- Aditya Chawande (Architect Urban Designer, Project Associate at Parisar)
The city takes birth from its core where people initially come together to give it the urban form. In the constant pace of development of the city, natural increase in population and the rapid expansion of the city into suburbs leading to peripheral zones and rings that are supported by faster means of communication has turned the original core city into a neglected area. Such transformation of the core city area has made it difficult to provide modern standards of living befitting healthy urban development. These core areas have started facing the dark effects of development by becoming more and more congested and may before long lead to urban decay. Numerous issues of preservation and redevelopment is making the situation even more difficult to respond to needs of planned growth. In spite of such crises the core city continues to remain attractive and interesting on account of its historic quality of old structures including houses, temples and riverside ‘Ghats’ that shows the potential to become a unique environment that if planned wisely can connect the city with its past.