INVESTIGATING TRANSFORMATIONS OF PUBLIC PLACES IN PLANNED URBAN DEVELOPMENTS: COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF BIDHANNAGAR & NEWTOWN, KOLKATA

Transformations of an urban area can provide vital insights into its developmental directions. Public Places (PPs) in an urban area are areas accessible to the public, having a multitude of activities. Planned Urban Developments (PUDs) are expected to withstand the test of time and follow the developmental direction, as charted in their original master plans. Although Public Places (PP) are more prone to Transformations, they are a neglected area of scrutiny in urban studies due to the lack of documentation. The Transformations of PPs in PUDs are an even less studied topic, since PUDs are considered to be already planned. Therefore, as established by review of existing literature, the Transformations of PPs in PUDs are crucial areas of scrutiny in urban research. Following this, the current paper attempts to contextualize the Transformations through study of the evolution of the PPs in PUDs from selected case studies from the Kolkata Region and its peripheral areas, which is the largest urban agglomeration in West Bengal, India. The study deploys a mixed methodology of primary survey as well as secondary data collection methods. The two chosen case studies of Bidhannagar (planned) and Newtown, have been chosen since both are were conceived and developed post-independence, through government intervention and are situated near the Kolkata city core. Through the study of aspects like planning, evolution, morphology, and transformation, the two studied PUDs have been compared, attempting to arrive at a relative assessment and inference. The comparative study reveals that homogenous, coherent planning with more human scale development leads to more accessible, distributed, diverse PPs. On the other hand, progressive, large-scale planning with more high-rises and gated complexes leads to more privatized, exclusive PPs. An improved understanding of the transformative processes that take place in PPs of PUDs is the overarching aim of the research work and the paper is an elementary step in that direction.