Roads, roads everywhere! The earth is flying, the pylons for flyovers are rising up, and more cars are entering the roads, lanes and even footpaths every day. New buildings are emerging and Pune is changing its face. Even underground parking is suddenly taken seriously after years of cheating! But where are the people to walk, once they alight from their shiny new vehicles?

TEN years ago a journalist asked me, “What are the five new things you think will come to Pune in the next decade?” I answered, “I don't know the five new things, but I can tell you five old things that will disappear!” I noted that the Fergusson College Road had lovely wide sidewalks for sauntering along by foot. I noted that the Senapati Bapat Marg had expansive new footpaths, nicely made of Shahabad Stone, with benches and the trees had been caringly transplanted back to shade them. I noted the Kirloskar Fountain at the height of Ganeshkhind Road, culminating the vistas up from the Agricultural College and from the Raj Bhavan to the crest near the University Gate. I noted the generous foot paths on M.G. Road in Camp. I noted the quiet canal path meandering through Deccan Gymkhana.

All have gone! All have been eaten up by the automobile for wider roads, more and more parking, leaving less and less places for people in the public domain. Our concept of “urban development” is lopsided! Surely we have to plan for the huge influx of vehicles! But are people and automobiles mutually exclusive of one another. Surely not!

The worst case of this lopsided thinking in our urban development is what has happened over the years to the College of Engineering Pune campus in Pune. This is the one of the country's oldest engineering colleges. It is today still a pioneering centre of excellence. Yet, over the years the National Highway running right through the campus has literally created a Berlin Wall between the two half's of the institute, with hundreds of students risking their lives to get back and forth between classes.

Fortunately the Board of Governors has taken the dynamic step of preparing a Campus Master Plan. One of the leading themes of that plan is to pedestrianize the campus, separating out the motorized vehicles from the pedestrians, making the entire area free for walking, sauntering, sitting and talking and just being a college!

The major improvements to achieve this goal will be:
(1) limited access entry gates;
(2) designated pay-as-you park areas;
(3) developing the river front as an esplanade open space and visual focus;
(4) developing a network of garden courtyards, arcades, plazas, stroll gardens and pathways;
(5) densifying the residential facilities on campus, reducing the need for students and faculty to commute. All of this will be integrated with the beautiful ancient trees on the campus.
(6) A large PEDESTRIAN PLAZA will link the two severed half's of the campus together, revolutionizing the way the campus works (see illustration).

Such a daring and comprehensive pedestrian strategy will be essential to integrate the COEP into one unified whole. More important, such a dramatic jester will be a major example of how public domains can be given back to the people, who have been forgotten in our race for “development!”


Our concept of “urban development” is lopsided! Surely we have to plan for the huge influx of vehicles! But are
people and automobiles mutually exclusive of one another. Surely not!