Iftikhar Hakim

Srinagar City region is an agglomeration of the mother city surrounded by 10 urban areas spreading over an area of 766 Sq. Kms and inhabited by 1.7 million as of 2011 (Revised Master Plan 2015-35). Srinagar—with a written history of 2500 years— has been able to preserve the distinct layers of different periods with the citizens having created an unwritten bank of the local knowledge answering the following questions: Where to build, what to build, how to build and what to preserve which resulted in an urban fabric ensuring community living and characterized by high densities also avoiding vulnerable sites.

The lecture will focus on the spatial planning of Srinagar tracing the history of the plan documents from the date the formal planning was instituted in the Valley. It will critically appraise these plan documents vis-à-vis the local wisdom and see how the alien/imported concepts compromised the local knowledge. The major areas of the Srinagar Metropolitan Region fall into ecologically fragile, prime agriculture lands, saffron cultivation and vulnerable categories warranting the documentation and the use of the local knowledge for informing the planning process.

Hakim, has graduated in Urban Planning with specialization in Regional and International Development from UCLA, being the recipient of Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program. He also has graduation in planning with specialization in transport planning with undergraduate degree in civil engineering. He was awarded Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation award by the University of California, interned in the Global Civil Society Team of the World Bank working on issues of transboundary water sustainability, water negotiations and water access in South Asia. He has attended international conference on Transboundary Water Management in South Africa, Swaziland and Sweden.

He played a significant role in the preparation of the dossier for the inscription of Srinagar in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and the Smart City Plan for Srinagar. Mr Hakim has a number of publications to his credit and has authored two books:

• KASHMIR THE 'STATE' OF FLOODS (co-authored) Kanishka Publishers
• Indus Waters Treaty: an Institutional Mechanism for Addressing Regional Disparity (VDM Verlag Germany)