The Exploding Urbanscape

India’s cities are racing ahead, but have a long way to go to be among the best in the world

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Cities and city life are the way of the future. In 2008, for the first time the world’s urban population outstripped that of rural areas. In India, more than half the population will be concentrated in urban areas by 2041, estimates the World Bank. From Sao Paulo to Mumbai, a chaotic demographic transition is going on. In the developing world, the growth of cities is unplanned, spawning slums and fractured communities. In its wake follow nightmarish problems of health and transportation.

Yet, cities are proven engines of growth. They are the melting pot of diverse cultures that encourage liberal thought; they bring together a vast labour pool and provide access to education and higher incomes for the masses. It is no wonder then the World Bank strongly supports urbanisation. Says Junaid Ahmed, World Bank’s sector manager-urban for South Asia: “Urbanisation also boosts rural economies. As people migrate to cities, fewer people depend on land for a living.”

But then the key is to build good, world-class cities. Cities that tick. A well-planned city not only provides a decent income, but offers housing that is affordable and humane, and an efficient transport system. The cities in the developed world have grown to a plan over centuries; but those in the emerging economies have exploded in the past two decades, proving to be a nightmare for city planners.

Take transportation. Berlin, London and New York have extensive and efficient urban rail systems. Berlin’s U and S-Bahn system extends over 475 km, London’s underground covers 408 km and New York’s subway is 390-km long. In contrast, Kolkata opened its first metro corridor in the 1980s, with just a 16-km section, and the more recent Delhi Metro is only functional over 60 km. Mumbai and Bangalore do not have a metro rail system yet.

Being unplanned, the cities also grapple with unbearable densities. Mumbai’s inner city boasts a population of 34,000 people per sq. km. Compare this to London’s 7,800 or New York’s 15,000 per sq. km. It is a pressure cooker existence in most Indian cities.

Tale Of A Few Cities
Indian cities have a lot of catching up to do to provide an efficient environment for living and doing business. A 75-city index, developed by the ‘Mastercard Centers of Commerce’ last year, included only three Indian cities, and that too fairly low on the index. Mumbai was at 48th position, New Delhi at 61 and Bangalore at 66. London topped the chart.

But these rankings do not capture the problem. In the cities of the South, the old and the new, and the good and the bad, are sharply juxtaposed. The resilient old order always manages to drag and apply the brakes on fresh evolution. Mumbai, as it becomes a financial services capital, is still grappling with problems related to its century-old history as a manufacturing centre. Says Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: “About 60 per cent of Mumbai lives in uninhabitable hovels. People travel to work in conditions that are illegal for even cattle to be subjected to. No city treats its people so poorly.”

On the international competitivenss index though, lack of infrastructure is a major failing of Indian cities. Says Cheolsu Kim, Asian Development Bank’s principal financial sector specialist: “Lack of infrastructure is seen as India’s Achilles’ heel. It is estimated to cost the country 3-4 per cent of GDP every year to build it up.”

But Indian cities never fail to surprise. Mumbai, despite all its slums and traffic snarls, is still No.1. The reason: an efficient work ethic, good power supply, supportive industrial backup, all add up to give it a top 78.5 overall competitiveness score in the BW-Institute for Competitiveness study. Another optimistic indicator is the strong performance of some of the tier-II ‘emerging’ cities. “Ahmedabad, Baroda and Visakhapatnam show a consistent performance on all indices,” says Amit Kapoor, chairman of the Institute for Competitiveness India. With cheaper real estate and affordable living standards, these will be the magnets of the future, even as migration to big cities has begun to plateau.

The good news is planners now see the need for rapid transformation of the urbanscape. Good infrastructure, quick decisions and simple laws will make our cities more attractive. There is money being committed too. In December 2005, the Centre launched its seven-year Rs 50,000-crore Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The results are beginning to show — Mumbai is replacing its old sewer lines, and Ahmedabad has spanking new buses. But somewhere administrative will is lacking, or is mired in corruption. “Town planning is an area for local authorities,” says V.K. Pathak, former chief planner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. “But because the stakes are large, states, as a practice, overrule local bodies.”

The poor performance of the top-listed cities such as Delhi and Mumbai on the competitiveness study’s administrative index shows “a bureaucratic obstruction of their growth charts”. This needs quick fixing. Unless ageing Indian cities do not take the quantum leap out of their own inefficiencies, the concept of a modern India may remain a pipedream.

gurbir(dot)singh(at)abp(dot)in