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Land, Land Everywhere, And Yet No Common Space For The Common Man!
Experts attribute the shrinking of common areas to poor urban planning, noting that these open spaces are often overlooked in official development agendas. They call for a robust policy-driven mechanism
Nov 27, 2025 · 2 min read
Land is here, land is there, but it leads to nowhere for the urban population seeking open spaces for community gatherings, recreational purposes, or any social event. Experts attribute the shrinking of common areas to poor urban planning, noting that these open spaces are often overlooked in official development agendas. They call for a robust policy-driven mechanism to integrate open spaces into urban planning.
At an interactive session held by the Indian Land Development Conference (ILDC) recently in Ahmedabad, Rohan Sheth, Head, Colocation and Data Centre Services, Yotta Data Service, highlighted delays in acquiring clearance for projects. “You may construct a data centre building in two years, but it would require another two years to set up the communication infrastructure, as it has to pass through common spaces. This causes a delay in the operations,” Sheth said at the session on Sensitive Urban Planning For Urban Commons: Past, Present, and Future.
While the corporates form a part of the social spectrum, the poor, including people residing in slum areas, constitute the other end of the spectrum. Sandhya Naidu Janardan, Managing Director and Founder, Community Design, emphasised that common spaces play a crucial role in social, cultural, and religious functions of society. However, when localities are redeveloped, common spaces are often not taken into account. “Localities have commons spaces for various reasons. When a locality or area is redeveloped, the common spaces vanish. There is an urgent need to reclaim open spaces,” said Sandhya.
Mapping Common Spaces
Focusing on the need to identify and map common spaces, Mumbai-based architect and researcher Ashwini Deshpande stressed the need to include information on common spaces in official records. “Often, the ground reality is very different from the government's plans. We require a policy-driven mechanism to understand the integration of common spaces,” she said.
Malini Krishnankutty, Adjunct Associate Professor at IIT-Bombay, referred to the pace at which urbanisation is happening, and pointed out that it is difficult for the current planning structure to match this pace and address the needs of the various facets of society. “We have not even mapped the informal structures. No one had foreseen the growth in the communication sector; as a result, projects such as the establishment of data centres have been affected," she said.
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