Integration of Mobility, Heritage and Landscape: Towards a Local Area Mobility Plan for Pune, India

Urbanisation in India has seen a rapid increase in the recent years which has resulted in increased stress on transportation and mobility options. In an attempt to cope with it the Government of India has launched several policies such as the Comprehensive Mobility Plan 2008, Smart City Mission in 2015, National Policy on Transit Oriented Development 2017, Metro Rail Policy 2017 etc. This thesis focuses on the case study of the city of Pune, where all these national government sponsored schemes are being implemented. According to nationwide schemes Pune’s urban development has focused on transport planning and infrastructural development. But historical landscape which is the identity of the city is not considered as a part of this development. This has led to significant changes in the urban landscape of the city, neglecting important tangible and intangible heritage features. Given the scenario, this thesis analyses the recent developments and policy regulations in Pune and investigates how such policies favour infrastructure-oriented development over social and cultural heritage of the city. Local Area Mobility Plans (LAMPs) address mobility needs at the neighbourhood level. They are planned for safer, more efficient, and sustainable mobility options for residents, businesses, and visitors. They are derived from the concept of Local area plan (LAP) – which is a land use plan to sets out detailed planning policies at the neighbourhood level and it creates framework for contextual development. According to National Policy on Transit Oriented Development 2017, 3 pilot local area plans are proposed in Pune to encourage the compact living and transit-oriented development around the metro stations in the city. So, this research makes an argument for the need additional similar framework in the form of Local area mobility plan to preserve, sustain and enhance the cultural landscapes in the city center of Pune. The focus of this research starts with analysing the governance structure that regulates the mobility planning and heritage conservation from national to local level in Pune, India. Based on the findings, this research advocates for the preparation of Local area mobility plan with strong coordination among mobility and heritage decision-makers. For the assessment of the mobility scenario in the predefined case study area, mobility generation factors, recorded footfall, available infrastructure and behavioural pattern of its users are analysed. Similarly, for the same case study area, the tangible heritage structures and intangible heritage practices are enlisted with their challenges related to excessive mobility and heritage blind planning. Based on the findings this research proposes a combined framework of Local Area Mobility Plan.