the same tables, so we sat down, had some lemonade, and then they brought out the MoMos. They actually had like beef sausage in them. We ordered steamed and fried - I think the steamed ones were the best. Then there was this pot of noodles with broth and a plate of beef strips with vegetables. It was soooo good! So nice to have meat cooked well by a culture that actually eats it! And nice not to have only roti and a curry!

Chittorgarh Fort

So the next day we decided to take a side trip to this Chittorgarh Fort we had seen a model of in a museum. It was two hours east and out of the way, so we had to leave early. Here's some history about it:

The history of Chittorgarh, which is one of the oldest cities of Rajasthan dates back to the 8th century. It was given as a dowry gift to Bappa Rawal, the founder of the Sisodia Dynasty when he married the last Solanki princess somewhere in the 8th century. Spread over a 7-mile long hill, the city of Chittorgarh was ruled by the descendants of Bappa Rawal till somewhere around the 16th century.

Chittorgarh was always a fiercely contested seat of power due to its strategic location. In fact Chittorgarh's history is fraught with some of the bloodiest battles of all times. It was sacked a number of times, the most famous attack being the one launched by Alauddin Khilji, the sultan of Delhi who was enamored by its then queen Padmini's beauty. The tale of this brave queen who sacrificed her life to escape dishonor is still sung about by the local musicians of Rajasthan. In fact the history of Chittorgarh is replete with the tales of its gallant warriors for whom honor triumphed over everything.

After Khilji's attack, Bahadur Shah attacked Chittorgarh in 1535 AD followed by a third one by Akbar in 1568. The last attack was the final straw and Chittorgarh never recovered from this attack. In fact, the city was never inhabited after that. Right now, this ghost town still reverberates with the tales of its past glory and the sacrifices made by its people.

So it's this huge fort on top of a hill. There are a bunch of temples inside and this big Victory Tower they constructed when they won a battle with a lot of intricate carvings.

So then we had to drive back to Udaipur 2 hours and then back all the way to Ahmedabad, another 5 or so. But again the hills and mountains were so pretty along the way!

Around Udaipur

Oct. 10

We reached Udaipur the night before and so were ready to this morning. We had a really nice Rajasthani Thali for dinner at the hotel outside next to the pool. They served these big baskets of naan, paratha, and this special roti that was really good. Shrawan had suggested this place called Shilpagram that apparently Gandhi had started to preserve village culture. It was like a living history museum basically, and they brought tribal people and artisans for short periods to perform and sell their handicrafts. And they had recreated these traditional village architecture form areas like Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Goa. This retired professor was out guide and was explaining about the architecture. He was a funny guy and if you asked a question he was like, “just a minute, I will tell you.” The villages in Rajasthan used a lot of clay and cow dung to keep the bugs out. The doors were short to keep the sun out, and the compound they showed us was for multiple families living together. There was a building for weaving on the loom, and one used to keep foods cool. The walls were really thick on that one and the roof was really tall and there was ventilation underneath.
So then we were trying to figure out about the palaces to see, and the driver asked for directions to the Lake Palace, but it definitely wasn’t it! It was just a little lake! Finally we figured out where it actually was, but the Lake Palace in the middle of the lake is now a really, really expensive hotel and you can’t go in it. So we went to the City Palace instead. It again cost Rs. 200 to take your camera so we didn’t. There were lots of courtyards with fountains, lots of stairs and narrow passages, too. Then there were rooms decorated with all these colored mirrors, or colored tiles, or inlaid tile/enamel. This palace had actually been used up until the 50s because it was a princely state. Caryn had been to Udaipur before and said we could make it up to the Monsoon Palace if we got to the bottom gate before 5:30 so we hurried over there. It was this palace that had never been finished but it was up at the top of this big hill and was being restored or something, so there really wasn’t much to see in it. It was really just for the view which was amazing. We happened to get there in time to see the sun set!

In the Village

Oct. 9

We spent the morning in Mt. Abu. It was so nice and peaceful and cool! We went to this big lookout point on a mountain that had a great view. And then to this temple that was up on the mountain so you had to go up all these steps to get there; my legs were sore the next day! It was so sad! Then there was this big Brahma Kumari place; as far as I could tell it was this Hindu sect that has branches all over the world. These guys gave us a tour, but I couldn’t understand his accent, so I really don’t understand quite what it was all about. Also the religious ideas were pretty foreign to me- they kept talking about the “Copper Age” or the “Golden Age.” It was an odd tour because there were just these paintings to tell the story and then we went into this big auditorium. In another part of the city there was this Brahma Kumari Peace Park in this kind of typical Indian garden style. There are a lot of shrubs and topiary and gaudy colors, trash cans with animals on them. I still don’t understand their poor garden design. There is just a huge lack of sophistication and aesthetics. There was this like Quanset hut in the middle with this “laser show” with a video talking about Vishnu as the father and how he loves all his children, and these meditation rooms. It was pretty weird.
But we finally left for Udaipur which was about another 5 hours, but again the landscape was really beautiful with all the hills. We stopped at this little highway hotel and there was a village across the way, so we walked over there to see it. A woman started showing us around and then a boy who spoke English. There were all these buildings made with hand-laid stones that were really beautiful. But they had used some mass-produced gates and pieces and had then built onto the house with more standard materials like plaster. Nihal and Gaurab were saying it was too bad that they hadn’t used the stone. I said I think we were being hypocritical, because they probably got a bit more money and wanted to upgrade their house, and that there were probably a lot of downsides to the stone houses. We were just looking at it from our middle-class perspective.That it was just like we would do, if we got a raise we might put new siding up or repaint or something. They showed us their big well and the machine that they hooked to an ox to turn and bring up the water. We walked through their fields where they were growing wheat, and there were these little channels dug from the well to irrigate the fields.

Mt. Abu

My new favorite Hindi word is “wala;” from what I can tell the best way to translate it is “something that does something.” Like autowala is an autorickshaw driver, but I’ve even heard it used as Vanillawala to refer to Vanilla ice cream. Also another interesting Indian English term is the use of the word ‘only.’ Like for example, “you get those shoes from America only” or “you’re from America only.”
Anyway we left for Mount Abu and Udaipur in Rajasthan this morning at 9:30. The day before we finalized everything with the travel agent – for the car and hotel for 4 days/three nights, it was about Rs. 6,000. It was me, Caryn, Nihal, Karuna, and Gaurab. It took 5 or 6 hours to driver there, but the landscape was so great. There were all these crazy rocky hills and mountains. We were very lucky to have Gaurab there to be able to speak Hindi! The driver had his own ideas of what we should see, and he wanted to take us to all these temples – we did stop at some though, and we stopped at the Adalaj Wav which is the stepwell near Gandhinagar because Karuna and Gaurab hadn’t been there. Karuna made some nice egg salad sandwiches for the drive, and it was so nice to have something more American and not so oily and spicy!
So we finally got to Mount Abu and found the Lake Palace Hotel where we were staying. It was right overlooking this big lake surrounded by the mountains, so it was really pretty. There were lots of people in boats, and the weather was so nice and cool and breezy like a warm fall day. It was great to be out of Ahmedabad for awhile! At night it was even pretty chilly! But I was not going to complain about it at all after the heat of Ahmedabad! So we went to see this amazing Jain temple on the mountain called Delwara. There was a lot of marble and intricate carvings of the ceiling and on all the columns, and it was a complex of several temples. There were all these monkeys playing around on top of the temple. On the way down there were a bunch of monkeys along the road, so we stopped and gave them crackers out the window, so they were climbing all over the car and sticking their fingers in the window crack.
Mt. Abu is pretty small, but it’s really nice and calm and quiet. It’s apparently a popular spot for honeymooners and Gujaratis, and with the weather so nice I can see why. There were boys on ponies riding around and a market selling clothes and block-print stamps, flavorburst style ice cream, and handmade sandals. We just went back to the hotel for dinner; there was a restaurant on the roof overlooking the lake. We decided to order some alcohol since it Rajasthan isn’t a dry state like Gujarat. They had to actually go to the market to get some beer and rum; they didn’t have it there so it took forever!

not affiliated with fulbright

So Fulbright had told us we must make sure people know that our blogs are not associated with them. As the address of my blog contains 'fulbright' I thought I should put this disclaimer that although I am on a Fulbright grant, this blog is not endorsed by them or anything like that...ok..so now that that's clear...

Shamiana: short film program

Yesterday Arpita, Rashmi, and I met at Natrani Café for this short film showing by a group called Shamiana. They plan on showing films once a month, but this was the very first time, although this group had begun in Mumbai. There were quite a lot of people there for the first showing, a few hundred I’d say, although I’m bad at judging these things. Natrani is part of this Darpana dance academy, and it’s a really cool place! I unfortunately didn’t have my camera to take pics (which Arpita teased me about the whole time we were there! Lol) but next month I will take it.

There were a few very short computer animated films, but they weren’t too memorable. One was just a dinosaur dancing basically. Two of the films really stood out. The first was a day following this little boy around town. It didn’t really have any dialogue. He was a bad little guy though, and kept getting in trouble for stealing things, like a sweet, some other kids’ toy. The kids chase him and it shows him running around the old city until he finally finds his mom. Very cute.

Then the other was called “The Little Terrorist” and it was about a village that was split when Pakistan broke from India. A little Muslim boy is playing with his friends on the Pak. Side and loses his ball, so he crosses the mine field to get it, but he can’t get back across. A Hindu Brahmin man finds him, and hides him in their house when soldiers are looking for him, and help him back across the border at night. Not really understanding the caste system, it was interesting for me because this Hindu man was of the highest caste, and apparently they aren’t supposed to associate with Muslims. So it shows them eating, and the Muslim boy touches the food and dishes, so the Hindus can’t eat it and break the plate.

Gandhinagar and Mr. Mewada

This was actually from Sep. 18, but i forgot to post it:

I arranged to meet Mr. Deepak Mewada today; he is the son of Mr. H.K. Mewada who was the originally planner for the city. Now his son has taken his place as chief planner, and he went to CEPT as well.

Since the government owns all the land there are only two ways people can get property: through auction or allotment. An auction takes so long to process, they only have one every 4-5 years for maybe 30 plots.

Mr. Mewada had an additional little booklet on the city; he only had one so he said he would make me a copy later. But this book was talking about how the residential areas were based on the pols.

There are authorized and unauthorized places of worship. People build temples along the street and sidewalk like they do in other cities, but last year the city came and demolished all the unauthorized temples on the main roads. However people still build unauthorized temples in the open community spaces in each sector. Now there are 3 mosques, 5 churches, and many, many temples that are authorized. Within a sector 2 or 3 plots are given for religious purposes.

There are 4 levels of commercial development: city level – like the commercial sector, district level – along the main road corridor, 25-30 shops per sector in the common area, and the the corner shops in the sector. When people were displaced during the construction of the city, these farmers were given land for shops in sectors 16 and 21.

The government started selling their land in 1973. Of the land zoned for purposes, that for commercial, only 15% has been sold. Of residential for land, 70% has been sold. The land between the main roads and distributer road (ring road) in a sector is sold for private development while inside the ring road is government employee housing.

Now the Chief architect and planner’s role is quite small because the city is so static and land isn’t sold often, so within the city not much is happening. The architect and planner’s role is only to make detailed plans of sectors and areas and also the sale of land.

Planning of the city

There are limited access to each housing sector – only one road access per 1000 meters, so one per side of the sector square. It seems this is just one more contributor to the lack of social vibrancy here. As a result people have made their own paths into the sector from the main road and through the setbacks. If there is a wall built around the sector, sometimes they have made holes through to make it easier to reach their destination.

The original plan had called for completely separate bike paths; paths were supposed to go under main intersections, but perhaps it was too expensive, and they didn’t do it. There were also going to be bike paths criss crossing the central green spaces of the sector which they didn’t officially do, but it appears that they have emerged as footpaths from people walking them.

The sector size was planned so that from the center of the sector to the edge or main road, it would be a 10 minute walk.

One difference in Chanidgarh and Gandhinagar was that the capital complex was not centrally located in Chandigarh, and peons were located far away from the complex making it difficult to get to work. In Gandhinagar the complex is centrally located and closer for everyone.

Central axis is Road 4 and was meant to be a grand boulevard with vista like in Paris or D.C. Start at RR station and goes towards the river and the Gandhi memorial. Then the commercial axis is perpendicular to that on Gh Rd.

Economic development

In 1981-1995 the chief minister went to china and got the idea to develop an electronics light industry corridor in Gandhinagar. They tried to develop in the area between the RR line to the city boundary northwest of town, but it never took out and now most of the factories there are vacant.

There is also a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) planned, but it is also not working. An info city was planned in 98-99; the office is located to the left hand side when coming into the city from the highway. So far only around 20% has been developed.

The area to the north of town is designated as light industrial; however, they compromised and allowed a coal power plant to be built there. The power plant doesn’t even provide power to the city, but to north Gujarat. Gandhinagar gets it’s power from the Sabarmati. Allowing the power plant was the only way to get the railroad line to come through the city, otherwise it bypassed it.

The city doesn’t have a lot of buying power because the majority of the government employees are lower class. Only about 5% of government employees are high officials. So the majority of people don’t have a lot of buying power, so they are usually happy with the cheaper, lower quality goods they can find in the city. However if you need something slightly different or unusual, you have to go to Ahmedabad.

Reliance company recently bought land in the commercial sector because they wanted to develop a big shopping mall there. However they are in the process of selling the land back to the city because they realized the city couldn’t support a shopping mall like that.

Side note: Deepa Mewada doesn’t even live in Gandinagar but in Ahmedabad. I think he said he had family land there, so it’s quite possible his dad didn’t live in the city either. On the way home on the bus I was talking to a woman, and I asked her if she liked Gandhinagar. She said she worked there in the service sector, but she lived in Ahmedabad because she didn’t like the social aspect of the city.