Loïc De Béthune Case of Hyderabad's River Musi Perceptions on Urban
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Perceptions on urban space in developing cities: the case of Hyderabad's River Musi Loïc De Béthune Promotor: prof. dr. ir.-arch. Johan Lagae Begeleiders: Bert Gellynck, David Schmitz Masterproef ingediend tot het behalen van de academische graad van Master in de ingenieurswetenschappen: architectuur Vakgroep Architectuur en Stedenbouw Voorzitter: prof. dr. Pieter Uyttenhove Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen en Architectuur Academiejaar 2010-2011 Perceptions on Urban Space The Case of Hyderabad’s River Musi Perceptions on Urban Space The Case of Hyderabad’s River Musi by Loïc de Béthune Promotor: prof. dr. ir.-arch. Johan Lagae Begeleiders: Bert Gellynck, David Schmitz Masterproef ingediend tot het behalen van de academische graad van Master in de ingenieurswetenschappen: architectuur Vakgroep Architectuur en Stedenbouw Voorzitter: prof. dr. Pieter Uyttenhove Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen en Architectuur Academiejaar 2010-2011 Thesaurus Lakh: one hundred thousand Dhobi: washerman Crore: ten million Kachi: cultivator Golla: buffalo herder Kucha: temporary, crude, unsolid Dalit: casteless, ‘untouchable’ Pucca: durable, solid, permanent Puja: Hindu worship Nagar: place GHMC: Greater Hyderabad Metropolitan Bastee/Bustee: developed slum settlement Corporation Patta: leasehold document HMDA:Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority UCDP: Urban Community Development Programme 4 5 Contents Prologue 10 6 A. Discovery 13 1. The Musi River 15 Afzal Ganj Bridge to Puranapool 58 Pavement Dwellers 64 2. Plans for the Riverbanks 18 Shrines 66 Influence of Institutions 67 The Master Plan 18 The Save Musi Project 20 4. Musi River Atlas of Appropriation 69 3. The Walk 21 5. A Divide in Perceptions 76 Moosarambagh Bridge to New Bridge 22 Forsaking Participation 77 Infrastructure and Exclusion 78 Abdel Nagar 28 Everyday Rebellion 78 Picking Waste 32 A Return to Inclusive Planning? 78 New Bridge to Chaderghat Bridge 34 Kamgar Nagar 40 Moosa Nagar 41 Chaderghat Bridge to Afzal Ganj Bridge 46 Imlibun Street Vendors 52 Labour in the River 56 7 B. Reflections 81 1. The Urban Overload: A City of Migrants 82 4. Desperate Labour 102 Pre-Independence Centralities 82 Urban Occupations 102 Post-Independence Sprawl 82 An Informal Economy 103 Hyderabad’s Population Growth 83 Cheap Labour 104 High Speed Urbanization 84 Patterns of Exploitation 105 Contextualizing the Migrant 85 Informality as Solution? 105 The Importance of Networks 86 5. Profiting from the Streets 108 2. Neglect of the ‘Outside’ 88 Hawking 108 Redreaming Dreams 88 Keeping the Streets Free 110 Common Space in Indian Tradition 90 Design: Market Junction 111 Design: Clean Musi 91 6. Domesticating Pablik Space 114 3. Perceptions on Public Space 96 The Prevalence of Slums 114 Defining Pablik Space 96 The Ambivalence of Property 116 Religious Encroachments 98 In Search of the Zero-Value Land 117 Beautification 99 An Atomized Urge for Growth 118 The Bias of the State 99 8 7. Developing Pablik Space 120 Real Estate Economics 121 The Developed Bastee 122 Design: Roadside Bastee 124 8. Dealing with Slums: A Policy Review 128 A Right to Shelter 128 Erasing the Slum 129 Correcting the Slum 130 Improving the Slum 132 Legalizing the Slum 133 Recent Developments 135 Epilogue: The Impact of the Planner 138 9 Prologue This Master Thesis is the result of a two month stay in Hyderabad during September and October of 2010. However, my personal interest as an urban planner in slums and urban space in the booming cities of India can be traced back to a one month visit to Bangalore in June of 2009. The trigger for this fascination can best be exemplified by the picture on the left. It portrays a slum in Bangalore in front of the high-tech architectural spectacle of a multinational informa- tion technology corporation. This im- age, for me, succinctly summarizes the sometimes cold juxtaposition of two different realities that are simul- taneously shaping urban India. It is in search of this conflict that I Two worlds collide - Photo courtesy of Andy Gijbels contacted Sister Lissy Joseph and 10 Brother Varghese Teckanath, found- may traditionally have been fore- ning and the citizens of the city. This day Indian planning. In the second ers of CHATRI, a Hyderabadi NGO that closed. work is the result of the latter study. section, a literature study will further fights for the tenurial rights of slum This thesis should be understood as For a closer look at Moosa Nagar investigate the role of urban space in dwellers along the Musi River. They an investigation into the gaps be- please refer to Emily Pescod’s work Indian society and the subsequent were so kind to not only provide Emi- tween the perception on urban space on the subject “Moosanagar, a Slum forms of use of this space can take. ly Pescod and myself with a subject different citizens of Hyderabad may in India. Structural and Design Based Intermittently, spatial design propos- and a study area along the river, but hold. As we will see, simple acts of ur- Research”. The work at hand tries als will be made to formulate critical also to be of constant assistance and ban planning can become highly po- to focus more on the interaction in questions on the role of the urban great intellectual support throughout lemic interventions, involving many general between planning and use of planner in this context. our stay in Hyderabad. actors and excluding many others space as I perceived it in the city and through literature. This study will try to further expand The initial request by CHATRI to Emily my observations in Bangalore. Yet, Pescod and myself was to study the In what follows, I will look into some as a Belgian student looking into the impact of a number of projects and realities and consequences of infra- situation, I am well aware that I am in plans that are being simultaneously structural design on urban space by no position to criticize developments being implemented by authorities investigating a relatively small and in a context that is first of all not mine along the riverbanks of the Musi with well defined part of the River Musi. and secondly so deeply complex it respect to a bastee named Moosa The first section of this work is struc- cannot always be put into words. Nagar, located at the Chaderghat tured as a walk along this stretch of Rather, it is the role of the Outsider Junction. river, exploring the different places and the feeling of discovery of this It soon became clear both the iso- and people on its banks. This walk context that I would like to recreate lated settlement as well as the rela- will bring up a number of appropria- throughout this work. It is exactly this tion of this bastee to the broader tions and plans that are transforming role of Outsider that will allow me to context of the river and of informality the appearance of the river. Although ask some fundamental questions that needed to be studied in depth in or- their interconnection is sometimes might too often be avoided in local der to fully comprehend the complex complex, each of them elucidate the debates, and investigate options that interactions between urban plan- challenges and ambitions of modern- 11 A. Discovery The following chapter is structured as a walk upstream along the riverbanks of Musi. It is an investigation into the places that exist along the river and what entities are shaping them. The walk has been divided between five major bridges into four stretches. Each part will discuss the places along the river and conclude with case studies of certain places or phenomena encountered along the way. But first, the river itself and future plans for it will be briefly discussed. 13 View upstream from Moosarambagh Bridge View upstream from Chaderghat Causeway View upstream from Afzal Ganj Bridge 14 Hyderabad in the Anantagiri hills and the city. The dams perform a double Likewise, these days development has always functioned as the drain of function: on the one hand they act as around the river is stagnant to say the the city through an intricate network a means to control the water flowing least. ‘Severe mosquito problems’, of small tributaries stemming from into the river and preventing floods, the ‘foul smell of the water’ and the hundreds of lakes and man-made while on the other hand they serve as the ‘unsightly look’ of the area have tanks that speckle the surrounding reservoirs for Hyderabad’s drinking resulted in a lack of interest in real plateaus. After leaving Hyderabad the water. The Osman Sagar Lake covers estate along the river, as can be water flows for another 130 km to join an area of 24.5 km² storing up to witnessed by the lower property value the Krishna River, irrigating fields along 110 million m³ while the somewhat of the area compared to the general the way. The river itself is a shallow smaller Himayat Sagar Lake has a real estate market.4 The extreme 1. The Musi River slow trickle unfit for transportation capacity of 84 million m³ over an pollution of the water severely affects purposes. Furthermore, depending area of 19.5 km². The availability of the quality of the ground water of the on rainfall and inflows, it fluctuates in this much drinking water was one of surrounding area.5 width and water level. the major factors for comfortable life in the city.2 As the city is now slowly However, one of the most interesting The river nowadays appears to be “This is the Musi River … or what is growing closer to the dams, some characteristics of the river is that it no more than a small gentle stream, left of it…” – Varghese Teckanath1 fear the purity of the water may is one of the only large open spaces but it has a dark side that is firmly become endangered.