AhsanAmin
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Present Government has done a lot of good work to improve the state of public infrastructure in the Lahore city, and their sincerity to improve the city has won them strong political support among its residents. And the city continues to do more development work at different places causing temporary problems in transport and traffic that accompany such infrastructure projects so these projects get noticed by most residents. Since the city administration seems eager to honestly improve the city, I thought of giving some ideas and suggestions as all good residents of the city should, so the experts would know what the residents would like and how to take their wishes in account when working towards a better comprehensive planning for the future of the city.
A comprehensive planning for the city means that we look for ease of transprt across the city, good and clean ambience of the city, a good water supply and sewerage system, good standards and code for the architecture of communities and markets, great public health system, good schools, and provision of different utilities. And we should make it certain that the city makes it easy for itself to retain its position as the regional trading centre for so many commodities, industrial goods and wholesale trade. And we also work with the considertion that the city remains the cultural centre of the region where everybody across the country would like to visit, and businesses would like to invest here from different places, and there is a great education system that trains the talent both inside the city and from other places. And the city could also looks towards developing itself as a centre for businesses related to future technologies by providing facilities related to these businesses and attracting brains from elsewhere in the country and abroad to live here.
For Brainstorming by experts simplest way is to ask the question how do we like to see a great city in the future given the present arrangements of the city meaning what we like in the city and what we want to make better or change. I would start by saying that we want to get rid of many parts of the city with sub human living conditions while simultaneously and flawlessly preserving our rich cultural heritage. And we also want to remove many new slums that have developed around the city. Of course, we will have to encourage thses residents to live in carefully planned new parts of the city as I will suggest later. The next thought I have is to divide the city in different areas related to the categories urban areas, shopping centres, industrial areas, regional Wholesale trading centres and markets, warehouses, wholesale fruit and vegetable markets, technology related business clusters, and finally the city government infrastructure. It will be interesting to ask how we would like to see these areas arranged so that everything works seamlessly in the city fifteen years later and after that. And the most important requirement is that in the new arrangement of the city, movement of people and goods and other things is as convenient and easy as possible given the category assigned to the new areas of the city. And there are other requirements that suggest that our cultural places and other areas we deliberately do not intend to change remain the same. And of course, the city dwellers get to live in as good and beautiful communities as they possibly can. And the economic activity in the city flourishes and it becomes a place where people from other cities and countries would like to live.
The roads in the city are good enough but we might have to see greater traffic problems after a few years. The railways infrastructure is poor at best. However it does have assets in the form of some property and railway line areas that could be probably better used for local city railways. Metro Bus is certainly an achievement to decrease the traffic problems and help the people easily go across some parts of the city. We need to have a proper transport system planning for the whole city. And we might have to take main train station for travel away from its current location to some other properly planned station with easy access from all areas of the city. And wherever we plan warehouses and Industrial areas, alternative railways system has to be provided for ease of transfer of goods to those areas. And if we want a city train system, we will have to take the above considerations into account. There seems to be a need for a new modern train station where those who intend to take the train to other cities could reach without any hassle.
Those who have seen all of the city know that some areas have very very poor living conditions and it is extremely hard to imagine how people there could ever live without reasonable amenities we all need. Somp people might sneer at the thought of doing anything special to help the backward parts of the city, but they do not understand that benefits to our community that follow when we plan for better living conditions in lacking areas, might be far greater to those parts of the community who do not even care about these areas at all. Still this is just one thing we have to keep in mind when we plan for the better future for the city among many other actions that have to be taken that directly benefit every part of the city.
If we want to move people out of some areas, we will have to develop affordable, clean, and simple housing areas where all required basic facilities like schools, hospitals and public parks could be easily provided where residents of those parts of the city that have been declared “difficult to live” by the city. And they could be linked with the city through very easy transport system. If these areas are well planned and properly built, it would be a perfect motivation for most people to leave those areas determined ‘difficult to live’ by city administration and exchange their land and old property for new housing. I suggested something earlier in a different blog where I gave some proposals on how to develop new areas . To make several of these new areas beautiful at minimum possible cost, we have to do good planning. We could ask architects for making good and possibly free architectural designs for the public buildings and each building would have a plaque with the name of the architect prominently written on it. If we plan the future of the city properly and make some model housing areas on these lines, many many people would be willing to leave their houses and related property in those parts of the city that have to be converted into non-residential categories and their old land could be better used by the city after possible further development. We would have to make sure that these new areas are provided with every public service requirement so that their initial planning is not in any way a hindrance in these areas growing into far more successful areas meaning those becoming wealthy would still want to live there in the future.
Similarly we might want to take suggestions from the members of different wholesale and other regional market bodies about the best way to relocate their markets, or to improve access there in case the city decides to keep some of them at the present place, in a way that it does no harm to the right business interests, and make it very convenient for business owners, and local and regional customers to drive to these markets, park there and transfer goods in and out of these markets depending on the nature of business activity of every market, and also provide good hotel facilities close to these markets for regional customers. And of course, important factor in deciding where to take the market in the new arrangement would be the nature of the market activity. One question that can be asked, “Is the business activity related to markets in the city, or regional activity related to agricultural, consumer or other related items, or other realted markets out of the city?.”
And industrial areas except those totally without use of non-friendly chemicals to humans would have to be away from most residential areas due to possible contamination and related pollution problems that damage the city environment. And big warehouses and godowns go to parts of the city where heavy traffic could easily come from other parts of the country without going through any of the residential areas, and also possibly close to route of the cargo train.
Some parts of the city could also be allocated to technology oriented businesses taking into account related considerations that there could be relatively more international exchange in these areas, and these activities are related with good technical education and depend on cooperation with academic institutions.
One of the several reasons why we have failed to achieve the full potential of making our city beautiful place to live is that most of the new development is haphazard done according to the best understanding of the persons investing money in their house, shop or other new projects and mostly while we make this decision, we are not concerned with its effect on the area as a whole. It is the responsibility of the management of the area or the city to have some minimum standards and models and some simple basic rules that new buildings would not defy. Though building codes do exist, there has to be some more work on this aspect of the problem. And this philosophy also applies to the city management on a broader and larger level.
And the economic activity that would follow any of these improvements in the city will contribute to wealth of its residents because of large construction work, better use of land and related resources that are currently non productive, increased efficiency that would follow the right allocation of parts of the city to appropriate category due to convenient transport of goods, and due to ease of movement across the city. And great social benefits will follow better living standards and increased economic activity, and it will attract both investment and talent.
Also posted on my blog
Brainstorming Ideas Towards Comprehensive Planning For The Future Of The Lahore City | ahsanamin2999
A comprehensive planning for the city means that we look for ease of transprt across the city, good and clean ambience of the city, a good water supply and sewerage system, good standards and code for the architecture of communities and markets, great public health system, good schools, and provision of different utilities. And we should make it certain that the city makes it easy for itself to retain its position as the regional trading centre for so many commodities, industrial goods and wholesale trade. And we also work with the considertion that the city remains the cultural centre of the region where everybody across the country would like to visit, and businesses would like to invest here from different places, and there is a great education system that trains the talent both inside the city and from other places. And the city could also looks towards developing itself as a centre for businesses related to future technologies by providing facilities related to these businesses and attracting brains from elsewhere in the country and abroad to live here.
For Brainstorming by experts simplest way is to ask the question how do we like to see a great city in the future given the present arrangements of the city meaning what we like in the city and what we want to make better or change. I would start by saying that we want to get rid of many parts of the city with sub human living conditions while simultaneously and flawlessly preserving our rich cultural heritage. And we also want to remove many new slums that have developed around the city. Of course, we will have to encourage thses residents to live in carefully planned new parts of the city as I will suggest later. The next thought I have is to divide the city in different areas related to the categories urban areas, shopping centres, industrial areas, regional Wholesale trading centres and markets, warehouses, wholesale fruit and vegetable markets, technology related business clusters, and finally the city government infrastructure. It will be interesting to ask how we would like to see these areas arranged so that everything works seamlessly in the city fifteen years later and after that. And the most important requirement is that in the new arrangement of the city, movement of people and goods and other things is as convenient and easy as possible given the category assigned to the new areas of the city. And there are other requirements that suggest that our cultural places and other areas we deliberately do not intend to change remain the same. And of course, the city dwellers get to live in as good and beautiful communities as they possibly can. And the economic activity in the city flourishes and it becomes a place where people from other cities and countries would like to live.
The roads in the city are good enough but we might have to see greater traffic problems after a few years. The railways infrastructure is poor at best. However it does have assets in the form of some property and railway line areas that could be probably better used for local city railways. Metro Bus is certainly an achievement to decrease the traffic problems and help the people easily go across some parts of the city. We need to have a proper transport system planning for the whole city. And we might have to take main train station for travel away from its current location to some other properly planned station with easy access from all areas of the city. And wherever we plan warehouses and Industrial areas, alternative railways system has to be provided for ease of transfer of goods to those areas. And if we want a city train system, we will have to take the above considerations into account. There seems to be a need for a new modern train station where those who intend to take the train to other cities could reach without any hassle.
Those who have seen all of the city know that some areas have very very poor living conditions and it is extremely hard to imagine how people there could ever live without reasonable amenities we all need. Somp people might sneer at the thought of doing anything special to help the backward parts of the city, but they do not understand that benefits to our community that follow when we plan for better living conditions in lacking areas, might be far greater to those parts of the community who do not even care about these areas at all. Still this is just one thing we have to keep in mind when we plan for the better future for the city among many other actions that have to be taken that directly benefit every part of the city.
If we want to move people out of some areas, we will have to develop affordable, clean, and simple housing areas where all required basic facilities like schools, hospitals and public parks could be easily provided where residents of those parts of the city that have been declared “difficult to live” by the city. And they could be linked with the city through very easy transport system. If these areas are well planned and properly built, it would be a perfect motivation for most people to leave those areas determined ‘difficult to live’ by city administration and exchange their land and old property for new housing. I suggested something earlier in a different blog where I gave some proposals on how to develop new areas . To make several of these new areas beautiful at minimum possible cost, we have to do good planning. We could ask architects for making good and possibly free architectural designs for the public buildings and each building would have a plaque with the name of the architect prominently written on it. If we plan the future of the city properly and make some model housing areas on these lines, many many people would be willing to leave their houses and related property in those parts of the city that have to be converted into non-residential categories and their old land could be better used by the city after possible further development. We would have to make sure that these new areas are provided with every public service requirement so that their initial planning is not in any way a hindrance in these areas growing into far more successful areas meaning those becoming wealthy would still want to live there in the future.
Similarly we might want to take suggestions from the members of different wholesale and other regional market bodies about the best way to relocate their markets, or to improve access there in case the city decides to keep some of them at the present place, in a way that it does no harm to the right business interests, and make it very convenient for business owners, and local and regional customers to drive to these markets, park there and transfer goods in and out of these markets depending on the nature of business activity of every market, and also provide good hotel facilities close to these markets for regional customers. And of course, important factor in deciding where to take the market in the new arrangement would be the nature of the market activity. One question that can be asked, “Is the business activity related to markets in the city, or regional activity related to agricultural, consumer or other related items, or other realted markets out of the city?.”
And industrial areas except those totally without use of non-friendly chemicals to humans would have to be away from most residential areas due to possible contamination and related pollution problems that damage the city environment. And big warehouses and godowns go to parts of the city where heavy traffic could easily come from other parts of the country without going through any of the residential areas, and also possibly close to route of the cargo train.
Some parts of the city could also be allocated to technology oriented businesses taking into account related considerations that there could be relatively more international exchange in these areas, and these activities are related with good technical education and depend on cooperation with academic institutions.
One of the several reasons why we have failed to achieve the full potential of making our city beautiful place to live is that most of the new development is haphazard done according to the best understanding of the persons investing money in their house, shop or other new projects and mostly while we make this decision, we are not concerned with its effect on the area as a whole. It is the responsibility of the management of the area or the city to have some minimum standards and models and some simple basic rules that new buildings would not defy. Though building codes do exist, there has to be some more work on this aspect of the problem. And this philosophy also applies to the city management on a broader and larger level.
And the economic activity that would follow any of these improvements in the city will contribute to wealth of its residents because of large construction work, better use of land and related resources that are currently non productive, increased efficiency that would follow the right allocation of parts of the city to appropriate category due to convenient transport of goods, and due to ease of movement across the city. And great social benefits will follow better living standards and increased economic activity, and it will attract both investment and talent.
Also posted on my blog
Brainstorming Ideas Towards Comprehensive Planning For The Future Of The Lahore City | ahsanamin2999
