UPGRADATION OF STREETS IN INFORMAL AREA IN KABUL CITY

Saifullah Amin 1 and Dr. Supriya Vyas 2 . 1. Research scholar M. Plan, IV-Semester, Department of Architecture and Planning Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal. 1. Assistant Professor Department of Architecture and Planning Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History

The reason of growth and formation process of informal settlements varying in location, size, density, building quality, illegality, risk situation, and level of consolidation and integration. However, they have some similar characteristics, but illegality in land titling or property, worse livingconditionsof dwelling, the lack of urban infrastructures are the main elements which separate informal area or town fromthe formal area and town. This variety makes the design of public policies and actions for all informal areas more difficult. On the other hand, despite all international and national effortsfor the growth of informal settlements,slums are emerging not only in backward countries but in the developed countries too. Mostly expert believes informal settlements could be totally avoided is a wrong thought due to many reasons. One of the vital and effective way is upgrading which decreases the growth of informal settlements and provides better life conditions for the present residence. In Kabul city approximately 76% area is covered with informal settlements which is so high percentage due to a large segment of the cities require upgrading. On the other hand, the financial resource of the Afghan government very limit.Due to not only Kabul municipality authorities, but the international agencies such as UN-Habitat, JICA etc. also recommended the upgrading policy for Kabul city.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction and Background:-
Afghanistan is a Muslim country, with the majority of Sunni and Pashtuns and Minorityof the Shi'as. The people of the country speak with two principal languages Pashto (the language of Pashtuns) and Dari (a variant of Persian). Afghanistan has a total surface area approximately 647,500 km 2 and more than 75% is occupied by mountains and hills. Afghanistan is one of the world's least developed and poorest country due to more than 3.5 three and half decades of war and still the conflicts is continues.
Until now, Afghanistan isn't have balanced, systematic control and properly organized system for the urbanand city development due to many factors such as: internal and external political conflicts, economic situation, lack of experience of urban planners, rapid growth of population , geographical location etc.

ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 5(5), 1611-1622 1612 According to World Bank (2015), Afghanistan has 32, 5 million population. More than 30% of the population live in urban areas. In Kabul metropolitan city more than 50% of the urban population live,around (5.5 million people live in Kabul city). Shortages of Housing and highland prices, lack of strength and good building materialsand lack of a new master plan as well as difficult administrativeprocedures based on ideal norms rather than the realities of local circumstances have made a rise in informal construction unavoidable.
Kabul the historical city which is becoming the capital of Afghanistan in 1775. The city was beautifully shaped and good geographical location. Kabul is the 64th largest and the 5th fastest growing city in the world. The growth of population in the recent years is very high due to the return immigrants, job opportunity and safety of tenure and life. In the period of war Kabul was very hardly damage, mostly the existing infrastructure was also severely damaged during this period.
The total area of Kabul city is 4462 km 2 and located 34 N, 69 E coordinate and the total population is estimated according to the World Bank about 5.5million in 2012. The population has grew over the last 10 years very fast, the demographic growth rate is around 17% per year.The city has grown mostly through the construction of informal settlements, which now shelter about 60% of Kabul population, where more than 12 % area is hill side informal settlements. Kabul the capital city has all ethnic groups (Pashtuns, Tajak, ozbak, hazara, etc.). The central part of the City is more ethnically mixed.
According to UN-Habitat upgrading Refers to the physical, socio-economic and environmental improvements to slums undertaken cooperatively among citizens, community groups and local authorities with a view to alleviating the poor living standards of slum dwellers (UN-Habitat, 2003).
According to World Bank (1996), say on the elaborate word that upgrading is the most basic level, which involves improving the physical environment of the slums and squatter settlements. This includes improving and installation of basic infrastructure like water, sanitation, waste collection, access roads, footpaths, storm water drainage, lighting, public telephones and land regularization among other things. The Cities Alliance (2002).
It is generally agreed that the first person to propose an alternative way of thinking about upgrading was John F. C. Turner in the late 1960s. An architect and a scholar, Turner developed a theory of settlement upgrading which 1613 focused on the community's right to create their own plans and the government's role as a provider of resources and services (Abbott, 2002).

Master plan of Kabul city:-
The existing development of Kabul city is the product of three master plans which we prepared different times. The first master plan was built in 1962 by Afghan experts for 0.8 million people in 237.8 km 2 area. Due to The rapid growth of population the master plan required to be updated.Hence the second master plan was prepared in 1979 for 1.416 million people in 299 km 2 area by Soviet expert and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The development of the knowledge and other requirements again required for updating of the master plan. The third master plan was established by Afghan and Russian expert in 1978 for 2 million people in 323 km 2 area which is still used. The summarization of the master plan is in table-1.  For upgrading of informal settlements Kabul municipality considered one big program under the title of the Kabul municipal development project (KMDP), which was supported by the World Bank. In this program the important objectiveswere to increase access municipal services in residential areas and upgrade infrastructure in Kabul city. The total cost of upgrading infrastructure is $ 75.5 million dollars. (Republic of Islamic Afghanistan Kabul municipality 2014 report).

Major Causes of informal Settlements in
In addition, USAID contract with Afghan NGO to improve the physical environment of 250 informal households in district 13 of Kabul city, the area was identified by Kabul municipality. This program is community based upgrading program (CBU), and the decision is that to paved the unpaved street in district 13, which is completed in 11 month the total cost of the project is $. 170.000, and paved around 3 km, 26 types streets with different width, 15 % contributed by community people as a labor. The street map and number are shown in figure-3.

Proposal for Upgrading of streets In Kabul City:-Study Area Qala-E-Wahid:-
The study area is nominated by Qala-e-Wahid and mostly proposed for residential purpose. Although some part of the area is used for commercial activity. This site is near to the major provincial road which is connectedGhazni, Wardag and other province to Kabul city. The main issues in the site is irregular built of self-house by people and lack of basic infrastructure and environmental degradations. Duo to it basically required for upgrading. The settlements of the area are suffering from the lack of basic infrastructure, especially in winter season when the area is covered by snowfall or in the case of heavy rainfall. The residence of the site is opposed to any relocation, particularly the owners of land. Due to redevelop or clearing of the area hasbrought allot of social and economic problems. In situ-upgrading is the only successful way for improvements in the area.
The total surface area of the site is 66.7254 Hectare .The longitude is 69,104 and the latitude is 34,516. The selected area is located near to Koti-e-Sangi .The area is separated in north by major provincial road (company road) and in the south it is separated by Paghmanriver , east side is surrounded by mixed residential , commercial area and the western side is also surrounded by residential area.

Map. 2:-Qala-e-Wahid location with surrounding and land use .
According to the site layout, all of the streets are irregular, narrow, dead end and lack connectivity due to which, improvement of this site is essential. But like it is clear earlier that the study only considers upgrading the area without displacement of residences. On the other hand, upgrading of streets plays very important role and lead to plannedphysical infrastructure such as water supply line, sewage, drainage and solid waste. On the other hand the elevation profile of the area starts from the high point to the low point north to south. The highest point has a1835 meter elevation and lowest point has a 1823 meter elevation. The difference between highest and lowest is 12 meter.  The majority area of the site is covered by residential self-constructed building which is built from local materials. This target area is low rise residential self-built house and most part of the area is covered by one story house which is built without any proper planning and design. However, in the center and near to company road residential buildings have two and three stories and have a good architecture view. From the total area of the site approximately 74 % is covered by residential building, 7 % is occupied by commercial building, 15 % is covered by residential street roads, 2.9 % is covered by Paghman river 0.5 % is covered by public and semi-public buildings . The total household is approximately 752 in 2017. See the land use of the area in table-2.      2014  15116  226  2042  704  2015  15454  231  2088  720  2016  15800  236  2135  736  2017  16153  242  2182  752  2018  16515  247  2231  769  2019  16884  253  2281  786  2020  17262  258  2332 804 Criteria for choosing proposed street pattern:-1. Major road: north is surrounded by major provincial and south is surrounded by arterial road, due to this the site should be connected with these two roads for the future development. In the same way the connection of these two roads by 13 meter wide road which is passed from the center of the area is also required. 1618 2. Slope required for infrastructure: Slope is another important criteria for designing of physical infrastructure such as water supply, sewage, and drainage. Proper Slope also helps in economic design of infrastructure. Based, on this the elevation profile of the area shows that the north part is the high in elevation the height of which is 1835 meter and lower elevation is south side which is 1823 meter. It means that the slope is from north to south and from west to east. Therefore the new proposed road helps in planning physical infrastructures: water supply, sewage and drainage also planned from north to south and east to west to provide useable and economical system for the mentioned infrastructures. 3. Maintain the existing alignment: The residents of the area oppose any kind of displacement due to which the existing road isincreased in width and alignment is maintained. 4. Source of water supply: The water source of the city is also located on the north side of the area due to which it is very easy to connect the water line with this source of the water. 5. Network of sewage: In the south side of the area is the trunk network of the sewage due to which it is very easy to manage sewage network in this direction. 6. Existence of Paghmanriver: For drainage system the only place to manage rain water is the Paghmanriver.Water can easily flowto this River. 7. Existenceof bridge on PaghmanRiver in the south side.

Proposal for New Proposed Streets:-
The proposal concerns with two major elements: width of road and pattern of connection of road. 1619 1. Width of roads 2. Connectivity pattern I. The first one that is the width of roads,concern with many factors such as traffic volume, location, purpose, speed of vehicle, function etc. But many countries limit the width of the road. According to JICA and Kabul municipality, urban roads based on function were categorizedas below table 5-1. Due to this consideration my study area is urban and residential. For the proposed roadIV category is selectedwhere the width is limited from (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) meter. Based on this and the economy and future development of the area,the study considers three kinds of road, 13 meter right of way for main street , 11 meter right of way for medium size street and 8 meter right of way for common street whose cross sections are shown in the below figures.

meters Right of Way Street (ROW):-
This street is located near the middle part of the area which connects two main north and south roads. Mostlycommercial areas exist in the north and residential area is located in the south part of Qala-e-Wahid. The total length of the 13 meters road is 637 meter. This road has two lane with 3 meter width, 1.5 meter shoulder to each side in 1 meter drainage ditch with each side and has 1 meter pedestrian to each side. More details is shown in figure -7.

8-meters Right of Way Street:-
This is the minimum standard size for the urban road, due to which it is selected for Common Street. This road is mostly link road which connects two mediums or main roads. The total length is 3209 meters. These streets are one lane which has 1.5 meter shoulder on each side and 1 meter drainage ditch to each side. The cross section of the road is shown in figure -9.  Based on this 39% extra area is required of total streets area. Thus new area of land is required to be occupied from the land ownersfor which the government should give compensation to the landowners. The second Connectivity pattern of streets is another important aspect of planning which plays a very important role on the layout and economic design of infrastructure. Mostly in many countries grid, circular, hexagonal are usable pattern in planning a city. But ancient city such as Whitechapel is one of the organic pattern type city which still exists and people still use the road in London.The countries where the rapid growth of population is there, they develop with organic type and mostly the slum area is also has an organic layout. Due to this, the study area also has an organic layout with very narrow Street and dead end Street. On the other hand, the proposed upgrading model is in situ upgrading model which does not displace the residents. So it is very difficult to change the street system like grid, circular or other regular type.Due to in this proposal the organic type patternis developed.

Conclusion:-
Generally, the growth of informal settlements brings many social, economic and environmental problems. Due to the governmental responsible sectors are an effort to avoid from the growth of informal settlements and provide healthy, enjoyable and safe environment for the people.
In Kabul city, where the growth of informality is very high and 76% area is occupied by informal settlements it is very difficult for the government to improve all the informal areas in less time.
On the other hand, upgradation is the only suitable way to improve the life of informal settlements and provide better life conditions for the people in Kabul city. The government should by make upgrading policy in such a way to gradually upgrade the informal area and planned another satellite city on the periphery of Kabul city to avoid from new informality.
To provide better life conditions for informal settlements in Kabul city municipality should be more focus on the upgrading of physical infrastructure, especially in road and accessibility.