• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Thillai Rajan
A. Jayesh Ranjan

India’s strong economic growth over the last decade has been accompanied by increased urbanisation, which in turn has resulted in greater demand for urban infrastructure. While the overall population growth rate for India between 1991 and 2001 was only 21.3 per cent, the urban population growth rate in the same period was 31.11 per cent.

By 2021, the share of the urban population is expected to increase to 40 per cent, from the estimated 27 per cent in 2001. By 2011, urban areas are expected to contribute about 65 per cent of GDP.

The impact of such rapid urbanisation is already being seen and felt across different spectrums. For example, increased urbanisation has resulted in a dramatic change in land use patterns. In Hyderabad, which this article considers as a case study, the land under residential use which was 1.65 per cent in 1980 is projected to touch 29.58 per cent by 2020.

There has been a corresponding decrease in agriculture and vacant land which is projected to fall from 84.08 per cent in 1980 to 34.72 per cent by 2020.

Visible evidence of the process of urbanisation is the vehicle growth in the cities. In 2007, it was estimated that the average traffic speed in Hyderabad was just 10 kmph, leading to enormous delays in travel time.

The impact of urbanisation could also be felt in other areas, in the reduced greenery, pollution, encroachment of water bodies, and unplanned development in the city’s suburbs.

Cities will continue to be the engines of economic growth. For us to sustain the current growth levels in the economy, cities have to be managed better.

Generally, most city agencies and local governments tend to focus more on the city’s central areas. However, the boundaries of the cities are expanding rapidly as never before, and there is an urgent need to focus attention on the suburban areas.

In Hyderabad, it is expected that most of the growth will be in Municipalities and Gram Panchayat areas and by 2020, 65 per cent of the population in the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) area will live in the Municipalities and Panchayat areas, compared to 41 per cent in 2001.

The investments that need to be made in the suburban areas for planning and development to handle this growth should be many times higher than what has been invested in the past and should also address the requirements of the future. The Outer Ring Road (ORR) project that is currently being developed by HUDA is a good example of such a project. The ORR is a 158-km-long, 8-lane expressway running at a radius of 30-40 km around the city’s circumference. The estimated investment is expected to be over Rs 5,000 crore.

But the important point is that HUDA is developing the project with the future in mind. The traffic at the proposed intersections on the ORR is so sparse today that it is difficult to imagine the need for an eight-lane expressway, let alone a four-lane road.

In India’s democratic and pluralistic society, the support of local people is crucial to the success of social programmes. However, quite often, such importance is underestimated. This was recently underlined by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, when he remarked, “We have to ensure that Nandigram does not repeat itself. We have learnt lessons from Nandigram that we will have to take people into confidence.” Involving the local community in various ways helps in generating a sense of ownership for the programme.

As early as 2003, the Hyderabad Master Plan 2020 document was made available to the public, in book form.

Over a period of two years, HUDA held several consultation meetings in the offices of the Municipalities and gram Panchayats, with a high level of public participation.

Another initiative of HUDA that benefited from the community participation was the tree plantation programme. When the programme was started in Hyderabad in 1997, the area under green cover was just 4.5 per cent, and the pollution levels had reached alarming levels.

Since then, the green cover increased to 19.5 per cent by 2002, and to 26 per cent by 2005. There has been a simultaneous decrease in pollution levels as well.

To create an interest in the programme among the local people, HUDA utilised the services of Women Self Help Groups to raise the nursery and saplings. By December 2007, there were 172 women groups with a total of 1,449 women members benefiting from the programme.

HUDA has obtained funding from various external sources such as domestic banks and international agencies to implement its projects. By securing external sources of financing, HUDA has been able to implement large-scale projects that would not have been possible otherwise.

For instance, for the restoration of the Buddha Purnima lake, the Japanese Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) provided large assistance to the tune of 7.73 billion yen, which helped HUDA to successfully implement the project. Both the government and the Authority would have found it difficult to fund this project purely from internal sources.

In addition to providing low-cost, long-duration, and larger quantum of funding, partnerships with lending agencies provide other indirect benefits. The monitoring associated with such external financing helps improve efficiencies in the recipient organisation.

For example, to get funding from banks for the ORR project, HUDA had to undergo a credit rating process from agencies such as ICRA and Fitch. Just going through the process of getting a credit rating was a good learning experience. Similarly, the JBIC involvement, apart from providing funding, helped in better project management, setting up robust procurement processes, and getting access to Japanese know-how and technology. All these helped increase project efficiency.

More Stories on : Urban Development | Infrastructure

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Urban planning needs long-term vision

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line