No Man’s Roads - Curious case of Roads with no owners

If one has traveled in India through roads, he/she must have noticed this strange phenomenon of roads in completely dilapidated conditions at border of two states. Specifically, when the border crossing is through rural/village roads one won’t find any sort of roads in area between two consecutive Exit-Entries at state borders. I call those non-existent border roads in rural areas, “No Man’s Roads”.

Reason- both of the adjoining states consider these portions of roads as subject of ‘the other state’; so generous. But this generosity results in extinction of proper roads in that area. I personally have noticed this on Haryana-Rajasthan border at more than one place in Mahendragarh district. And have heard about such stretches on other Indian state borders as well. At all of those places one would find a rocky, barely charcoal, sandy stretch of so called roads (like below).

'HR-RAJ border 'No'road in Mahendragarh/Jhunjhunu districts

HR-RAJ border 'No'road in Mahendragarh/Jhunjhunu districts

It’s really frustrating seeing such 'so called' roads for years despite huge promises of rural upliftment again and again, as these missing veins are holding those promises from fulfilling. 

It is no secret that roads are first temptation for development in any region, so taking care of these missing links should be first priority en-route to development. This leads to the vital question, what can be done in this regard. Following ideas/approaches are few suggestions:

1. Mutual Cooperation- Easiest approach is collaboration between concerned stakeholders to fill the blank spaces in road network. But evidently, there is lack of cooperation between state level stakeholders causing the situation to arise in first place. To mitigate this, district/municipal level stakeholders must come into prominent role to and find ways to:
• Define Ownership- These orphan stretch of roads need to be owned first in order to restore them. The extent of ownership should be decided and agreed mutually between respective administrative councils of adjoining states, equal ownership being default share in case of no agreement.
2. Central Government as owner- Make these 'no'road stretches part of central schemes such as PMGSY and maintain them through that. And if these are already under one such scheme, then answers are needed as to why they are in such a condition. But even roads under PMGSY are in dilapidated situation. So how effective this approach could be, is arguable.
3. Special Purpose Entities (SPE) - If mutual cooperation is not feasible, another way is to establish a special purpose entity (say, Rural Border Roads Restoration Organization) for specifically taking care of these non-existent rural state border roads.
4. Panchayat level intervention- Various village panchayats along these roads are the prime stakeholders and their intervention could bring most effective solution. But considering the federal structure of our country, how effective can be the collaboration between village panchayats of two different states is worth exploring as well as debatable.

Finding solution is easy if intent is applied, but these ‘No Man’s roads’ do need to be owned now.

PS: Readers are welcome to share the pictures of such ’no’ roads at various state borders with location to include in the blog.

म्हारो गाँव म्हारो घर- A concept for Rural Tourism

Rural Tourism is a sector which has vast potential in India. Reason, India is culturally very rich country deriving much of its spirit from its rural areas. Its cultural heritage is most visible in its villages and a large number of foreign tourists who come to India nowadays want to explore its culture. Hence, rural areas and subsequently rural tourism are best are best spot to work on.

Picturesque villages- View from mighty Aravalis (Haryana)

In this post, through the concept named ‘म्हारो गाँव म्हारो घर’, I want to present a preliminary lay-out for promotion of rural tourism in state of Haryana. Though, following thought schematic has been evolved as result of SWOT analysis of Mahendragarh region (Haryana). But I think with appropriate modifications, this concept could fit well for any rural area of India.

First, there are some pre-requisites to be ensured from government/administration’s side for this concept to be realized properly, these are:

• Improved Connectivity (Roads, Internet etc.) for rural areas
• Improvised Security apparatus in rural areas
• Improved health infrastructure in rural areas

Haryana is a state which strives on its villages, both culturally as well as financially. We have more famous villages than cities, some made famous by their historical anecdotes, some made famous by their contemporary sons. But both ways these villages are with huge potential for tourism.

These villages could very well be turned into attractive tourist destinations because as mentioned earlier there are lots of tourists who want to experience India through its heritage rather than just visiting some iconic landmarks or adventure tourism spots. Those tourists could be lured to these villages, to live there, to experience their life and culture, and off course some site seeing around.

Kush grass; Dirt tracks; barefoot- Village in Mahendragarh

To do this, for a start following steps could be taken:

1. Identify and enroll villages interested in participating as म्हारो गाँव (My Village).
2. Identify and enroll villagers from above mentioned villages interested in participating as म्हारो घर (My Home).
3. Formulate common minimum standards for the eligibility, like sanitary standards, food standards, and social standards requisite for final enrollment/shortlisting.
4. Provide time to each enroller for achieving the above standards, subject to which their enrollment would be confirmed.
5. Ask each of the enrolled villages to provide a list of activities which could be carried out in and around the village as a part of this policy. Approve the list.
6. Prepare a master list of the enrolled villages, the enrolled families and approved activities for ready reference of tourists interested in experiencing Haryana through its villages.
7. Advertise about this new way of experiencing Haryana and its heritage.
8. The tourists would choose and live with a villager in his घर (home) and experience the life and culture of his गाँव (village), as sort of paying guest.
9. A rotation policy of sorts could be put in place by government administration, so that all the enrolled villages and villagers could be benefitted from this policy.

This policy, if implemented wholeheartedly, will benefit both the village and villagers in following few ways among many:

1. Economic improvement through cash inflow.
2. Educational improvement through need to cater to ancillary tourism activities such as guides, translators etc.
3. Cultural improvement through “tell and know” approach between hosts and guests.
4. Social Improvement through “competition for betterment”.

PS: I originally evolved this idea as my contribution to mygov.in, which actively seeks public participation in formulating various government initiatives and policies.  

Slopey Steps- A stride towards 'barrier free' spaces

Barrier free spaces mean spaces which are accessible to all irrespective of one’s physical abilities. In this era of increasing social awareness, it has become extremely important for Architects to design the spaces in such a way that they do not discriminate with anybody. Spaces as well as the (building) elements associated with them do need special focus while designing, so as to ensure that in achieving the ‘barrier free’, the aesthetics are not compromised.

One of the most prominent building elements in way of achieving barrier free environment ‘the Steps’, essential for vertical movement they can’t be avoided. But making them accessible for all requires interventions like ‘Ramps’. These are flat surfaces, angled at a certain slope, integrated alongside steps in vertical movement spaces, so as to allow movement of specially able people on their mechanical contraptions.

In public buildings due to government norms, ramps are unavoidable nowadays. Still everybody is not too fond of Ramps, because, one, they need more space then steps and two, to some extent they are a visual obstruction for those who love steps. So, sometimes people conveniently forget to allow barrier free environment in their (own) buildings.  

What if we design barrier free steps such as to avoid both aesthetic as well as space deterrence of ramps?

This post presents a concept for them, I call them ‘Slopey Steps’

They are an integration of steps and slope to allow for equal opportunity for both elements. Main concern areas while approaching this design concept were:

- Interchangeability (from Steps to Ramp & vice versa)

- Mobility

- Aesthetic value

- Durability & Strength

Below are conceptual plan and section of the Slopey Steps.

Additional points worth noting for further development are:

- Need of an easy locking mechanism to obstruct unwanted movement of the ramp element.

- Size of ramp element to be kept in line with minimum space requirement for specially able movement

- Space for keeping the removed ramp in steps

- Visual design of ramp surface and material variations therein.

Energy Efficiency in a Smart Neighborhood- Thoughts

Energy efficiency is core component of revitalizing the neighborhood. So, a smart neighborhood should essentially act as booster for innovation in field of Energy efficient practices.

Efficient use of energy is being achieved by minimizing use of non-renewable energy (NRE) sources and maximizing use of renewable energy (RE) sources, popular among them being, solar energy, Bio-gas energy, wind energy etc. But there are few key hurdles faced in all these energy systems while using them at neighborhood level like, (a) huge capital investment requirement & (b) less efficiency with reference to size. Through this write-up I am suggesting few methodologies which could be utilized to mitigate or minimize these hurdles.

To reduce investment requirement

In order to reduce the investment required for use of RE systems, I suggest utilizing these systems in conjunction with various existing building systems (such as façade systems, wall systems, structural systems etc.).

Logic behind this is simple, when we install a stand-alone renewable energy system (say solar electricity system), cost for that will be separate from building systems’ cost. But, if we integrate that renewable energy system with the building, in such a way that it could replace part or full component of certain building system, then the overall cost will have some amount of reduction. That, in turn, will make utilizing renewable energy system more viable cost-wise. To further understand; let’s take an example of solar electricity system and its integration with building system in a smart neighborhood to achieve better cost.

Traditionally, solar electric systems are installed on terrace area having a wide open space allowing ample direct sunlight. But this approach doesn’t result in any cost saving on account of its integration with building system. It also results wastage of usable terrace space.

Switching this with above mentioned approach, we could integrate the solar electric system with parapets (part of building wall system), by removing portions of brick parapet located on southern, Eastern & Western edges of the terraces of neighborhood buildings and replacing this parapet space with solar panels facing sun. Resulting parapet would be part brickwork and part solar panels. This would lead to cost savings on part of brick-parapet removal from building and also terrace space savings. The extent of this integration could be quantified subject to various project design considerations. 

Example schematics 1a & 1b for reference.

To increase the efficiency with reference to size of system

Typically the effective output of RE systems depends directly on its size. Larger the system better is the output. Considering the possibility of increasing efficiency of RE systems without increasing the size, through interaction of different RE energy systems with each other in common building system/systems is an interesting thought. Lets say, Interaction of solar energy & bio-gas energy in reducing the overall inefficiency  of both could be explored through designing both of these to complement each other. Can we?