One of the overlooked flaws in Srinagar’s Smart City redesign.
The idea sounded modern and promising: make Srinagar more pedestrian-friendly by widening footpaths, beautifying streets, and redesigning urban spaces under the Srinagar Smart City Limited initiative. On paper, it reflected the language of global urban planning, walkability, sustainability, public space, and smart mobility. But on the ground, many citizens today ask a difficult question: what is the use of wider paths if roads become narrower and both eventually get encroached upon?This is perhaps one of the most visible contradictions emerging in Srinagar’s evolving urban landscape.
Across several roads in Srinagar, footpaths have indeed become wider than before. In principle, this should have encouraged walking culture, improved accessibility for elderly citizens, reduced pedestrian accidents, and enhanced the aesthetics of the city. However, the reality unfolding in many areas is different. Large portions of these widened paths are increasingly occupied by vendors, temporary stalls, parked two-wheelers, signboards, café extensions, construction material, and at times even private encroachments. The pedestrian, for whom the space was originally designed, often still ends up walking on the road.
At the same time, the carriageway for vehicles has shrunk in many stretches. The result is visible every day: congestion, bottlenecks, slower emergency movement, longer travel times, and rising frustration among commuters.The irony is striking. Roads became narrower in the name of pedestrian mobility, but pedestrians themselves often cannot freely use the widened paths.
Urban planning cannot succeed merely through beautification. A smart city is not created by tiles, decorative lights, paint, or fancy street furniture alone. It succeeds when design aligns with ground realities, enforcement mechanisms, traffic behavior, economic patterns, and population pressure.Srinagar is not a low-density European tourist town where citizens primarily move on foot or bicycles. It is a rapidly expanding urban center carrying enormous traffic pressure from private vehicles, public transport, commercial activity, tourism, and institutional movement. Every year the number of vehicles rises sharply, while road expansion possibilities remain limited due to geography and existing settlement patterns.In such a context, reducing road width without simultaneously creating robust traffic alternatives becomes problematic.
Another issue is the absence of strong post-construction regulation. Footpaths do not remain functional simply because they are built. They require continuous monitoring and protection from encroachment. Without enforcement, public infrastructure slowly transforms into semi-private occupation zones. This is not merely a Srinagar issue; many Indian cities suffer from the same cycle, development, encroachment, congestion, and public dissatisfaction.There is also a deeper planning concern, imitation without localisation.
“Urban planning in developing cities like Srinagar must prioritize long-term functionality over aesthetic symbolism. Encroachment is driven by a normalized social habit of misusing public space, not just institutional failure. Because a city’s economic health, emergency response, and overall well-being depend entirely on efficient movement, infrastructure needs to be genuinely “intelligent” rather than just “smart-looking.” True urban success requires roads that balanced the needs of pedestrians, vehicles, and lawful vendors while strictly preserving public spaces.”
Many smart city concepts in India appear inspired by urban models from abroad, yet insufficiently adapted to local realities. Srinagar has unique climatic, social, commercial, and mobility patterns. During winters, pedestrian movement naturally declines in many areas due to snow, rain, and cold temperatures. Markets remain heavily vehicle-dependent. Tourism seasons create sudden spikes in mobility. Public transport systems remain underdeveloped compared to the traffic load. In such conditions, urban redesign must emerge from local behavioural studies rather than imported visual templates.A city becomes smart not when it looks smart in photographs, but when it functions intelligently during peak hours, emergencies, winters, tourist rushes, and ordinary daily life.
Another unintended consequence is psychological. Narrower roads create a perception of compression and chaos in already busy areas. Drivers become impatient, minor traffic violations increase, and intersections become more stressful. Even public transport movement becomes inefficient. Ambulances, fire services, and school transport systems are affected by reduced maneuvering space.
None of this means pedestrian infrastructure should be abandoned. Srinagar genuinely needs better walkability. The city deserves safe footpaths, cycling infrastructure, greener public spaces, and reduced pollution. But such goals require balance, not imbalance.A practical approach could include: strict anti-encroachment enforcement on pedestrian paths, scientific traffic impact assessments before redesigning roads, dedicated vending zones instead of informal occupation, smarter parking management systems, stronger public transport networks, area-specific planning instead of uniform designs everywhere, and wider roads in high-density traffic corridors and wider paths only where pedestrian density genuinely justifies them.
Most importantly, citizens themselves must become stakeholders in protecting public infrastructure. Encroachment is not always institutional failure alone; it is also a social habit that gradually normalises misuse of shared spaces. The larger lesson from Srinagar’s experience is important for all developing cities, urban planning must prioritise functionality over symbolism. A beautiful street that cannot handle movement efficiently eventually creates more stress than comfort.Cities breathe through movement. When movement slows, economic activity slows, emergency response weakens, pollution increases, and public frustration deepens.
Perhaps Srinagar today does not need merely smart-lookingroads. It needs intelligent roads, roads where pedestrians can genuinely walk, vehicles can move reasonably, vendors can function lawfully, and public space remains public.Only then can wider paths truly serve their purpose without creating narrower possibilities for the city itself.
(The author is a teacher and a researcher based in Gowhar Pora Chadoora of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
