‘6 Metros’: This two-volume book of urban planning encourages us to imagine an equal city for all

If you believe that Indian cities should be more just and humane and truly provide for all, rather than conceal the urban poor behind shoddy curtains, then the two volumes of 6 Metros may reaffirm your faith. The authors have the temerity – given the times we live in – to aver that “we want neither ghettoes of the poor nor gated enclaves of the rich”, and that a government can intentionally plan and administer the city such that it engenders an equitable and just society and a vibrant economy. This is heavy stuff, and so is the book: two hefty volumes, the first titled “Signposts” and the second, “Mappings”.

The cryptic titles understate the investment of effort in comparing six cities – London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Delhi, and Mumbai – about the ways they acquire, plan and regulate land and utilise it for housing, transportation, civic amenities and open spaces, and deriving general principles, a theory for the future. Informing the almost clinical “mappings” of the cities is a humanitarian philosophy and an attempt to reconcile market capitalism with welfare statism, a tightrope walk that the authors almost pull off. More on that later.

Cities under scanner

This book neither has to be read...

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