With our country witnessing fast-paced growth, it will be crucial to focus on two main aspects of urban planning: development of new cities and modernizing old systems in old cities. It will be imperative to offer better living standards, safe and secure infrastructure, reliable and efficient power distribution, efficient transportation and connectivity, proper waste and water management.

India is poised to become the world’s most populous country in 2023. With such a thickly inhabited land, enabling infrastructural facilities becomes indispensable for fostering growth.

While the macro goals of urban planning are already set, India needs to delve deeper into the micro challenges. Urbanization is incomplete without safe and sustainable supply of electricity to both new and old buildings. Historically speaking, improper implementation and non-adherence to the building and electrical codes have led to a plethora of unfortunate fire accidents. Recent data published by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) highlights that around 10,022 electrical accidents were reported and approximately 55 per cent of these were due to faulty electrical installations.

Besides failure to comply with codes, inferior quality of distribution transformer, wiring and cables are also among the prime reasons for these accidents. The government has taken many initiatives to build world class road infrastructure to facilitate both road safety and efficiency. Similarly, the other aspects of urbanization including power distribution strategy needs to be planned to offer reliable, safe and efficient supply.

A possible solution to mitigate such losses is by adapting a strong approach towards integrating utility services that include electricity, gas supply, water supply, transport, etc. with urban planning, while keeping the security of its citizens at its core. With costs being a major deciding factor in urban planning, integration of services is a possible solution to combat the cost vs quality trade-off.

As large-scale urbanisation is undertaken, converging energy management and urban planning will play a crucial role in carving out a path for net zero emissions.

With the help of integrating utility services, urban planning will offer higher efficiency, alignment between city planning and capital allocation, thereby, improving customer satisfaction as well as safety. Considering the scale of India’s geography and population, urban planning requires massive restructuring of policies in order to ensure a long-term, successful, sustainable, safe and secure future of its citizens.

The writer is Managing Director, International Copper Association, India

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