Challenges in urban development in India - Copy.docx

Globally, India is currently ranked most populated nation and also the second largest urban system in the world after China. Considering the existing rate of demographic growth, India has already become the most populated country, By the year 2050 it is estimated population of India will be placed at 1.6 billion. Further, it has also been estimated that 800 million people will be living in urban areas in 2050, as compared to 379 million living in the year 2011.Being the most populated country and having large share of urban population, urban India will bring large number of challenges and opportunities for the nation in the urban development .Challenges posed by rapid and massive urbanisation will include ensuring rational and planned development of the urban settlements, growing vulnerability to climate change, overcoming problems of shortage of housing, increasing pressure of migration, minimising poverty, removing spatial inequalities, making cities safe and resilient; overcoming problems related to promoting inclusive and rational economic development.

1. Emerging Issues and Options of Habitat Planning in India
Jit Kumar Gupta
India is urbanising rapidly due to; rapid increase in population, migration of people from
rural areas to urban areas; large investments being made in housing, road network,
urban transport, water supply, power-related infrastructures; promoting mission related
to smart cities, and rapid urban growth, development and expansion of cities.
Historically, number of urban towns and cities have also increased, though not
proportionally when compared with the increase in the urban population. Majority of
increase in population is getting localised in the existing towns/cities, leading to increase
in density and high degree of congestion. Looking at the prevalent trends , urban
growth is expected to continue in the years to come led by migration, urban pull and
rural push with Poverty pushing people to urban areas . During last 100 years, India
witnessed, urbanization level going up by 3 times; urban settlements growing merely 4
times; total population multiplying 5 times; urban population increasing by 15 times and
rural population increasing by merely 3.5 times. Massive shift of population to urban
areas, is not simply a shift of demographics but places cities/towns at the centre/core
of India’s development Cities are engines of growth for the economy of every nation,
including India. As per Smart City Mission agenda; nearly 31% of India’s current
population lives in urban areas and contributes 63% of India’s GDP (Census 2011).
With increasing urbanization, urban areas are expected to house 40% of India’s
population and contribute 75% of India’s GDP by 2030.
Globally, India is presently ranked as second largest urban system in the world after
China. Considering the existing rate of demographic growth, India will be the most
populated country by the year 2050 with population placed at 1.6 billion. Further, it has
been estimated that 800 million people will be living in urban areas in 2050, as
compared to 379 million living in the year 2011.Being the most populated country and
having large share of urban population, urban India will bring large number of
challenges and opportunities for the nation in the urban development .Challenges
posed by rapid and massive urbanisation will include ensuring rational and planned
development of the urban settlements, growing vulnerability to climate change,
overcoming problems of shortage of housing, increasing pressure of migration,
minimising poverty, removing spatial inequalities, making cities safe and resilient;
overcoming problems related to promoting inclusive and rational economic
development.
Looking at the way cities are growing major issues emerging in the urban planning
include;
Poor Urban Governance; --In Indian context urban centres are being governed
by proxy because of excessive controls exercised by state governments over
local bodies. 74
th
Constitutional Amendment Act,I992, provides framework for
ensuring independence, authority, resources and responsibility to local bodies in
order to enable them to act and perform like governments in their own right at
local level. However, amendments carried out in the legal framework for
empowering urban local bodies remain on paper and are being followed only in

2. letters and not in spirits. Local governments, being closest to the people at local
level, need to be adequately strengthened in terms of their administrative, fiscal,
technical and political capacities to enable them to emerge as governments in
their right and discharge all their obligations to urban centres with effectiveness
and efficiency
Low Priority to Urban Development;--Looking critically and historically, it can
be observed that policies of national and state governments are primarily biased
against urban sector with approach focused on restricting the growth of urban
centres, minimizing migration and encouraging people to stay in the rural areas.
Despite these restrictive policies, urban centres are growing at a phenomenal
pace. This calls for changing our priorities and strategies towards urban areas.
Instead of restricting their growth, policy should aim at allowing these centres to
grow at their natural pace with state acting as facilitator, ensuring that all urban
dwellers have access to basic minimum facilities required for having an
appropriate level of quality of life. Shift in approach to promote orderly
development of urban centres has found favour with the present government,
with the launch of urban focused Mission and Yojnas, which call for promoting
planned development, creating affordable housing, making provision of open
spaces, providing basic amenities/services, providing good governance,
leveraging technologies, promoting green transportation and making cities clean
and green.
Poor Capacity of ULB’;s--If we critically look at entire scenario, it can be safely
concluded that urban growth per-se is not bad, but the rapid rate of growth which
outpaces the institutional, administrative and financial capacity to cope with it.
This challenge needs to be met without wasting resources or distorting the
pattern of national development. Poor capacity of urban India to effectively meet
the urban challenges has primarily led to cities growing in unplanned and
irrational manner.
Mismatch between Resources and Responsibilities;--Despite the fact that
urban local bodies have long history spanning over 3 centuries with Madras
Municipal Corporation being established in 1688, not much headway has been
made in allowing these local bodies to grow in terms of their capacity to
effectively discharge their functions, duties, responsibilities within local areas.
The basic tenor, character and structure of local bodies have remained
unchanged despite dramatic change in the complexion of their nature of duties
and people at large. Financial base of ULB’s has been eroded considerably by
taking away most of the productive sources of revenue, diluting/marginalizing
their role in urban development.
Poverty of Basic Infrastructure--Development perspective of urban areas
presents a grim picture. In the process cities lack basic infrastructures and
services, garbage collection becoming a nightmare, unauthorized constructions
and unplanned development emerging as the order of the day and pot-holes
dominating the road network. Quality of life continue to suffer enormously and
city functioning getting adversely impacted. Thus, it becomes essential that if the
urban areas are to become livable places, providing basic amenities of life to all
its residents, ensuring their productivity, sustainability and healthiness, providing

3. urban infrastructures, on prescribed norms and standards, need to be made the
priority area on the agenda of any government.
Uncontrolled Urban Sprawl; Urban sprawl or uncontrolled expansion, both in
population and geographical area, of rapidly growing cities is the root cause of
majority of urban problems. In majority of cities, their economic base is incapable
of dealing with the problems created by their excessive size. Massive
immigration from rural areas and movement of people from small towns into big
cities has led to the urban sprawl of large metropolises. Urban sprawl is rapidly
encroaching upon the precious agricultural land.
 Overcrowding; Overcrowding is a situation in which too many people live in too
little space has been observed, as the distinct character of urban areas.
Overcrowding is a logical consequence of over-population in urban areas. It is
naturally expected that cities having large size of population squeezed in a small
space, invariably suffer from overcrowding, lack of basic amenities, adequate
open spaces, problems of safe transportation and quality public spaces. This is
well exhibited by almost all the big cities of India, where high density in large
urban centres remain a major problem.
Housing Shortage; Overcrowding leads to a chronic problem of shortage of
houses in urban areas. This problem is specifically more acute in those urban
areas where there is large influx of unemployed or underemployed immigrants
with little financial capacity and resources unable to find affordable place to live
when they enter cities/towns from the surrounding areas. Factors responsible for
housing problems faced by the urban people include; high cost of urban land,
shortage of developed land at affordable cost; shortage of building materials and
financial resources; inadequate expansion of public utilities into sub-urban areas;
poverty and unemployment of urban immigrants; strong caste and family ties and
lack of adequate transportation to sub-urban areas, where most of the vacant
land for new construction is located.
 Growing Unemployment ; The problem of unemployment is no less serious
than the problem of housing. Urban unemployment in India is estimated at 15 to
25 per cent of the labour force. This percentage is even higher among the
educated people. Growth of economic opportunities in urban areas have failed
to keep pace with the quantum of immigration. The limited capacity of urban
areas to create enough employment opportunities and absorb the rapid growth of
the urban labour force, has led to major problems emerging in the urban areas.
Mushrooming of Slums and Squatter Settlements; Unchecked, unplanned
and haphazard growth of urban areas has genesis in the mushroom growth and
spread of slums and squatter settlements which present a striking feature in the
ecological structure of Indian cities, especially of metropolitan centres. Extreme
unhygienic living conditions, impoverished population , overflows excreta,
temporary structures, lack of basic amenities remain the distinct features of
urban slums. Housing one sixth of urban population, slums pose enormous
challenge to sustainable development of urban India.
Inefficient Transportation; According to the World Health Organization (WHO),
10 percent of the world’s road fatalities (130,000) occur in India alone. Traffic
crashes occur every minute, and a life is lost every 3.7 minutes. Crashes have a

4. significant negative impact on the nation’s economy, costing the country the
equivalent of 3 percent of its GDP between 1999 and 2000. With increasing
traffic bottlenecks and traffic congestion, almost all cities and towns of India are
suffering from acute form of transport problem. Transport problems increase and
become more complex as the town grows in size. With its growth, the town
performs varied and complex functions and more people travel to work or shop.
Travel and traffic have emerged as the worst gifts of Indian urbanization. City
leaders and other decision-makers must consider issues of safety not only on the
roads, but also in the surrounding environment. Safety and accessibility are key
components for ensuring that cities become secure, sustainable places to live.
 Water Scarcity; Water is valued as being one of the most essential elements
of nature to sustain life. However, supply of water remain invariably short of
demand as the cities grow in size and number. Water quality remains another
urban issue. It is said by 2022, twenty two large cities of India including
Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai etc, will become highly water stressed cities. With only
4% of the total global water, housing 17.3 % of global population and having
largest animal count to support, India faces enormous challenge in ensuring
availability of appropriate quantity and quality of water to all its urban/rural
residents
 Deficient Sewerage ; Urban areas in India are almost invariably plagued with
insufficient and inefficient sewage facilities. Not a single city in India is fully
sewered. Resource crunch faced by the municipalities and un-authorized growth
of the cities are two major causes of this pathetic state of affairs. According to
latest estimates, only 35-40 per cent of the urban population has the privilege of
sewage system. Most of the cities have old sewerage lines which are not looked
after properly.
Poor Solid Waste Management; As Indian cities grow in number and size, the
problem of garbage disposal is assuming alarming proportions. Huge quantities
of garbage produced by our cities pose a serious health problem. Most cites do
not have proper arrangements for garbage disposal and the existing landfills are
full to the brim. These landfills are hotbeds of disease due to innumerable
unhealthy gasses leaking into their surroundings
Lack of Safety and growing Crime; Modem cities present a meeting point of
people from different walks of life having no affinity with one another which leads
to promote anonymity in cities. Like other problems, the problem of crimes
increases with the increase in urbanisation. In fact the increasing trend in urban
crimes tends to disturb peace and tranquillity of the cities and make them unsafe
to live, in particularly for the women
 Increasing Urban Pollution; With rapid pace of urbanisation, industries and
transport systems grow rather out of proportion. These developments are
primarily responsible for creating favourable options for promoting pollution of
environment, particularly in the urban environment. Majority of urban centres in
India are facing perpetually, the problem of large-scale urban pollution. Smog
and smoke have become integral part of urban environment. Capital city of Delhi
is known for high degree of pollution particularly during winters, when visibility
gets reduced and air pollution hits badly the operation of cities.

5. Lack of Planning; Planning remains central to orderly growth and development
of cities. Majority of cities in India do not have any planning framework in the
shape of Master Plans/Development Plans to guide their present and future
planned growth.  As per recent report of Niti Ayog, 65% of the 7,933 urban
settlements in India do not have any master plan which regulate use of land.
Even in case of cities where such plans are available, non- implementation of
master plans has led to haphazard constructions, aggravating problems like
traffic congestion, pollution, and flooding. Majority of cities are accordingly
growing in unplanned and haphazard manner. In addition, majority of plans
prepared have also become outdated and not revised, reviewed and redefined
and accordingly do not reflect the concern of urban local dwellers, which needs
serious consideration. Metropolitan Area Development Plans and District
Development Plans, as mandated by 74th amendment Act, are conspicuous by
their absence. Lack of human resource for undertaking planning on full
scale ,lower capacity of State planning departments and lack of political will and
commitment are the major reasons for the existing scenario/ regime of
unplanned development prevailing in urban India.
Growing Urban Poverty; Roughly one-third of the urban population today lives
below the poverty line. There are glaring disparities between haves and have-
nots in urban areas. The most demanding of the urban challenges,
unquestionably is the challenge posed by poverty; the challenge of reducing
exploitation, relieving misery and creating more human condition for urban poor.
There is rise in urban inequality, as per UN habitat report, 2010, urban inequality
in India rose from 34 to 38 % based on consumption in period of 1995 to 2005.
Growing Environmental concern; Vulnerability to risk posed by the increasing
man-made and natural disasters is increasing in the urban context. Ongoing
Covid-19, has adversely impacted the functioning , operation, economy,
employment and livability in urban areas in a large way. According to UNDP 70
% of Indian population is at risk to floods and 60% susceptible to earthquakes.
The risks are higher in urban areas owing to density and overcrowding. Urban
areas are becoming heat islands, ground water is not being recharged and water
crisis is persistent.
Inadequate Open Spaces; Open spaces in urban areas remain at premium due
to limited area made available under green uses. In urban India, as against the
defined norm of 9sqm /person, on an average, only 2.7sqm of open space is
available in the cities and towns. Open spaces are known to be valuable for
making the communities happy and healthy. Green spaces are also known to be
promoter of more physical activity and create healthy communities. Lack /limited
availability of open spaces has been the root-cause of majority of health related
problems prevailing in urban areas. AMRUT, Mission launched by Government of
India, has mandated the provision of green spaces, develop parks for the use of
communities and create recreational spaces in all the 4041 statutory towns/cities
in India.
Energy inefficiency; Globally, cities are known to be responsible for global
warming, climate change , generators of large carbon footprints , consumers of
resources and generators of waste, due to consumption of large black energy

6. Majority of energy consumed in Indian cities is primarily due to planning,
designing and construction of energy-inefficient buildings and making
operational large fossil fuel-based transportation vehicles. Energy efficiency has
never been considered as the priority area in the planning of cities and
construction of buildings. However, sustainability of planet will essentially
depend upon making cities energy efficient /zero-energy.
Outdate Development control regulations: In majority of urban areas, legal
framework guiding the development and construction of buildings have outlived
its life and are not in consonant with the emerging trends/challenges of
urbanization. Outdated and irrational planning regulations and building byelaws
often increase the cost of construction, leading to underutilization of urban land
and market distortions.  Further, many of these regulations are being amended
without sufficient empirical evidence on their impacts.  These issues, need to be
addressed on priority by all the cities/states.
Inadequate People Participation; People participation remains critical for
rational planning and orderly development of cities and towns. People need to
actively participate in the urban governance and reforms. However, in the Indian
context, people participation remains marginalized and all planning and
development projects are prepared within the closed walls of offices without
involving people/communities in the planning and development process. This has
done more damage than good to the urban growth and has been considered as
prime reason for promoting the unplanned and unregulated development of
cities.
Limited use of technology in planning and managing cities; In the art and
science of planning , designing and managing Indian cities ,use of technology
including use of IT/IT enabled services have been found to be minimal, which
are still been performed using manual /outdated processes. Technology holds
distinct advantages and has shown its potential in all facets of city planning,
delivery of services, making services accessible to all its residents, regulating
transportation, bringing efficiency in garbage disposal, water management,
street lighting etc. Major challenges facing cities can be effectively and efficiently
met with innovative use of technology.
Urban Flooding ; Large number of urban centres are now facing the recurring
problem of flooding during the monsoon season. Flooding of urban centres has
been attributed to; creating large built-up area, occupying all available open
spaces, having minimum open spaces; inadequate storm water drainage , paving
of all available spaces, bringing low-lying area under development, destroying all
available flora and fauna, encroaching on all existing/natural channels of water
flow, using land under water bodies for urbanization etc. In order to save cities
from recurring problems of flooding ,cities need to be made spongy by creating
adequate options of managing/absorbing storm water.
As per Niti Ayog recent document,’ Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India-
Final Report; September 2021; major challenges faced by the urban India- its cities,
towns and metropolises have been defined to include;
◦Complexity and diversity of India’s urban story

7. ◦Absence of Statutory Master Plans for majority of urban centres ‘
◦ Lack of Preparedness to Capture Benefits of Urbanization in Census
Towns
◦ Sub-Optimal Utilization of Urban Land
◦Large Magnitude of Population Living in Slums
◦ Increasing Risk of Water Scarcity in Cities
◦Inadequate focus in City Planning for Disaster Mitigation
◦Increasing pressures on Coastal Habitation
◦ Lack of Multi-Disciplinary and Multi-Sectoral approach in Urban Planning
and Policy framework.
Way Forward; Threat of global warming is looming large and becoming a distinct
reality. Urbanization has been the major contributor and promoters of global warming.
Accelerated urbanization adversely impact climate by creating demand for large
mobility, increased commercial/ industrial activities, creating large built space, higher
energy consumption and use of natural resources. In order to mitigate the global
warming, we have to make the process of urbanization more rational and sustainable by
synergizing urban and rural settlements using state of art technologies and by involving
communities. ‘Combined with modern technology, better urban planning can solve
many problems that cities are facing, so as to lead them to prosperity’ (UN-Habitat).
Nations, across the world, have important role to play in minimizing the global warming
in general and developed / developing nations in particular. India, with large carbon
footprints, has a major role to play along with China and USA, for achieving the
objective of minimizing global warming. Accordingly, India has to rationalize
urbanization by adopting state of art urban planning and synergizing rural and urban
settlements through regional planning. Aim should be to create cities with minimum
carbon footprints by adopting an approach revolving around; redefining urban planning;
planning compact cities; promoting regional planning; putting in place appropriate
policy, legal and institutional framework, duly supported by adequate/dedicated
manpower and resources, involving academic institutions and industry and launching
capacity building programs, for the communities and other stakeholders. How quick,
effectively and efficiently, we are able to do these tasks, shall hold the key to make
India, a role model of minimizing global warming/climate change/decarbonizing cities
by creating sustainable, safe, resilient and inclusive pattern of human settlements

8. Considering the critical role and importance of urban area, it would be important that
cities are , properly planned , effectively developed and rationally governed . Adoption
of the principle of developing all the urban centres with their defined periphery, can
usher an era of balanced growth, and meeting the national target of , ‘Housing for all’,
defined by the Government of India, through Pradhan Mantri shehri /Grameen Awaas
Yojna. and realize the goal / targets/agenda defined in the SDG 11.
Bibliography
McKinsey Global Institute: India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities,
Sustaining Economic Growth, Report April, 2010.
 United Nations, New York: World Urbanization Prospects- The 2014 Revision,
2014
 Urban News Digest, Volume III, issue 9: www.urbannews digest. in,
November,2014
Government of India, Census Report. 2011
UN Habitat Report, State of World’s Cities 2008/2009- Harmonious Cities,
defines the cities in their basic characters and growth pattern :
Global Warming Facts, Definition, Causes and Effects
NRDChttps://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101
 Government of India, MHUPA: Report of Working Group on Migration, January,
2017
Niti Ayog ,’ Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India- ; September 2021
Author ;
Jit Kumar Gupta
Former, Director,
College of Architecture, IET Bhaddal, Punjab
;[email protected]