This piece presents the context of Patna and situates two of the settlements that we are engaging with closely viz. Mubarakpur and Nehrunagar. The piece goes across scales of the city and settlement.
This piece presents the context of Patna and situates two of the settlements that we are engaging with closely viz. Mubarakpur and Nehrunagar. The piece goes across scales of the city and settlement.
Patna, the capital of the Indian state of Bihar, is located on the southern bank of the Ganges River.
Patna has been undergoing rapid urbanisation with differential levels of development and investment in infrastructure. This photo illustrates the cityscape, with some pockets more densely developed than others, amidst a mix of low- and high-rise development.
Like most other Indian cities, Patna constantly sees new infrastructural development. This photo shows the new Metro infrastructure under construction in Patna. It is meant to have two lines: Red Line across the East-West corridor, and Blue Line across the North-South corridor.
The Iconic Gandhi Maidan, where children are playing, but the game has come to a standstill because of an unseasonal windstorm in summer.
Informal settlements, next to the railway line under a highway along the Danapur Railway Station. Makeshift bridges constructed by residents to cross the water drain and access the main road.
JP Ganga Path is a relatively new highway built across the city, in the land that used to be the Ganga flood plain. It has divided the floodplain into two parts. It is also locally dubbed as Patna's Marine Drive.
This is one of the parts of the floodplain that has been divided by the JP Ganga Path. Previously part of the flood plain, it continues to see a deluge of water in monsoons, even when separated from the river by the JP Ganga path.
This new temporary water body is a source of livelihoods as well as interruptions to life: boats are used for fishing, as well as to commute along this flooded water body that surrounds the settlements.
When the water level of the Ganges rises, residents living on the riverine islands and the floodplains have to evacuate. Temporary shelters built by these residents line the JP Ganga Path highway, making a kind of linear temporary settlement.
At the shore of the Ganges, people wait for the boats to take them across the river, where they live or work.
At the shore of the Ganges, kids pray and play around a tree that’s converted into a shrine.
People crossing the Ganges on a boat.
The boat carries not just people but also bikes and other goods for livelihood across the river.
Zooming from the city scale to Mubarakpur is one of the sites we are engaging more closely with in this project. Mubarakpur is a resettlement site for people affected by floods about four decades ago. While further from the river now, it continues to experience local flooding in monsoons due to poor infrastructure. A snapshot of life during the monsoons: life goes on in Mubarakpur, even in the backdrop of floods caused by poor drainage, and worsened by poor waste disposal.
Waterlogging at a crossroad in Mubarakpur
Nehru Nagar, another site that we are engaging with closely in Patna. Nehru Nagar is located closer to the city centre, but still faces infrastructural shortcomings due to its informal nature. The drainage has been in a state of repair the past many months, and its contents mix with rainwater during the monsoons. This then results in waterlogging and local flooding affecting the lives of residents of the settlement.
Poor drainage combined with poor garbage disposal results in health risks. Traces of rainwater can be observed in the photo above, even as there are newer apartment complexes in the same area.
In Mubarakpur as well, poor drainage combined with poor garbage disposal results in health risks in the footpath above a stormwater drain.
Mubarakpur open drainage post-monsoon next to the road
A space of economic productivity, one can see multiple small businesses lining the semi-pucca streets of Nehru Nagar.
Water tank in Mubarakpur. The main road divides one side of Mubarakpur with a better-built environment from the area that the project is engaging with. Life goes on in both Mubarakpur and Nehru Nagar, despite and amidst these challenges.
