India needs to invest an estimated US $ 250 billion over next 20 years for basic urban infrastructure offering a huge investment opportunity, Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu said today.

“As per the estimates of a high-powered committee, we need to invest US $ 250 billions over the next 20 years to put in place basic urban infrastructure relating to transport, water supply, sanitation and solid waste management alone. This offers a huge investment opportunity and we are committed to promote private domestic and foreign investment in a big way,” Naidu said.

There are ample opportunities for the international investors to come and invest in India and particularly in urban India, because the government has decided to allow FDI in infrastructure also, the minister said at the XI Metropolis World Congress that got underway here.

At the current level of urbanisation itself, urban areas in India are contributing to around 60 per cent of the GDP which is estimated to rise to 75 per cent in another 10 to 15 years, he said.

“It is for this reason that urbanisation is seen as a driver of economic growth. It means urban areas are engines of growth and this is the reality,” he said.

Stressing the need for bringing in reforms in urban governance, transparency and accountability in the system, he said people must be able to have hassle-free administration, online registration, online sanction of plans and approvals.

Land records digitisation

“We must have digitisation of land records and property details of the cities. Hyderabad has shown the way in this regard. Because of digitisation of records, the revenue of Hyderabad has increased manifold and I am confident that other cities of the country will follow the same,” he said.

The Centre will fund the scheme of digitisation of the property details of every city that will go a long way in increasing revenue of urban bodies of the country, Naidu said.

Urbanisation is a reality and it’s a challenge, but Government of India wants to convert this challenge into a great opportunity and improve living standards of the people, he said.

“The states and the Centre, together we want to work as team India and see to it that people are provided with basic amenities both in urban as well as rural areas,” he added.

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