Column : Solving the urban chaos

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: India will undergo a major transformation from a largely rural to a largely urban population as it moves from the ranks of a low income country to middle income and ultimately to high income. The pace of change will be rapid. By 2039, two of every three Indians could be living in cities. As many as 500 million could be added to India’s current urban population of 350 million. Cities will be the engine of India’s long-term growth.

But Indian cities are unprepared to meet the needs of their growing populations and the larger economy. The quality of life in most Indian cities is dismal by any measure. Uncollected heaps of garbage, unsanitary disposal sites, intermittent and contaminated water supplies, ever-growing traffic jams, deteriorating quality of air, regular inundations of large areas during the monsoons—all illustrate the poor state of affairs. Every citizen is hurt, but the poor pay the heaviest price.

Further population growth will only add to the woes unless serious actions reverse the situation. A growing economy will need better functioning cities. A growing urban middle class will demand a better quality of life.

Most Indian city administrators point to the lack of resources as the underlying cause. The state and central governments try to help through periodic injections of funds under various schemes, with the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission the most recent. Such schemes lead to sporadic improvements here and there. But they fail to address the root causes of the problem. So, they are not much more than patchwork fixes.

Experiences from countries that have better functioning cities—China and the United States are the most relevant examples for India—point to three pillars of urban governance.

First, cities must generate adequate resources from within to meet their needs, with a buoyant property tax as the most significant source of internal funds. China even expects its cities to generate surpluses to support the poorer rural hinterlands. Indian cities, by contrast, generate only a fraction of their resources. There is no conceivable scenario under which the already cash-strapped states and the centre can (or should) fund the investment and maintenance needs of the cities.

Second, cities must have the capacity to plan and implement their own priorities, determined locally and not in the state capitals. But Indian cities are kept on a short leash by the state governments and micromanaged by myriad state agencies.