Showing posts with label Parking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parking. Show all posts

Nov 16, 2013

Art from Archive - I

A decade old or so..

In that very creative moment availability of tools at ones disposal seems immaterial, it was made by oil paints applied on paper like water color that time, probably water was also used instead of oil just to somehow spread the colors on paper, or may be a bit of fabric color as well. One could have created something like this even with charcoal, or eyeliner or toothpaste, or shaving cream, or tomato catch-up or may be with some combinations of them. Its that very urge to create something that one feels is art, getting caught up in arranging the perfect colors or brushes or tool or a perfect setting in merely postponing the creation of Art. 
  

Jun 19, 2012

Disposal on the go - For a cleaner city you deserve.

Disposal at the source of generation- Case of Travel generated waste!!


Environmentally responsible
waste management 
Some of us occasionally of habitually buy and carry a plastic pack of chips, a paper wrapped snack, a can of coke, a bottle of juice, a paper mug of coffee, fruits and so on in our car or other vehicles while traveling in city, and disposing those paper, plastic, metal or organic residues in a responsible ways becomes an issue. Depending on the Education level, economic exposure, existence of local transport and environment laws, pro activeness of implementation measures, people’s behavior vary in a cityscape across the region, across the cities of world. Even within a particular city people show different level of responsible behavior depending on economic profile of zone, surveillance and enforcement level.

In many cities of developing countries people tend to pollute the city roads and transit routes by dumping such food waste and byproducts from their vehicle irrespective of occupants education and economic level even in presence of such laws to prevent them, due to lack of willingness to keep their cities clean or lack of enforcement measures or absence of sensible waste disposal infrastructure. Garbage bins if provided are either so scarce in numbers, so inaccessibly located, are in utter unhygienic conditions, surrounded by mounds of open dumped waste, either overflowing of underutilized, that people even if they make up their mind to act in environmentally responsible ways they immediately lose their interest to do so.

In this particular kind of waste generation scenario which emerges on the go should have a “disposal mechanism on the go” itself. Garbage generated within vehicle should be disposed off from vehicle only at pre-identified locations, why to carry it everywhere you go, why to keep garbage in your car just because you couldn’t get the time for weeks to dispose it off on foot to some disposal bin located somewhere. Why not to stop them throwing garbage on road by providing them hygienic garbage bins approachable from within the car along the transit routes, at places where traffic is bound to be slow, somewhere near toll plaza ticket counter, somewhere near the parking entrance, in some of dedicated service lanes of the city etc. 

Apr 18, 2012

Municipal Finance in India : Municipal Tax Revenue sources

Municipal Revenue generation through Taxation in India

“Local Self Government becomes meaningless in the absence of financial autonomy. It enjoys the power of imposition of local taxes. The municipal bodies must have a wider scope of collection of revenues”
(Source: UIDSSMT)


ULBs have invented many channels and instruments of revenue generation in course of time due to urgency of handling growth, some of the tax sources both conventional and non-conventional, are mentioned below.


TAXES/FEES

CONVENTIONAL MUNICIPAL REVENUE SOURCES

Composite Property Tax
Water Charges
Sewerage Charges
Conservancy Charges
Building Permit Fee
Development Charges
Trade Licensing Fee
Advertisement Tax
Shop Room Rent

OTHER GENERAL MUNICIPAL REVENUE SOURCES

House Tax 
Show Tax  
Building Plan Fee
Tax on the consumption of Electricity    
Sale of liquor     
Cess on the transfer of immovable property   
License for Dangerous and Offensive trades
Rates are varied in respective ULBs
Rehari License Fee
Tehbazari Tax
Slaughter House Fee
Cattle Pound Fees
Birth & Death Certificate Fee
Copying Fee
Tree Cutting Fee
Library Membership
Ground Tax
Vehicle License Fee
Death & Birth Reg./ Late Fee
Forest /Garden Income
Dog License Fee 
Animal Tax (Cattle Pound)
Trade License Fee
Tax on advertisement other than advertisement published in the newspaper.


NON-CONVENTIONAL MUNICIPAL REVENUE SOURCES

Vacant Land Tax
Service Taxes
Surcharge on Land Registration Duty
Water Supply Donations
Water Supply Connection Charges
Water Benefit Tax
Water Betterment Charges
Sewerage Donations
Sewerage Connection Charges
Sewerage Benefit Tax
Sewerage Betterment Charges
Bulk Garbage Collection Charges
Betterment Charges
External Betterment Charges
Open Space Contribution
Impact fee
Transferable Development Right
Premium FSI
Sub-division charges
Planning Permission Betterment
Road Cutting Charges
Street Tax
Frontage Tax
Cess on Infrastructure
Motor Vehicle Tax/Surcharge
Tax on Petrol and Diesel
Business License Fee
Hoarding Charges,
Advertisement Placement Fees,
Cable TV Fee,
TV Advertisement Charges
Royalty on Auctions


INNOVATIVE /UNIQUE MUNICIPAL REVENUE SOURCES

General Obligation Bond/ Municipal Bond
Awarding of development rights,
Town planning schemes (TPS)
Plot/layout readjustment
Additional FSI/FAR
Goodwill auctions
Bank linkages (for Urban Poor)
Capital-based property tax system
Land banking
Transferable development rights (TDR)
Special Education tax
Pilgrim
Octroi
Special and General Sanitation
Shows
Toll on Vehicles,
Timber
Terminal
Menial Domestic Servants
Artisans
Entertainment Tax

SOME OF THE UNIQUE REVENUE STREAMS (THROUGH FEES/ CHARGES) OF MUNICIPALITIES ACROSS MAJOR STATES IN INDIA

Registration Fee
Mutation Fee
Market Fee 
Trade License Fee
Compounding Fee
Slaughter House Fee
License Fee
Betterment / Development Fee
Fire Brigade
Public Health
Swimming Bath Fee,
Stock Registration
Cattle Pound Fee
Teh Bazari Fee
Pilgrim
Scavenging
Prevention of Food Adulteration Fee
Dangerous and Offensive Trade License Fee
Animal Registration Fee
Compounding Fee
Warrant Fee
Bus Stand Fee
Copying Fee
Cart Stand Fee,
Encroachment Fee
Fees from burning ghats
Birth and Death Registration Fee


Sources:

Jan 17, 2012

Walkability demands flexibility : new approach to neighborhood planning

By - Anoop Jha


Number of available choices defines quality of urban environment and experience

“planning
Walking and jogging  trail

Image shows actual walking trail around a lagoon in some part of Santa Barbara, with different route options for people to choose from, one shorter complete loop around waterbody and other longer route which also includes dotted segment. Close view  of lagoon is an incentive to walk extra length of dotted route otherwise people can take shorter route if they are in hurry or tiered. There has be different available exit choices for people, to make any pedestrian or walkable plan successful whether its planning of park or commercial complex or mega exhibition pavilion.

[Handpicked Books]





Dec 5, 2011

Pedestrian Desireline - Significance in, Landscape Architecture, Transport and Urban Planning


By - Anoop Jha

Desired natural and organic Pedestrian Movement Vs Planned synthetic and rigid Transit Network

Pedestrians are a very important element and regular attribute of transit-scape and landscape of any city, they often assume secondary position when it comes to transit plan of the city. transport models revolves around the vehicular dominance, transportation plans are prepared for smooth flow of vehicular traffic and after that pedestrian facilities are integrated rater retrofitted into the vehicular movement plan, through pedestrian underpass and over-bridges, with discontinuous patches of footpaths which is not suitable and safe for even healthy and active city dwellers, not to speak of physically challenged, differently abled and old aged population. Pedestrian circulation and their movement desire-line should be mapped and considered at the beginning and throughout of transport planning process. 


When it comes to landscape planning or outdoor public spaces, again pedestrian desire-lines are often ignored, result can be observed  everywhere  across city- broken fences, walls and barriers to avoid longer route and vehicular traffic, impression of casual pathways made by regular shortcut movement of pedestrian on the otherwise planned green fields and formal landscaped areas. All this because of ignorance to pedestrian desire-line and lack of comprehensive walkability plan for the city, neighborhood, and public spaces which should be otherwise vital and compulsory part of Transport, landscape and Urban Planning process. 

Transportation Viscosity - Resistance in Collective Travel

By - Anoop Jha

Understanding Qualitative aspect of Transportation

”strategies
Transport Viscosity and bottleneck 
Transportation viscosity or transit viscosity is a resistance faced by commuters while travelling collectively in any given urban or regional setting; it can be sophisticated qualitative criteria to understand and judge the congestion level of any city and can help improve the life of city. Transit viscosity is made of many tangible and intangible elements like, No. of Vehicle per unit length of Road, Surface Material, Condition & Texture of Road, Street Edge, Manmade or Natural Obstructions on Road, Ongoing Development work in Process in the corridor, Ongoing O & M of Road of other infrastructure concealed within the road or corridor, Transport Signage simplicity, visibility and condition and location, Driving Behavior of individuals, pedestrian behavior etc. Most of the characteristics stated above are related to socio-economic condition of city, efficiency of administration and education level of community. Role of planners here is to understand the nature and reason of these frictional elements of transportation which causes transit viscosity and to plan accordingly to reduce the friction.    

Nov 16, 2011

Pedestrian Vehicular conflict : why can’t we seem to find a solution?

By - Anoop Kumar Jha

Missing Human Behavioral Analysis aspect in Transport Simulation Model

No matter how functional and mathematically sound a transportation plan and related infrastructure design for any city or stretch appear before implementation, there is always a conflict between vehicular and pedestrian circulation which appears only once the transport plan is in place and functional, it’s the story of every city and every stretch. Blogs and forums are filled with discussions and captured photographs of such pedestrian vehicular conflicts.

It’s a conflict between pedestrians desire to take easiest and shortest route and transport planners age old scientific approach planning with modern simulation tools. Its conflict between “human desire” and “scientific approach”.  

In a country like India, apart from education and enforcement there is one missing crucial aspect which leads to pedestrian vehicular conflict in urban setting, that is understanding of human behavior and learning from past and other projects mistakes. It appears that common man collectively always appear smarter than the panel of planners, designers and implementation and enforcement agencies, because no matter how sound they make any system or transport plan people always find out loopholes in it. People are willing to take the dangerous shortcuts, break the law and even risk their life to reach the destination quickly. There is almost similar pattern and language of such human behavior across the cities and towns of India when it comes to intra city travel, but transport planners do not seem to observe and learn from such cases. Its high time that they should observe, document and incorporate human behavioral analysis in the transport simulation model to arrive at a successful transport plan for a city. 

Transport plan, systems and tools also need to be regionalized or localized, because what works in Bogota  or America or Europe might not work in Delhi or Surat or Jaisalmer  if replicated in-toto.