 |
After Nano, Tata eyes another “home” run | ThinkChange India
by Badhri on May 06, 2009 Category: Housing & Sanitation Tags: housing low cost tata low-cost low cost housing affordable homes
After taking the automotive industry by storm with the launch of its small car Nano, Tata has set its eye on low-cost housing. Hours ago, Tata’s housing division has announced a low cost housing project in Boisar, a suburb in Mumbai, that is aimed at allowing people in the lower income segment own a decent home for about Rs 3.9 lakh and Rs 6.7 lakh.
A snippet from Business Standard
Talking about the launch of ‘Shubh Griha’, Brotin Banerjee, managing director and CEO of Tata Housing said: “……Our study shows that around 48 per cent of the people in the lower segment are currently staying in rented accommodation. As a real estate company, we are sensitive to the need of providing this segment with their own home along with a community life, we believe in empowering them and giving them the pride of owing a house in a city like Mumbai.”
No doubt this project is as ambitious as that of Nano. But after all the fanfare during its launch, the lower and lower-middle economic sections of India is still waiting to know Nano can actually deliver on its promise. That being the case, it would be too early to speculate on the success of ‘Shubh Griha’ project. So, for now, in spite of having initiated a series of highly successful social initiatives, and in spite of proven success in business, Tata’s capability to combine both to improve the quality of life of the lower economic sections is yet to be established.
comments
email to a friend
17 Comments
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||
Comments
This is great ! I was going to post it but you beat me to it !! :) .
I think this will go will with their nano plan. Nanos will soon transform village life and make the rural population more mobile and hence being in industry and revenue. This will support their low budget housing plan.
Remains to be seen! :)I remember when Indica was released people (at least) around me were hardly impressed. But sure Tata made adjustments. But I wonder if the same can be done for a low-cost car as this. May be, may be not! But I like Tata's relentless pursuit to address the ambitions of the low and lower-middle class. It gets makes them more confident spenders and paves way for improvement in quality of life.
So long as we are wishing, I wish that the Nano fails and the housing project keeps the Tatas afloat :).
Linking the Nano to improved quality of life would be shortsighted in my view. As long as it replaces bigger/less-efficient cars/autos, it's alright, but the crying need of the hour, as detailed in http://ngopost.org/story.php?title=Not_just_the_Nano_---, is congestion-free, green modes of traveling - mass transport (buses/trains) and bicycles, not cars/autos.
Besides, anything that aggravates climate change hurts the poor the hardest, for a variety of reasons including the lack of access of the poor to medical care (for breathing-related diseases, for instance), the intensification of the already grave water crisis, the increase in the frequency & intensity of floods/droughts/storms through global warming, and many more.
Climate change: I sincerely suggest you watch the video "The great global warming swindle" with an open mind ...
About congestion...I don't think failure of nano is even going to stop roads from being more congested, let alone decongest roads. May be the use of Nano will increase the congestion rate so much that it will make the govt. sit up and take some concrete steps to decongest roads! :)
The only way is for the govt. start regulating traffic flow, and pave better roads, rip of encroachments. Curbing the availability of car, calling for minimal usage of personal transport in an country that is just big growth for the first time is simply ineffective.
Finally, is the per-passenger emission less for buses because they carry way too many people than they are supposed to carry? The article you seem to suggest that "Subsidising cars congests the roads, so subsidizing buses should decongest it". But it seems the article doesn't offer a credible reasoning that supports such a belief.
Thanks, I will.
The failure of Nano obviously won't clear the roads, but it surely will halt the slide from bad to hopeless!
When the vehicle population grows as fast it has for us (nearly 100% rise in 5 years), it's impossible for widened roads and fly overs to come to rescue you from grid locks. Far more efficient road space usage - as achieved using mass transport - is an inevitable requirement. Plus, you very well can put in place financial deterrents to check the rise of cars, provided there is political will/public pressure. May be, this would help: http://www.slideshare.net/das_gv/traffic-solution?type=presentation. I too request an open mind :). Btw, the words 'growth' and 'development' have been abused too often, starting from the NDA's 'India Shining' rhetoric. It has to be much more holistic than what the mainstream media makes us believe. More than half the Indians can't even dream about owning a 2-wheeler, let alone the so-called 'greatest Indian dream come true' - the Nano. Some of us had recently been to a day-long workshop on rural lives and livelihoods. It was quite startling. The urban slums may be only marginally better, sometimes worse.
Let the bus carry only 40-50 people. Even then, the per-passenger emissions would be easily 3-4 times less than the car, which, on an average, seats no more than one and a half people. It tallies with another important observation - the per person road space occupied by the bus is also less than 10-15% of a car. These may provide more concrete info:
http://pdf.wri.org/measuringtheinvisible_portoalegre-508c_eng.pdf
http://www.cseindia.org/pdf/co2_trend.pdf
http://www.cseindia.org/campaign/apc/pdf/WheelsOfMisfortune.pdf
So, in terms of both emissions and traffic, the bus is ahead by a mammoth margin. Not to mention, congestion, to which cars heavily contribute, amplifies the pollution and commute time of each vehicle significantly.
As stated on the earlier page, public apathy, esp. that of the well-to-do, is one of the factors behind the bus service being a little below the mark. There is plenty of constructive work happening here in B'lore on both the fronts - pushing the authorities on bus/cycle-friendly infrastructure and advocacy among the public.
Slideshare makes it really simple to understand! :)
I feel we should separate the two issues
1) Nano = Private initiative of a specific company
2) Congestion-free, green modes of traveling = public + Private initiative
@pulkit Quote "Let the bus carry only 40-50 people. Even then, the per-passenger emissions would be easily 3-4 times more than the car"
The situation in mumbai has gone one step further a bus can carry 50 passenger but it carries 80 . a local train carries 100 but carries 150-200 per compartment.
The bus stops at 10 stops,does not take short cuts and could take 1-2 hour to reach the destination which can be reached in 30 minutes. So the bus is for those who plan and have that extra one hour to spare or those who have a lot of time. Cant compare it to Bangalore as i do not know the situation but i feel Bangalore will reach the same situation in the coming years.
By mistake, I negatively rated this, and it doesn't allow me to undo it :).
Including the standing option, an average city bus should be able to accommodate 60-70 people safely, but as you rightly said, sometimes it spills over. Btw, I erroneously wrote "3-4 times more" earlier, instead of the obvious "less".
About commute time, yes, at present, it's a hassle with all road transport options, because of congestion. You are right about Bangalore also being gripped by grid locks too. But, as depicted by the excellent resources here: http://www.hasiruusiru.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=cate..., the solution is to embrace buses which will alleviate the traffic woes in a big way, bringing down the commute time drastically. I agree that it won't happen overnight, but given that, right now in peak time, a car takes about an hour to cover 15 kms (In B'lore), we have no choice but to switch to alternatives, of which buses - along with cycles, the metro (when ready) and the good-old walks [:)] (for short distances) - are an indispensable component.
Another disaster induced by the maddening road widening spree, which has clearly failed to cope up with the rise of private vehicles, is the loss of green cover. As per HasiruUsiru, the once-known-as garden city's tree strength has been reduced to just 30% of what it used to be 40 years back! The consequences of this extent of tree felling need not even be enlisted.
The only way to counter this is to have photographic evidence and video footage of the same. There needs to be a database of all the area photographed and then if someone removes trees the area needs to photographed again. A photo speaks a 1000 words ;)
@Deltechie:
Pics with tree cover are already available (I can dig out some if you wanna see, google earth is the best source to check Nanda Road/RV Road, which looks a green carpet from top.) We gotta give it our best try to save this green carpet. Later as a worst case, your suggestion can be considered.
ok so you edited your post compared to the one which reached my mail box :) .
pulkit wrote The consequences of this extent of tree felling need not even be enlisted.
i wrote
The only way to counter this is to have photographic evidence and video footage of the same
Do you have google earth screen shots of the area where the trees were cut before the were cut? can you point on that screen shot which tree was cut?
I meant catch the culprits in the act with photographic evidence and video footage.Find out who is flaunting the law. over here most people cut trees and say it was dead due to the rains or it causes accidents (places in an accident spot near the road) etc
The initiative belongs to a private firm, but its implications hurt us all :). The problems are interconnected, and can't be viewed/solved in isolation. The connection between population and poverty is a case in point.
In most cities, the popular sentiment is to widen the roads. Any increase in private transport can only strengthen this sentiment, which the Nano will obviously contribute to. More the private transport, more the road space required.
I'm not sure if the law states that you cannot cut trees to widen the roads, but surely I have seen countless stay brought about by private land owners or atleast big protest (for Mumbai folks - think of Lata Mangeshkar and Poddar Road flyover).
When it comes to trees/parks authorities hardly have a hurdle. I have seen countless such incidents not just in Bangalore but even in smaller towns (very difficult to grab photo evidence here). The first thing that faces an axe is a poor tree.
The problem lies in sentiments of the people - "Cut a tree, but not my building". Of course its difficult to let go off your private property.
Now, the root of all these problems lies in shift towards private transport (including Nano). Each individual's choice of private transport will indirectly results in widening of roads some where else. If you are familiar with "Butterfly Effect" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect
So as Pulkit and Sejal say, Nano can only contribute more. People in Villages need access to safe water, clean sanitation, healthcare and basic-relevant education for transformation, not Nano.
Coming back to the original theme, "Tata's low cost housing", its great news. But really, the cost is reduced due to reduction in facilities and space that the other builders provide. Its just business as usual I feel - "you pay for what you get".
If we were to talk of social initiatives, I feel this is certainly one - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/new-start-500-mumbai-slumdwellers-get-...
If Tata were to really think of changing India, then they should focus on building the rural India to stop rural->urban migration that will stop the numerous problems that plague our cities. Indian population is huge and our city planning can't cope up with such volumes.
NREGA.NIC.IN is one of such initiatives by Central government. Rebuilding small towns, small cities, villages and stopping rural->urban migration is really not difficult, esp in today's small world connected heavily by internet and other communication technologies.
========================================================
Interesting article on reduction of green cover in Bangalore:
http://citizenmatters.in/articles/view/894-A-study-in-green
2007 satellite imagery:
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/pics/0001/1445/env-bangalore-map_smal...
Just to get an idea see:
Hebbal area, Bangalore on Nov 13, 2000 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/73484858@N00/3524858312/
Hebbal area, Bangalore now, 2009 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/73484858@N00/3524050171/
I'm seeing more and more areas and just can't believe the extent of damage. I'm going to do my bit by first spreading this evidence amongst my friends, relatives and colleagues.
Add new comment