A video shared by high Indian industrialist Anand Mahindra on Twitter went viral in March — a bunch of kids taking part in cricket and basketball in a brand new sports activities facility beneath a flyover in Navi Mumbai. The 2,745 sqm facility beneath the Sanpada flyover has badminton courts, a skating rink, a box-cricket set-up, and house for yoga, and is already successful with native residents.

Mahindra shared his video with the message, “Transformational. Let’s do this. In every city”, and his tweet ignited a debate in regards to the deserves of the thought, and was retweeted by greater than 15,000 folks, whereas the video itself was seen greater than 4.7 million occasions.

Over the final couple of years, the thought of constructing sports activities services beneath flyovers — the empty house variously known as leftover areas, incidental areas, destructive house, or city voids by city planners —appears to have caught on.

Indore pioneered the idea in 2021, when it arrange an unique sports activities advanced beneath the Pipliyahana flyover, however many different cities throughout the nation appear to have taken cue.

Sanjay Desai, metropolis engineer, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), stated, “We launched the facility below the Sanpada flyover in October last year, and encouraged by the public’s response, we have decided to create three more such sports facilities under the flyovers.”

Other cities the place this idea has discovered favour embrace Chennai, which has created a playfield, a skating floor, a biking monitor, a café, and a number of other different services beneath the MRTS bridge reverse Tidel Park. Going a step additional, Coimbatore developed a multifunctional house that additionally has an amphitheatre, an exhibition centre and even a co-working house, redefining spatial typology.

Among National Capital Region cities, the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) developed a sports activities facility beneath the Raj Nagar flyover earlier this month, whereas Delhi’s Public Works Department (PWD) is presently constructing a sports activities advanced beneath the Lajpat Nagar flyover.

So what prompted civic our bodies from throughout the nation to utilise this “leftover space” for sports activities services?

NMMC’s Desai stated, “The Sanpada flyover is in a residential area, where a lot of children used to play on the streets in the absence of sports facilities. So, we thought we could set up a sports complex in the space under the flyover, which had been taken over by squatters… The lack of traffic on the road, along with the length (about 180 metres) and height (about 6.2 metres) of the flyover made it easier for us to develop a sports facility.”

Under the Smart City Mission, Coimbatore has constructed a number of services beneath the 700-metre flyover, which overlooks the Valankulam lake. The space, which until three years in the past was an unofficial rubbish dump, is at present one of the occurring public areas within the metropolis.

“The idea was to create a multipurpose community space under the flyover in the city that does not have many public spaces. I believe there is no limit to what can be created under the flyovers. A city is known by its streets and flyovers are an integral part of the cityscape. With a flyover, you have space and a ready roof over your head, all you need is imagination to build something interesting and useful for the community,” stated city designer and architect Akash Hingorani, who co-founded Oasis Design Inc, the lead design guide for the Coimbatore undertaking.

NCR authorities take part

The Ghaziabad civic physique says that the thought behind constructing a sports activities facility beneath the Raj Nagar flyover was to create “an exciting sporting arena for local youngsters” in an area which was illegally used as parking.

“Currently, we are looking for a private partner to run the facility. There could be a nominal fee to use it in the future. The corporation has used its own funds in this project. But we are now planning to develop other flyover spaces in the public–private partnership model,” stated NK Choudhary, GMC’s chief engineer.

This sports activities facility was constructed at a price of ₹60 lakh and boasts three badminton courts, one basketball court docket, and a netted batting pitch. The partitions and pillars of the advanced, which is but to be formally inaugurated, have work of sportspersons, together with these of cricket icons Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.

In Delhi, the PWD plans to develop sports activities services beneath a number of flyovers, with the one beneath Lajpat Nagar, which is able to boast of indoor badminton and squash courts, an open gymnasium, yoga, meditation, and a sitting space, slated for completion within the subsequent few months.“We also plan to develop sports and other facilities under the Karampura and Naraina flyovers. The idea is to remove encroachments from under the flyovers and turn them into vibrant public spaces,” stated Vinay Sheel Saxena, govt engineer, PWD.

Delhi has greater than 100 flyovers and underpasses, and in its Budget 2023, the Delhi authorities proposed to construct 26 new flyovers, bridges, and underpasses, together with three double-decker flyovers. Over the previous few years, the Capital has been making an attempt to take away squatters and beautify areas beneath its many flyovers. In 2017, for instance, the areas beneath the Lajpat Nagar and South Extension flyovers have been developed into parks with sculptures. However, the undertaking was a failure because the squatters returned inside a brief house of time.

Experts weigh in

Sewa Ram, professor of transport planning on the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi, stated utilizing house beneath a flyover depends upon the character of the highway, its width, and the density of the visitors. “After all, a flyover is built because the capacity of a certain traffic intersection has been exhausted. The trend of using spaces under the flyover as public spaces is relatively new and has been fuelled by the growing paucity of public spaces in cities. The flyovers were not designed to enable areas underneath them to serve as public spaces,” he stated.

Meenakshi Dhote, professor of environmental planning at SPA, stated how a metropolis makes use of the world beneath the flyover needs to be the operate of the necessity of the place and the native context. “So, space under a flyover over in a posh neighbourhood can have a small museum and space to display artworks. But I believe local communities should be involved in deciding what should be done with these spaces.”

Oasis Design Inc’s Hingorani stated, “In a city like Delhi, which sees extreme weather, spaces under the flyover can be all-weather people’s places. In metros, the land is costly, and no space should be allowed to remain unused and turn into negative space.”

Dhote stated, “Encroachments and squatters should not be allowed under flyovers, and future flyovers should be designed keeping in mind the use of the space under it, but without compromising its structural safety.”

The outlier

Not all cities are on board with utilizing leftover house as public areas

Last week, Bengaluru junked its much-publicised plan of making a skating rink and basketball court docket beneath the flyover at Shivananda Circle after a public outcry. Now, town plans to develop a public plaza for “people to come, read and relax” beneath the identical flyover.

However, this too has not discovered favour with residents. “There is no point creating a public space at such a busy traffic interaction, which apart from posing safety risks is not the best of places to relax”, stated Krishna Rao, a software program engineer in Bengaluru.