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Urban Planning &
Heritage
Bithoor River Front
Urban Development
This quiet but historical city on the Ganges in Kanpur district has a past; but its present is in dire need of refurbishment. The design intervention along the kilometre and a half stretch of the riverfront aims not at creating an iconic and landmark edge, but at sensitively inserting the new in conjunction with this context.
As is with most riverfronts, it is the complexity of issues that forms the main challenge. From connectivity to the town to landscape, heritage conservation, information, policy and maintenance, the brief is expected to cater to all these aspects.
The civic vision involves improving existing bathing ghats and other public facilities, accessibility to historic structures and ensuring the comfort of the local population and periodic tourists.
This also includes addressing the issues of the 'adverse' consequences of the river; of sewerage disposal and ecological disaster management. It is thus as much about engineering as about architecture. It should always be about the river!
