Laying stress on building globally-competitive cities, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh has urged the country?s mortgage lenders make housing affordable and available, which, in turn, will help tackle the issue of urbanisation in India.

?How can one envisage building globally-competitive cities when progressively a large segment of society keeps getting priced out of the housing market?. The residential prices in many pockets of the country has increased once again, he observed in a note written in HDFC?s annual report 2009-10 .

Underscoring the need to tackle large-scale urban influx, Parekh sees a need to build infrastructure in terms of housing, connectivity and mobility of masses. India has always remained under-invested in its cities. The urban infrastructure deficit is apparent in every aspect, but more so in transport networks and affordable housing, both of which need vast financial resources. Budgetary allocations for urban infrastructure are miniscule and hence private funds have to be attracted on a large scale, he said.

According to Parekh, India needs to work quickly on creating at least two dozen satellite cities around tier-I and -II cities. Satellite cities have to be built as ?connected cities?, which means having sophisticated transport networks like trans-harbour links, bridges and underground networks.

?No Indian city today has a 20-year visionary transportation plan. At the urban governance level, there is an acute shortage of professionals, such as urban and transportation planners, engineers, architects, civic administrators and technicians,? he rues.

However, the chairman hailed the recent government initiatives like Rajiv Awas Yojana wherein funds are being allocated to encourage states to move towards slum free cities.

He asserts, ?This needs a long-term commitment of at least years, but is a laudable initiative. Plans to establish a dedicated debt fund to provide long-term resources for infrastructure projects set up through public-private partnerships are positive steps as well.?

The need of the hour, according to Parekh, is to have directly elected city managers who can function as the chief executive officer of the city. The city CEO has to have a predefined tenure and targets and must be empowered.