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Union urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said, the country required $250 billion in the next 20 years for creating the basic urban infrastructure for transport, water supply, sanitation and solid waste management, thus opening up huge investment opportunities for international investors.
Speaking at the XI Metropolis World Congress here, Naidu said, at the present levels of urbanisation, urban areas in India contribute over 60 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP). However, “this is estimated to reach over 75 per cent in the next 10 to 15 years.”
“It is for this reason that urbanisation is seen as a driver of economic growth. With so much of economic activity concentrated in urban areas, the challenge is to sustain it, which in turn warrants an enabling environment,” he said. However, according to the minister, the primary challenge that accompanies the growing urbanisation is to ensure inclusivity.
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“We need to ensure that every urban resident feels involved in the socio-economic and cultural landscape of the city that he/she had come to live in and thereby make him/her own that city rather than being subjected to the feeling that it is not wanted and has no hope. This is what I understand by the theme ‘Cities for all’, the governing theme of the Metropolis Congress here,” he said.
Urban centres engines of growth
Naidu further stated that to sustain this economic dimension of urbanisation, the country needs to facilitate the easing of doing business through proper integrated provisioning of social, economic and physical infrastructure. These facilities are essential to take advantage of urban agglomerations.
In India, as per the 2011 census, over 31 per cent of the population (or 377 million) live in the urban areas. This is projected to rise to 600 million by 2030. By 2050, over 50 per cent of India’s population would be urban.
On Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao’s suggestion to give police powers to urban bodies, Naidu said, this was a novel idea but needs to be discussed with parties across the country for a broad consensus.
Efficient public transport systems
Speaking on the need to maximise the utility of urban public transport systems, he said the Centre would work with states on the National Urban Transport Policy, which envisaged around 80 per cent of urban population to utilise public transport for intra-city commuting. Naidu said the government was studying the Barcelona city public transport model for implementation in the country.
“More than 80 per cent of the people in Barcelona use public transport. It’s a good example. We have to learn from this. Contrary to this, in Atlanta in the US, over 85 per cent utilise private transport,” Naidu said, while emphasising the priority to cut down the green house gas emissions.
Globally, almost 80 per cent of GDP is generated in cities and so is most of the greenhouse gases. It is essential to manage the ecological footprint of cities in a sustainable manner.
Over 1,000 participants, including 135 from 40 countries, are attending the five-day conference to discuss and deliberate on various aspects of making urban cities inclusive. President Pranab Mukherjee will address the valedictory function scheduled on October 9.
