Envisioning Future Urban form around Transit Station Precinct Gaddigodam (Nagpur)

Abstract

To envision the urban form and public realm that would enhance the spatial quality and respond to the dynamics of user activities in transit station precinct. There are many cities in the world who have undergone a transition of improving and rebuilding their public transportation systems when planning and redeveloping their cities for better future. Massive intervention of transport infrastructure in urban areas would present opportunities for restructuring & redeveloping existing cities. But, the recent development does not recognize the potential of Mass transit networks which have a tremendous impact on the urbanization process. When these kinds of movement networks come up, they trigger a whole lot of development especially disturb functioning of the urban area without studying the local context and need of the people of area. After the announcement of such a project (Urban insert), transformation start take place and many times that transformation is unregulated due to lack of action plans, area starts losing its character due to the disturbance movement network. (Banerjee, 2001). Another issue in this developing areas around transit, existence of abandoned and underutilized land has become a crucial urban issues which needs to be sorted. These lands locked spaces are a major underutilization of infrastructure, causing economic losses affecting people’s life. Having great market value, these vacant land parcels need to be developed judiciously otherwise piecemeal approach will lead to a haphazard growth disturbing the city spatially. Thus aiming towards redevelopment of these land parcels is one of the few viable opportunities that can direct Nagpur towards a new public destination & socially sustainable urban development by advocating public realm. In the context of development along metro corridor in Nagpur, Gaddigodam is the proposed development sector for commercial considering FSI 4. so there is chances of developers to do collaboration with land owner and do development which fulfill the demand of TOD. It is one of the most important and busiest station as its located in the central part of city. so, there is higher chance of transformation because of metro station. Also, lots of institutions and schools are present in the precinct which are one of the point to think that in future how this area will cater large volume of people and crowd while strengthening the network and safe environment to students which are coming here with metro. Public spaces improvement is big aspect here. This thesis scope is to explore the role of public realm as a common attribute that would become the qualitative factor and plays a key role in deciding the spatial, visual and experiential quality of transit station precincts. Outcomes of this thesis to to Improve walkable character in the surrounding urban structure, improving quality of public realm, addressing street informalities and making precinct legible with safety measures for users & Integrating public spaces between neighborhoods to strengthen the character of built environment.