FLOWING ON: Fishermen set off on the Hooghly for a hilsa catch. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

The riverfront rejuvenation project has hit a twin roadblock, with the absence of an integrated master plan and lack of coordination among stakeholders and implementing agencies, feel city planners and architects.

“No one is interested in long-term planning or in any urban design control. The authorities always look for immediate results,” laments Partha Ranjan Das, a city-based architect and urban designer. Das was asked by Writers’ Buildings and the civic body to try and dovetail the stakeholders’ plans on the river into a composite whole.

“Piecemeal planning”, like the flower market and the Laldighi parking lot, might defeat the purpose, feels Das.

“We have a master plan on environment protection which covers the river and a master plan for BBD Bag is being prepared by Consulting Engineering Services. These two will be integrated and we will do a total scheme with the Port Trust,” CMDA CEO P.R. Baviskar tells Metro.

However, with no visible ripples, post-Millennium Park, the experts are not convinced.

The think-tank Centre for Built Environment (CBE), which had catalysed Millennium Park by inviting London Rivers Association president George Nicholson a decade ago, cautions that unless government agencies speak in one voice for a long-term perspective, the riverbank will remain a desolate domain.

“Right now, it seems there are too many individual initiatives wanting to score political brownie points,” observes Santosh Ghosh, CBE president and ex-chief architect, urban development, West Bengal government.

Das also fears that “political muscle-flexing and one-upmanship” on the riverfront could result in out-of-context development and destroy its character.

“Adaptive reuse” is the need of the hour, with a positive master plan that includes all stakeholders, agrees teaching architect Mukul Mitra. “Calling the Strand warehouses ‘heritage’ is fine, but the Port Trust shouldn’t just let them crumble. There has to be a proper reuse plan. Why can’t we have revolving restaurants and art galleries and boutique retail, like those by the Thames in London?” ponders Mitra.