Stating this at the inaugurating a three-day India-EU conference on 'Cities of Tomorrow: Sustainable Urban Development,' the Union minister for urban development and poverty alleviation Mr Jagmohan said other historic cities like Tiruchirapalli, Hyderabad, Puri and Ujjain would also be adopted under this scheme.

"Tourists come to these cities anyway. But if they were to be improved, the numbers would go up manifold," said Mr Jagmohan. Pointing to the successful renovation of the Vaishno Devi temple complex and the amenities for the devotees that had resulted in a dramatic increase in their numbers.

The 21st century would be practically urban and its civilisation would be urban centred. During the period of 1990 to 2030, global population would grow by about 3.7 billion and 90 per cent of the growth would occur in the developing world. Out of this 90 per cent would be in the urban areas, according to the minister.

The architectural renovation and cultural rejuvenation of the cities would give a fresh impetus to their socio-economic development, he added.

In developing countries, the growth of cities was a part of economic development as cities played an important role in absorbing rural unemployment and poverty, said Lt Governor of Delhi Vijai Kapoor.

However, the number of towns in India had not gone up substantially even though the urban population had gone up three times, he said. While the number of census towns in 1951 was 2,500, these had gone up to only 3,200 in the last census, added Mr Kapoor.

Mr Kapoor however regretted that the sequencing of urban development in India was illogical. People migrate to urban areas first and then efforts were made to provide them civic amenities like power, water and roads. He also said that the old system of land acquisition for urban development had not worked in cities like Delhi and new approaches like land pooling should be incorporated in the master plan 2021.

The ambassador of France to India Mr Michel Caillouet, whose country currently holds the presidency of the European Union, said that the European Union had initiated a three-year, 20.2 million euro project for development of cities in Asia.