Urban renaissance is crucial for India’s sustained growth in the coming decades and the country will adopt sustainable models of urban development to achieve the objective, according to the Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day BRICS conference on urban transition which began here on Wednesday.

Welcoming the delegates from BRICS countries, he said India would make use of the expertise of these nations in building smart cities and adopt the best practices. Stakeholder participation was being given great importance in building the smart cities and Visakhapatnam was one of the cities chosen in the first round.

He said it was estimated that every year, ₹2 lakh crore investment would be needed for building urban infrastructure in the country till 2030-31.

“The Union government, during the past two years, has taken up Smart City mission, Atal Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission with an investment potential of ₹4 lakh crore, a huge increase in investments over the past,” he said.

He said an investment of ₹15,827 crore had been approved for Andhra Pradesh during the past one year for urban schemes, with Central assistance of ₹4,571 crore.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said sustainable urban development should be the main objective, and in that endeavour, the experience of BRICS countries would be of immense use. The quality of life in Indian towns and cities has to be improved vastly, he added.

Aravind Panagariya, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog, said agriculture alone cannot support the huge population of India and therefore, industry and services would also have to be developed, which would mean more urbanisation.

sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in

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