Leverage GMC’s expanse, Make Space in Gangtok

Source:Sikkim Now Editorial:

There is exhibition [“Projecting Gangtok”] underway at the Star Cinema Hall in Gangtok detailing a slew of urban infrastructural facilities coming up in the capital. Given that the Gangtok is now a municipal corporation, it will attract substantial urban development funds and will have to provide urban facilities to its residents in a more organised and better coordinated manner. There can be no protest against more pedestrian paths and foot over-bridges, or for that matter more parking lots and improved marketing avenues for produce from rural Sikkim. If the finances allow, even the extravagance of a Fashion Street or a Gangtok Tower hugged by two red pandas and a revolving restaurant on top are fine. But when one looks at all the facilities being created in the capital, two things stick out as worries – one, almost all projects are huddled between MG Marg to Deorali, and two, there is nothing for the children.
Till a few years back, the urban spread of Gangtok was limited to the stretch from MG Marg to Deorali, but this has now expanded almost right down till Ranipool on one end and up to Bojoghari in the northern extremity. Traffic into and out of town is already jammed on most times and inserting more parking lots, office buildings and shopping complexes to this cluster will only create a series of bottlenecks which the present road, with no scope of expansion, will not be able to handle.
Spreading these facilities across the GMC area should be an option that the planners seriously consider. It is possible that most of the projects which have already been sanctioned were proposed before the urban space was delimited to its present expanse, but now that the GMC spreads much wider, an attempt should be made to relocate these constructions to new locations around Gangtok. Planning needs to look into the future requirements and while the need for parking space is acute around the main town area, it is only a matter of very few years before the rest of the GMC feels the stress as well. It will be in everyone’s interest if better coordination is incorporated into planning and parking concerns addressed along with the creation of new infrastructure. In this regard, one needs to look at the absence of such planning in the relocation of the District Administrative Centre to Sichey from the heart of town. Parking is now a major concern there, but would not have been so if it had been factored into the project at the design and proposal stage itself.
The planners need to leverage the GMC’s expanse while creating new infrastructure, and this could help alleviate the second concern highlighted earlier. The capital will breathe much easier if relocation of some of the constructions is pulled off and since plots for most of these projects have already been ‘discovered’, these could be developed into public parks, even small ones. Look around Gangtok and concrete monsters with names like “Old Children’s Park Taxi Stand” and “Old West Point School Private Bus Stand” [now, just Pvt Bus Stand]and another parking lot under construction on what was a glade which could have been developed into a good park, reveal what we have stolen shamelessly from the kids. Their space has been appropriated to accommodate excesses the elders indulge in, and what is worse, no compensatory allocation has been made out to them. MG Marg was developed as a tourist amenity and it is only by default that it has also become a safe place for kids to play. The planners need to be specifically directed by the policy-makers to start looking out for the young now. What the GMC can also consider is setting aside a special fund to help with the upkeep of grounds and campuses of schools, even private schools, in the GMC area on the condition that the school authorities keep them open for kids after school. With “Projecting Gangtok”, a link has been established between residents, urban planners and professional architects. This connection should be sustained to keep goading planning to work in sync with aspirations and felt-needs and the collaboration nurtured to ensure that detailed project reports are genuinely detailed and holistic...