Our cities and towns may still not account for 50 per cent of the population, but they play a major role in economic development, governance and planning. The share of municipalities in total revenues is a little over 3 per cent, compared with about 58 per cent from the Centre and 39 per cent from the States.

This perhaps explains why our per capita annual capital spending in urban areas is $17, whereas it is $116 in China. Given the slow pace of progress, the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission had to make it incumbent upon the States and cities to complete the implementation of 23 reforms directly relevant to improved urban living.

According to the Census of 2001, we had 5,161 cities and towns with 27.8 per cent of the population living in urban areas. Provisional Census 2011 figures indicate that the number has gone up to 7,937.

The McKinsey report, India's Urban Awakening, projects that the population of cities will increase from 340 million in 2008 to 590 million by 2030 and five large states namely Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Punjab will have more urban population than rural.

Basic infrastructure

But where are we today with regard to basic infrastructure in urban areas? After 60 years of planned efforts and many isolated initiatives , a big 26 per cent of the urban households do not have piped water supply.

A pilot project shows that there are cities which have as low a coverage as 9.3 per cent in terms of access to potable drinking water while per capita supply is the lowest at 37 litres.

The High-Powered Expert Committee in its recent report on Urban Infrastructure and Services points out that 4,861 out of the 5,161 cities and towns do not have even a partial sewerage network. Less than two thirds of the urban houses are connected to the sewer system and 18 per cent of urban households do not have access to any form of latrines. We have a situation where more than five crore people in urban areas defecate in the open!

According to a Central Pollution Control Board report of 2005, daily 1,15,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste are generated in urban India, but scientific disposal is almost non-existent.

Slum settlements

An estimated 25 per cent of urban population subsists on incomes below the poverty line. Nearly 7.52 crore people, that is 26 per cent of the total urban population, lived in slums as of 2001. It is a tragic reality that there has been little planning for meeting the housing needs of the urban poor. What better testimony to this than the finding that Mumbai has more than 60 per cent of its population as slum dwellers.

The highly inadequate and poor quality of the public transport system not only poses a major challenge to realising the growth potential of the economy, but also has an adverse impact on the health and well-being of the people. Public transport in urban areas accounts for only 22 per cent of urban transport in India whereas it is 40 per cent in upper middle income countries. The share of buses, the most affordable mode for a large number of city dwellers, decreased from 11 per cent in 1951 to 1.1 per cent of public transport in 2001.

Education, healthcare

There are also issues relating to education, health and such other vital areas. A CII report on Intelligent Urbanisation points out that to achieve the teacher-student ratio of China, nearly three million teachers will be needed. For decent health care, approximately one million new hospital beds would be required by 2020. To meet the demand for power, 160 GW of generation capacity would need to be added.

Based on demand projections and the nature of urban versus rural demand for electricity, the investment required is estimated is $120 billion over a 10-year period. Currently, it is reported that only 55 per cent of urban households have electricity connection.

All these show how much more needs to be done even to meet the basic requirements, not to speak of planning in advance for the millions who would get added to the cities.

There is no dearth of reports and estimates indicating the level of investment required. The McKinsey report talked of a $1.2 trillion (Rs 53.1 lakh crore ) in capital expenditure alone over a 20-year period. The High-Powered Expert Committee estimated investment of Rs 39.2 lakh crore over the same period.

The CII report projects nearly a trillion dollars to be invested by the government alone by 2020 just to cater to basic demands in urban areas.

Neglected subject

Urban governance unfortunately a neglected subject except for some brief or ad hoc interventions made from time to time. In the absence of a proper, well-formulated strategy and commitment at the government level to implement the same, and without empowering the city bodies with clear-cut mandate and accountability, our cities will only deteriorate further, There is a long way to travel if the present 0.7 per cent of GDP investment in urban infrastructure is to be increased to 1.1 per cent by 2031-32. The 0.6- 0.7 per cent of GDP spending by urban local bodies compares poorly with 4.5 per cent in Brazil and 6 per cent in South Africa.

We are in the process of preparing the Twelfth Five-Year Plan due to start next year. Urban allocation, both by the Centre and the States, must be substantial . The recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission must implemented in a time-bound manner.

There has to be a national urban agenda covering investment commitment, reform milestones and time-bound targets in terms of providing basic civic services , empowering urban local bodies both in terms of improving governance and finding resources, and above all providing for active citizen involvement in city matters. Probably it is time all our cities and towns addressed this issue proactively and prevailed upon the governments to implement the agenda, not in a piecemeal manner but in a holistic, committed way.

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