Letters: Creating city states

This refers to the report “Allow cities to be self-managed” (November 9). Without self-management, urbanisation might take a chaotic turn.

In this context, we should recall the 2003 McKinsey report, “Vision Mumbai – Transforming Mumbai into a world-class city”. The report called for an investment of $40 billion, and proposed a block-by-block redevelopment of the city, which was to be transformed by 2013. It espoused the case for the city having at “its helm a committed leader all coordinated by a body of administrators” — a thinly-veiled suggestion for a city state, thus, treading on a political landmine, and the report fell by the wayside.

 

In recent World Economic Forum seminar, a leading construction firm’s CEO “pitched for the creation of an independent and accountable city administration”. Political reactions can now easily be predicted.

Development of cities has been a fascinating subject in all nations. Last year, China came out with the idea of creating mega-cities, and proposed one of 43 million population linking nine towns in the Pearl River delta with 26 speedier rail connections of 3,000 miles, encompassing an area of 16,000 sq miles. These days, the UK is busy debating a recent report by Lord Heseltine, which has made 89 recommendations. Its thrust is on devolving more power to the local cities. Its conditions might vary, but the broad principles behind the recommendations may be useful for us. In fact, much the same was recommended way back in our government’s Habitat report. It gave examples of Gwalior and Kolhapur for development. Today, 25 years later, Gwalior and Kolhapur remain the same. We need solutions, and not create problems like chasing the mirage of creating city states.

S Subramanyan, Navi Mumbai

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