Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

NOIDA- Am I Asking Utopia?

Posted : August 28, 2005 at 10:45 pm [IST]

I happen to live in Noida, and have also got attachment with Salt Lake that again is the satellite town of Calcutta, as Noida is of New Delhi. I have a wish list for Noida that may be extended for Salt Lake too with name changed, and in the case of the later, the authority will be Bidhan Nagar Municipality.

The residents of Noida expect today some change in the priorities from the Noida Autority. Noida must not attract the people of New Delhi only for its multiplexes (shown above) and shopping malls. It must also become an example to emulate for all the townships in the country. Some of the features that it must incorporate in its town planning are:

Noida must have one or more world-class library in centrally located area, such as the proposed city center or sector 18 with all the modern facilities including cyber café, as well as books, magazines, CDs, DVDs of all subjects on the line of libraries in Santa Clara or Mountain View, that are similar knowledge sector centers.

One or two of the bookshops in Noida must have similar facilities as available in Borders or Barnes and Nobles in US. With huge lot of professionals and students of the surrounding colleges of engineering and schools of management living in and around Noida, the project can be a sound business proposition too.

All the roads must have sidewalks for pedestrians and traffic rule must force slower vehicles to go in the lane dedicated to them. Only the expressway such as one connecting Noida and Greater Noida must not have sidewalks, rather any one walking inside the expressway, must be heavily fined and criminally executed for trespassing, even those who own the buffalos that are frequently seen there. On all the roads, the outskirt must have cover of either grass or bricks to save the damage of the road as well as to avoid the generation of dust. And then the quality of road construction and repair now is well standardized globally for its longevity and smoothness. Why can’t the standard be the same and the gradient correct for quick drainage of rainwater?

Noida Authority must build and operate public toilets of good quality and maintain them clean in all the public places- bigger parks, mother dairy booths, temples, shopping centers, and all block markets. Open defecating or open urinating must be banned, and people fined and punished.

Noida Authority must also encourage the love of sports among the younger generation. Some of the areas allocated for shopping or schools or some areas near the bigger parks must have facilities for volleyballs, tennis, badmintons, and cricket practicing. Parks, beside the walking track must also provide a soothing ambience with beautiful but functional landscaping, by creating suitably located flowerbeds, and even some attractive kids’ corners.

Noida is facing the problem of abundance of cars. It will further aggravate. It will become difficult to move around with cars even for essential shopping. The authority must work fast on creating under ground or multistoried parking facilities.

And Noida Authority must force on the patrons of the temples and shrines of different sects a set of rules to discourage food distribution in the name of ‘prasad’ and begging in and around the premises. And another ban is to be on pet owners who make their pets defecate anywhere and everywhere.

But the most important of all the needs is that of drinkable water and good quality of electricity without outages. Can some one calculate the total additional investment of the residents of Noida for clean water (water purifier, RO system, mineral water) and electricity (voltage stabilizers, inverter, generating sets)? Even with an average of Rs. 35,000 per household, that will be pretty conservative, it will be Rs. 700 crore, if we consider 2, 00,000 households having these installed as on today. The residents do also spend heavily for the annual maintenance of these appliances too, beside the operating expenses. Will it not be prudent to have its own power generation and water treatment plant that caters to Noida residents?

Noida must ban plastic bags as other cities are doing, put in more dustbins all around, and encourage the residents welfare associations for making the city cleaner.

The list can go on increasing, but let me limit it now. You can’t imagine my happiness when I read in one of the handout of ‘Flash’ that Noida will soon be a Wi-Fi city.

The residents are also to play a big role in making these satellite towns as the ideal for good quality of life. Let us hope it happens soon and Noida becomes a place worth leading a good life and that too a little peacefully.

- Indra

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