ANNOUNCEMENTS
Cities in India are governed by a web of stakeholders involved in decision making. But with New Urbanism coming to the forefront and the SDGs becoming agenda for all, provision of public spaces has dispersed from governments, calling for rethinking of streets, which further form a major identifier of a city’s image and provide a great opportunity at liveabilty, through a participatory approach, a need which ensures the presence of voices of stakeholders who the project is ultimately for, thus affirming success and mitigating on-ground challenges. The project at hand is the pedestrianisation of the market street of Sadar Bazaar, Gurugram, which is at its earlier stages of design and its pilot is to be tested under the Streets for People Challenge, an initiative of the MoHUA, GoI, meant to inspire cities to create walking-friendly streets and develop a unified vision with stakeholders and citizens. The study aims to recognise a participatory approach in street design and to assess its various components adopted at the local governance level. The thematic was applied on the study area by reviewing literature for establishing background and basis for assessment of project specific scenario, and by then collecting data from tiers of government, documents, field, interactions. Learnings were derived from case studies among peers in the Indian context and exemplary practice globally. Findings through the study revealed a precedence of Inputs on Decision-making processes and Feedback at planning stages over including Community Training and Support initiatives from the beginning. There was minimal alignment to community participation at city wide processes level, absence of Area Sabhas, and a lack of inclusion in the design process of certain vulnerable voices like street vendors. A perception survey revealed need of aligning design and intervention considerations by age, gender perspective. In conclusion, the study suggests a way forward for the city on the lines of stakeholders consultations being made more diverse by including hitherto less influential voices and a Review Committee, a need to and ways of garnering community support and ownership, an opportunity in the institutional capacity for leveraging data, and in the Challenge program of trial based pilots to gather feedback.
Keywords: participatory approach; streets; market street; street design; public spaces; pedestrianisation; place-making; walking-friendly; municipal; Gurugram city; stakeholder engagement.
