Cities have failing infra and poor crowd management SOPs say Urban planners

Economic Times

2 days ago

An evening of celebration for RCB turned into a tragedy at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where a stampede claimed 11 lives, highlighting the cracks in the city's civic planning and crowd control systems. Citizens and experts alike have questioned the government's preparedness and the promise of 'Brand Bengaluru' to handle large gatherings, especially at high-footfall venues.
Urban planners told ET that not just Bengaluru, but many civic agencies in Indian cities fail to have robust standing operating procedures (SOPs) for crowd management.
'We tend to employ very ad hoc measures to manage crowds, poor fencing, lack of proper pathways, poor lighting and lack of emergency services,' said Ujjvala Krishna, urban researcher at WELL labs. She added that there is a clear lack of foresight in building long-term infrastructure that anticipates such scale.'Bengaluru doesn't have an active master plan. The Regional and Metropolitan Area Master Plan for 2031 is still a draft. It's more like a reference. Other major metros like Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai have active master plans,' Krishna said.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which makes rules for handling disasters in India, released a guide in 2014 to help state governments, local bodies, event organisers, and police manage large crowds safely. The guideline titled 'Managing Crowd at Events and Venues of Mass Gathering' suggests that before any big event, authorities should do a Rapid Venue Assessment to check preparedness.
This includes an 11-point checklist evaluating aspects such as disaster preparedness, stakeholder coordination, crowd flow, safety, emergency response, ability to manage complexity, and potential for crowd growth, all rated on a scale from poor to best in class.Another urban planner from Bengaluru with over 30 years of experience in architecture and urban design said civic bodies are supposed to have SOPs. 'It's a combination problems of law and order, traffic management, and civic bodies. I don't think they have individual SOPs or even a common one,' he said, suggesting that such celebrations can be delayed by a day or two and organised with proper planning. The NDMA has also issued Guidelines on the Incident Response System (IRS), to ensure that there is a structured and coordinated emergency response. The guideline emphasises the need to encourage research on crowd behaviour and psychology to better inform planning and risk mitigation at mass gatherings.Another urban planner said mismanagement of crowds is not an isolated incident. 'We've had enough of these events to actually learn from them. The answer lies in capacitating our governance systems to deliver better,' the expert said, requesting anonymity.This is not the first time a stampede has claimed lives. Earlier this year on February 15, a stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station resulted in 18 people losing their lives. During Maha Kumbh in Prayaraj on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya, where lakhs arrived to take a holy dip at the Sangam, 30 died and over 60 were injured despite advisories and emergency preparations.Urban policy advisors also highlighted that cities continue to build for lower capacity than needed. They pointed out that metro cities have inadequate road infrastructure, pavements barely exist, and public mobility services are congested and worn down.