My friend Harshavardhan once wrote a blog “What does Nagpur city lack?” That blog temporarily fuelled my pride for my home city and I planned this particular blog. But other events took centrestage and the fuel ran out. Now, at long last, the bug has returned and this long-pending blog has finally begun to take shape.
To develop anything we must first take a look at what we have. Do we have a clean slate or do we have something to form a base. Do we have to deal with anything and everything or do we have some things taken care of already? When I think of what can be done to make Nagpur a world class city, the first thought that comes to mind is: What do we have?
The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word “Nagpur” is the May heat. Maximum temperatures in summer rarely ever go below 45 degrees and mind you, the summer is pretty long (our coolers stay in service for about 4 months so that’s really something). So what we have in abundance is solar power. Not only in the form of heat but also light. With the suburbs of Nagpur still in the underdeveloped stages, there are plenty of huge open spaces all around the city and that way, Nagpur is perhaps the perfect location to set up atleast one, if not many, solar power plant. With fossil fuel situation worsening by the day and with attempts to optimize their usage and go for non-conventional sources, here’s one that is absolutely free, clean and available throughout the year. If properly managed, a solar power plant in Nagpur might be the biggest shot in the arm that the city needs in order to get noticed on the world map. If such a plant materializes, it would not only create a very realistic chance of uninterrupted power being available in and around the city, it could potentially act as a technology demonstrator for more such plants to be set up not only around the city but also at other similar locations of the country. Power is that one major weak link in the chain that has deterred major players in the industries to set up operations in Nagpur and such a plant, if set up, could change all that.
The other thing that we have is the advantage of undeveloped suburbs. If we go by Mumbai standards for example, similar distances travelled in Nagpur do not take us to similarly developed areas. Now this may seem to be a deterrent at the first glance but it provides us with a unique opportunity of implementing planned development of these areas and to optimize their development. A few major projects such as the Sahara City have been taken up but they tend to go for a much localized development. A large scale planned development of the city’s outskirts can effectively bring them within the city’s limits and can turn a disadvantage into a potential ally.
One unique advantage that we have over cities like, say perhaps Mumbai or Chennai is that of the climate. Located nearly 950 km away from the sea (Mumbai CST station is 957km away from Nagpur station), there’s no flood risk, no torrential rain risk, no Tsunami risk (seems far fetched to talk of but a single wave can wreck total havoc) and most of all, the weather changes are more or less predictable. Similarly, the absence of the proximity with the sea makes the Nagpur heat far more bearable than other cities and it can also be effectively countered by old fashioned coolers without going into the trouble to install ACs and this is a huge power advantage that the coastal metros lack since the extreme humidity levels in such cities effectively rules out the use of conventional wood-wool based coolers that are hugely popular and effective in Nagpur. Also, the winters are not as severe as in the northern cities meaning transportation is not affected by fog which is almost a daily factor in New Delhi in winter. Also, the absence of mountain ranges in the vicinity rules out the risk of flash floods which can be devastating. When we think of it, Nagpur has perhaps one of the best climatic conditions in the way that everything is almost totally balanced.
The upcoming MIHAN project promises to be a huge boost to the region in general and Nagpur in particular. The accompanying surge in companies promises to create an economic boom in the region and a fast growth rate for anyone who enters the stream. The surge in Air traffic because of the MIHAN project will not only create a surge in the number of jobs available, it will widen the choice of jobs available.
Nagpur is one of the fast growing education hubs too with a huge number of colleges opening each year. This effectively translates into an unthinkable number of fresh educated youth being pumped out each year and this army of trained youth needs channelizing. The general trend is to hunt for avenues outside Nagpur because of the lack of satisfactory jobs in the city. Industries, particularly the IT industry can take a huge advantage of this large pool because most of the youth would prefer to stay in Nagpur for a job given the right conditions to work and grow.
The turn of the millennium saw the transformation of Nagpur at the hands of a single visionary in the form of Dr. T Chandrashekhar. This goes on to show that development in Nagpur is not as hard as it seems. It just needs a handful of determined men in positions of power to make a sea of change. I present here a few questions now. Sit down and give them a calm thought. One man changed the face of the city almost overnight considering what was happening before his time. What would happen if all of us came forward to take up that baton? What would such a large-scale effort translate into? Why did the pace vanish when the man was transferred? Why did no one else come up to fill in the gap effectively? Why do we need others to come and work for us? Why can’t we do it ourselves? Let us be very frank and terse. Dr. Chandrashekhar had the guts to go for development come what may. Why does the existing administration lack this? If they lack it, why don’t we force them to carry out their duties? Administration is, at the end of the day, the servant of the public. Why do we try to adjust on each and every turn in life? Why don’t we ask the authorities to straighten the roads? Come out of the rut. Even a middle class person is entitled to the civic amenities that can be made available. We have the right to question the authorities. Democracy is just another form of dictatorship. We are the law. We have been given the authority. Perhaps it's time we started exercising it as well...
