HAPPY TOWNCOMING

SEAMLESS URBANISATION KEY TO ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

Mohanjodaro and Harapa were large cities with covered drains, paved roads and town planning. That was 4,500 years ago. Today's Indian cities lack these ancient virtues and are most notable for accommodating an agonizingly large proportion of the population in slums amidst filth, crime and amazing ingenuity that prevents the human spirit from succumbing to utter degradation in these environs. This situation is poised to become worse, much worse, unless we take action to build new towns, and build altogether new kinds of towns.

The challenge is straightforward. Fast growing India has to urbanize equally fast. The share of agriculture is down to 18% in total output, already. This will go down further, as agriculture grows at sub-4% rates, even as industry and services surge ahead at double that rate, year after year.. The share of the population living off primary activities also will come down. Services and industry grow, preponderantly, in urban settings. The share of the urban population, a mere 28% according to the 2001 Census, will go up, and much faster than it has so far.

If we assume that 15 yeas from now, half of India's population, projected to reach 136 crore by then, would be urban, that would mean an additional 32 crore people living in towns (this assumes that the present level of urbanization has already moved up from the 28% of 2001 to around 32% of 113 crore).

Can we imagine the stet of affairs if these 32 crore people descend on the existing towns and cities? It is inevitable that we build new towns to accommodate the new residents of towns. And assuming a very high population density of 12,000 people per sq km, we will require additional urban space of 27,000 sq km. Make that 18 cities each the size of Delhi.

Building new towns is the key to raising productivity of the Indian economy as well. Right now, artificial shortage of urban land has put a premium on the cost of real estate. Office rentals, hotel accommodation, land for factories, all these cost the earth and add o the cost of the goods and services emerging from these expensive sites of production. Expensive real estate makes education and health care costly as well. Hospitals and schools in urban areas will find that upwards of 50% of their capital cost is accounted for by real estate. This jacks up the cost of quality healthcare and education, and these higher costs feed into business costs, affecting India's competitiveness in the global marketplace. Another consequence of asking up the cost of healthcare and education is to make these unaffordable for the majority and to waste resources, even if these are made available through public financing of health insurance. The simpler alternative is to remove the shortage of urban land and bring down the capital cost of providing these services drastically.

The way to remove the shortage of urban land, of course, is to increase the supply of urban land. This essentially means building more towns, converting rural land into urban land.

Such change in land use already happens. When a new highway is built, small shops cluster on either side and grow into small towns in no time. But these are haphazard structure, devoid of even rudimentary planning, infrastructure like sewerage, parking or public places. We need planned urbanization instead of mushrooming of shanty towns.

India and China are coming under increasing pressure from the rest of the world to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. While these emissions are tiny in per capita tars, in the aggregate, they make these developing giants some of the biggest contributors of climate change. New cities that cut down on energy consumption by up to 50%, as compared to conventional towns, can become symbols of India's commitment to mitigating climate change.

How can new towns cut down on emissions? Through better planning and adoption of better technology. The largest claim on energy in a city is transport. By going vertical, and by allowing mixed land use, it is possible to ensure that people live close to where they work. Building tall buildings, however, calls for opts of planning to provide for parking facilities and open spaces where residents of these tall structures can take in nature. The advantage of building a new town from scratch is that public transport through multiple modes such as buses, underground and overhead rail and tram can be built into the structure of the town.

Green buildings can reduce energy consumption for heating/cooling and lighting. The use of the right building materials, paints, designs that maximize the use of natural lighting, tapping the temperature differential blow and above the ground, light emitting diodes that yield double the units of light per watt as compared to compact fluorescent lamps — all these can reduce energy consumption substantially.

Proper town planning and sensible laws on rents that understand that liberal supply of housing rather than regulation is the best guarantor of cheap rentals can prevent the growth of slums.

Low cost tenements should be planned alongside posh residential blocks so that service providers live in regular housing rather than become illegal squatters on land not intended to accommodate them.

Municipal laws and governance structures must allow such new towns to be run efficiently. Cities must have sufficient taxation powers to be able to issue municipal bonds to carry out developmental work. They must have enough administrative powers and staff under their control to perform the services expected of them.

Courtesy:- ET dtd:- 19-02-09