mid day editorial: Development, but at what cost

A day after this paper carried extensive front page reportage about the ongoing Metro III construction hitting businesses of those located in its path, small entrepreneurs are still counting their losses.

While infrastructure growth is necessary for a city bursting at its seams and multiplying every day, it needs to come at minimal cost to its citizens. There needs to be a long-term, holistic look at situations and the effect development will have, even before undertaking a project. Metro III barriers may have been unavoidable, but our planners could have tried their best to mitigate the harmful effects, the biggest of which is obstructing visibility of the commercial establishments located behind these barriers.

This means they could have looked at how people can access these stores and restaurants with some ease even as the work goes on. Maybe, even allow some kind of branding on the Metro barricades so as to tell people that the outlet they are seeking is still located behind this metal sheet. Metro III agencies should have taken the onus for some signage, telling people how to access the stores behind the barriers, just like they have done for cars.

Even when the Nana Chowk skywalk had come up, owners of commercial establishments located behind one arm of the skywalk, which housed the non-functional escalator, paid a huge price in terms of profits, because they were rendered invisible by that piece of infrastructure.

Though the Metro barriers are temporary, work is sure to continue for many months and it is unfair that small businesses pay the price for this. Some kind of planning and thought may have resulted in fewer problems. Development has to come, but when it causes pain, hardship and possibly a loss of livelihood, one has to question whether it was all worth it.

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