The Hindu Business Line : Dualism in India's urbanisation

3iNetwork is a formidable combo. It is the coming together of three institutions, viz. IIT-K (Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur), IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd, Mumbai), and IIM-A (Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad). The aim of the network is "to provide a systematic and organised framework in which much of the new agenda can be enunciated and researched with a view to contribute immediately to the unfolding infrastructure climate," informs www.3inetwork.org. A recent publication of 3iNetwork is India Infrastructure Report 2006 on `urban infrastructure', from Oxford (www.oup.com).

"There is a constant influx of population into urban centres," notes Anupam Rastogi in chapter 1. He points out that policy spotlight has thus far been largely on Tier I cities, viz. Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. "Cities such as Nagpur, Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Vijayawada, that is, Tier II cities with population of over half a million are growing at a daunting pace and need urgent policy attention."

While Tier I cities, representing 6 per cent of the population, contribute 14 per cent of the country's GDP, Tier II cities, which account for about 7 per cent of the population aren't far behind; they contribute almost 13 per cent of India's GDP. "A Nasscom-KPMG study has revealed that Tier II cities - Kochi, Pune, Nagpur, Chandigarh and Jaipur offer more advantages to ITES companies."

Amitabh Kundu's essay looks at trends and patterns of urbanisation. "An important feature of urbanisation in India is dualism - urban growth at macro level is decelerating but in class I cities it is growing," writes Kundu. "The growth would have been even higher (in metros) but for the location of large industrial units outside the municipal limits." Kundu rues that ULCA (Urban Land Ceiling Act), which was designed to ensure equity in access to land, has failed to achieve its objective. Instead, the Act has been a key hindrance in the development of cities, says the author. "The Act placed a limit of 500 square metre on individual ownership of land, and any land owned above this limit was termed as `surplus land' to be handed over to the government," explains Ramakrishna Nallathiga, in one of the box stories included in the book.

He estimates that about 400-500 acres of land in Mumbai could be freed for development if the act were scrapped. Facts of interest are that trusts and family-held companies control 50 per cent of all private land in Mumbai, and that in the past more than quarter century of the Act's history, the government could acquire less than 100 acres of land. Maharashtra hasn't scrapped the Act but kept modifying it. In Tamil Nadu, the Act was scrapped from 1999.

"An extent of 2472 hectares of excess vacant lands were acquired under the Principal Act," informs www.tn.gov.in in Revenue Department's Policy Note 2005-2006. "Out of the above, an extent of 98 Hectares is covered by Court cases. An extent of 340 hectares was dropped due to abatement judgment on appeals. An extent of 1168 hectares of land is available for allotment."

One of the chapters in the report is on solid waste management (SWM), by P.U. Asnani. "Chennai is the pioneer in PPPs for SWM on a large scale," notes the author, in a section on public-private partnerships in cities. The reference is to the seven-year contract that the city corporation entered into with Onyx, from 2000, "through a transparent competitive bidding process for primary collection, street sweeping, secondary storage at a transfer station and transportation of waste to the disposal site." The cost per tonne of waste worked out to about half of what the city administration was incurring with its own staff. As at the time of writing this, a press release from CES Onyx P Ltd informs that on the occasion of the World Environment Day (June 5) a pilot project is to be launched for segregating municipal solid waste collection.

An awareness campaign is slated for today at the site of the project (Saradambal Street, T.Nagar). "All the organic waste collected will be composted and from the other wastes, the recyclables will be segregated by us and sent to the recycling units," informs Onyx.

A report of solid interest.

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali