Radial roads

On 20 March, the Ministry of Education, responding to two Right to Information requests dated 25 and 26 February, sent the applicant a copy of the Minutes of the 68th Meeting of the Governing Board (GB) of the Auroville Foundation held on 5 December 2024, which have since been widely distributed in Auroville.

The National Green Tribunal verdict and appeal The Auroville Universal Township Master Plan (Perspective 2025) is a perspective and directional document that was approved in 2001 by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) – now Ministry of Education (MoE) – and published by the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation in the Gazette of India in 2010.

The construction of the Crown Road, ORR and various radials is running into problems as a number of private, temple or Poramboke (government) lands, which are necessary to complete the envisioned urban plan, have not yet been purchased.

On January 10, the members of L’Avenir d’Auroville, the Town Planning Council appointed by the Residents’ Assembly (RA-TDC), informed the community that it had sent a letter to high government officials addressing critical concerns about ongoing developments in the Auroville project area.

Prashant Hedao was the Regional Planning Coordinator of L’Avenir d’Auroville, Auroville’s Town Planning Department, from 2007-2010. In those years he worked closely together with then Governing Board member Dr BV Doshi on the Auroville Master Plan.

The Auroville Town Development Council constituted by the Governing Board (ATDC) informed the community through a mass bulletin on 25 December 2024 that Auroville is currently implementing its road network, which comprises the Crown, Radial Roads, and the Outer Ring Road, and that, consequently, all Red Assets connected to this project, i.e. structures located on the road or on the rights-of-way, will need to be demolished.

The contractors hired by the AVFO and its Auroville Town Development Council began two new major road works immediately before the monsoon, leading again to difficult and potentially dangerous conditions for road users, in particular cyclists.

This statement, issues on 4th January 2024, is issued in response to the indiscriminate feeling of numerous trees apparently for road construction, currently taking place in Auroville.

In a well-attended meeting of the Residents' Assembly (RA) held on January 2nd, a proposed decision to be made by the RA (RAD) was formulated:

A year ago, in February 2020, there was an attempt to survey a route through the Youth Centre and Bliss forest for the laying of a High Tension cable.

Architect David Nightingale has been developing a plan for Auroville’s Cultural Zone, which has led him to more broadly consider Auroville’s urban planning and mobility issues.

We are fond of quoting Mother when she writes that Auroville will be a place for making experiments. But how easy is it to innovate in the Auroville of today?

UTSAV (meaning Celebration) – a mixed use commercial and residential development – along the Verite Radial in the Industrial Zone, is ready for the last phase of Building Application.