Published as-
“Post-liberalisation Urban Transitions” The Contemporary Manger, Volume 12, No.4, February 2008
1.0 Introduction
Global HR consulting firm Mercer, in their annual survey on urban quality of life index (the parameter on which allowances for expatriate workers are decided) for 215 cities, had placed the highest ranking Indian city -Delhi, at 150th, behind Senegal's Dakar (at 145th), but marginally ahead of Pakistan's Islamabad (at 158th). Zurich tops the list for second year in running, followed by a host of European, Australian and Canadian cities. Baghdad, understandably at the current state, is at the bottom of the heap.
The Indian cities, all four of them - Delhi, Mumbai (also at 150), Bangalore (153) and Chennai (158), moved up couple of notches compared to last year. This improvement in ranking, or yet another triumph over our sub-continental neighbour, is of course, no cause of celebration. The narrow gap - similar to the cricket team's T20 final triumph -was just a matter of few points here and there. The fact of the matter is, with congested traffic arteries, overflowing garbage and mushrooming slums, the Indian cities are amongst the worst in the world, in terms of living quality.
Although in percentage terms, urbanisation in India presently stands at a relatively low 28%, the world at large had crossed the Rubicon, in 2007 – with more people living in towns and cities, than in rural areas – for the first time in human history. The future is clearly ‘urban’.
There are several complex and paradoxical features associated with the emerging urban development pattern of India, due to simultaneous coexistence of contrasting forces like globalisation and high economic growth along with centuries old tradition, extreme poverty and the compulsions of democratic politics.
2.0 Urbanisation Trend
Although predominantly rural, with over 285 million people living in cities, India has the second highest urban population in the world. Projections by the UN Population Fund (UN 2007), indicate that by 2030, urbanisation level would cross 40 percent. That means, another 300 million people, will be added to the Indian towns and cities. The number of million plus cities will double – from the present figure of 35 to 70.
The UN forecasts that the growth of the mega-cities will continue, and by 2015, three Indian cities, Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta, will be amongst the ten largest in the world. Just about thirty years back, not a single city from India featured in the list.
Table 1: Ten largest Urban Agglomerations of the world in 2005
|
Rank
|
1975
|
Population in million
|
Rank
|
2005
|
Population in million
|
|
1
|
Tokyo, Japan
|
26.6
|
1
|
Tokyo, Japan
|
35.3
|
|
2
|
New York – Newark, USA
|
15.9
|
2
|
Mexico City, Mexico
|
19.0
|
|
3
|
Shanghai, China
|
11.4
|
3
|
New York – Newark, USA
|
18.5
|
|
4
|
Mexico City, Mexico
|
10.7
|
4
|
Mumbai, India
|
18.3
|
|
5
|
Osaka – Kobe, Japan
|
9.8
|
5
|
Sao Paolo, Brazil
|
18.3
|
|
6
|
Sao Paolo, Brazil
|
9.6
|
6
|
Delhi, India
|
15.3
|
|
7
|
Buenos Aires, Argentina
|
9.1
|
7
|
Calcutta, India
|
14.3
|
|
8
|
Los Angeles – Long Beach- Santa Ana, USA
|
8.9
|
8
|
Buenos Aires, Argentina
|
13.2
|
|
9
|
Paris, France
|
8.6
|
9
|
Jakarta, Indonesia
|
13.2
|
|
10
|
Beijing, China
|
8.5
|
10
|
Shanghai, China
|
12.7
|
Source: United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 revision
Within the country however, the relatively smaller cities like Surat, Nasik, Pune, the so called Tier-II cities are growing fastest, along with Gurgaon, Faridabad and Gaziabad in the National Capital Region (NCR).
Table 2: Growth Rate of the 35 largest cities of India between years 1981 to 2001
|
City Region
|
Urban Agglomeration
|
Administrative City
|
Urban Agglomeration
|
Administrative City
|
|
1981-1991
|
1991-2001
|
1981-1991
|
1991-2001
|
|
Greater Mumbai
|
33.7
|
29.9
|
20.4
|
20.0
|
|
Kolkata
|
19.9
|
19.9
|
6.6
|
4.1
|
|
Delhi
|
46.9
|
51.9
|
43.2
|
36.2
|
|
Chennai
|
26.4
|
18.5
|
28.9
|
9.7
|
|
Bangalore
|
41.3
|
37.8
|
7.4
|
61.3
|
|
Hyderabad
|
66.5
|
27.4
|
39.2
|
12.8
|
|
Ahmedabad
|
29.5
|
36.4
|
22.9
|
18.9
|
|
Pune
|
44.8
|
50.6
|
30.2
|
38.3
|
|
Surat
|
64.4
|
85.1
|
62.2
|
62.3
|
|
Kanpur
|
23.8
|
32.5
|
25.8
|
35.0
|
|
Jaipur
|
49.6
|
53.1
|
49.2
|
59.4
|
|
Lucknow
|
65.7
|
35.8
|
70.8
|
36.3
|
|
Nagpur
|
36.4
|
27.6
|
33.2
|
26.2
|
|
Patna
|
19.7
|
55.3
|
18.1
|
33.4
|
|
Indore
|
33.7
|
47.8
|
31.6
|
46.3
|
|
Vadodara
|
44.0
|
32.4
|
40.4
|
26.6
|
|
Bhopal
|
58.4
|
36.9
|
58.3
|
34.9
|
|
Coimbatore
|
19.6
|
31.4
|
15.9
|
13.1
|
|
Ludhiana
|
71.8
|
33.7
|
71.7
|
33.7
|
|
Kochi
|
38.3
|
18.8
|
13.5
|
2.4
|
|
Visakhapatnam
|
75.1
|
25.7
|
33.0
|
28.9
|
|
Agra
|
26.9
|
39.4
|
28.5
|
29.2
|
|
Varanasi
|
29.3
|
17.5
|
29.6
|
18.4
|
|
Madurai
|
19.7
|
10.0
|
14.6
|
-1.9
|
|
Meerut
|
56.5
|
37.8
|
67.9
|
42.5
|
|
Nasik
|
63.7
|
58.8
|
80.6
|
63.9
|
|
Jabalpur
|
17.4
|
25.7
|
20.8
|
22.0
|
|
Jamshedpur
|
21.9
|
32.9
|
5.1
|
23.8
|
|
Asansol
|
52.0
|
42.7
|
42.9
|
85.4
|
|
Dhanbad
|
18.9
|
30.5
|
26.2
|
31.1
|
|
Faridabad
|
86.7
|
70.8
|
86.7
|
70.8
|
|
Allahabad
|
29.9
|
24.3
|
28.7
|
24.9
|
|
Amritsar
|
19.2
|
42.6
|
19.2
|
27.3
|
|
Vijayawada
|
37.8
|
19.6
|
32.9
|
17.6
|
|
Rajkot
|
47.1
|
53.1
|
25.7
|
72.8
|
Source: Census of India, 1981, 1991, 2001
2.1 Economic Liberalisation and Urban Growth
The liberalisation of economy started in 1991. Since then, the economy had been on an upswing, mainly due to growth in service sector – IT and the IT Enabled Sectors (ITeS). During this period, the contribution of urban centres to GDP increased steadily - from 47 percent in 1991 to 62 percent in 2006.
Steadily, urbanisation is reflecting a structural shift in the economy (Mohan & Dasgupta 2004). Correspondingly, the combined contribution of the industrial and service sector increased from 45% of the GDP in 1961 to 80% in 2001 (Refer Figure 2).
Figure 2: Change in Contribution to GDP over the years
Source: National Accounts
But the growth is not evenly distributed. Despite growth in agricultural productivity, employment generation in the farm sector had reached saturation. Rural economy as a whole, continue to languish in poverty and under employment - particularly amongst the poor and landless labourers- who then seek to migrate to the cities in search of economic opportunities (Refer Table 3). There are inter-city migrations as well, from urban centres in the peripheral or economically depressed regions to the new economy cities like Delhi – NCR, Bangalore or Pune for education or employment.
Table 3: Annual Growth in Employment and Population during the 1980s and 1990s (Per cent per year)
|
|
Employment Growth
|
Population Growth
|
Employment Growth
|
Population Growth
|
|
1983 to 1993/4
|
1981 to 1991
|
1993/4 to 2000
|
1991 to 2001
|
|
Urban
|
2.9
|
3.1
|
2.4
|
2.7
|
|
Rural
|
1.8
|
1.8
|
1.3
|
1.9
|
Source: Population - Census of India; Employment – National Sample Survey
For the most part, the massive urban growth is a indicator of economic development and increasing global wealth. But it also brings with new challenges that collectively create a demand for a new urban paradigm for the future of the cities.
2.2 Spatial Pattern of Growth
Due to rising economy, there is spiralling demand for quality commercial and residential space. The real estate market India is growing at a high rate of 30 percent. Most of these developments are in the nature of self sufficient Technology Parks – enclosed complexes containing high-end offices, hospitals, schools, shopping malls and high income residential buildings – in the periphery of the big cities. In all metro cities of India, the peri-urban areas are growing at a much faster rate than the urban core.
IT and ITES sector’s preference for urban fringe locations are due to quality and cost effectiveness of the real estate. The success of their business models revolve around trained manpower, infrastructure availability and low rental outgo. The developments in suburban and peripheral locations have successfully catered to all these demands, which the buildings in the older business areas are unable to fulfil. Developments in the urban core are also hampered due to non availability large contiguous tracts of land due to Urban Land Ceiling Act, and various other regulations.
The trend towards urbanisation is not just inevitable for an emerging economy like India, but desirable from environmental sustainability point of view as well. Cities cause environmental degradation, they also contain the solutions. As the UNFPA in its report on State of the World Population (2007) states, potential benefits of urbanisation, far outweighs the negatives. Therefore, while the real estate growth is welcome, the challenge is to manage the growth in a sustainable way.
3.0 Urban Sustainability and Growth Management
Urban sustainability in the context of 21st Century, is often referred as the balance of three E’s – Economic development, Environment and Social Equity
The nature and type of environmental burden, an urban region inflicts, depends upon its economic capacity. While the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of the rich cities of the affluent West assume alarming global proportions; Poor cities of the Third World continue to struggle against local problems like poor sanitation or water pollution. The cities of transition phase like India, where increasing wealth and extreme poverty coexist, risk both type of problems simultaneously.
The two most critical urban sustainability agenda in India are – the landuse- transportation relationship and ensuring integration of the informal sector in the planning process for equitable and inclusive growth.
3.1 Relationship between Landuse Pattern and Transportation System
The urban cores of the Indian cities are amongst the most high density areas of the world. To a large extent, much of the core areas had already crossed the carrying capacity threshold and to that extent, it is natural that as the population and new economic activity expands, urban boundary would expand simultaneously engulfing the agricultural land of the fringe areas.
Table 4: ComparativeCity Data on Population and Transportation
|
|
Population Density (Persons per Km2)
|
Transportation
|
|
City
|
Urban Agglomeration
|
Administrative City
|
Inner City (10km radius)
|
Peak Density
|
Car Density
(No. of cars per Km2)
|
Metro + Suburban Railway Network (Km)
|
|
Mumbai
|
4080
|
27348
|
34269
|
101066
|
737
|
0+477
|
|
Delhi
|
1227
|
9340
|
19636
|
96460
|
621
|
56+307
|
|
Kolkata
|
7978
|
24454
|
20483
|
78355
|
1421
|
16+394
|
|
Bangalore
|
1050
|
19040
|
18225
|
75169
|
980
|
0+292
|
|
New York
|
783
|
9551
|
15361
|
53000
|
2205
|
390+579
|
|
Shanghai
|
2619
|
2619
|
24673
|
96200
|
99
|
148+169
|
|
London
|
679
|
4795
|
7805
|
17200
|
1634
|
408+1393
|
|
Mexico City
|
3796
|
5877
|
12541
|
48300
|
2252
|
200+352
|
|
Johannesburg
|
521
|
1962
|
2270
|
38500
|
95
|
0+944
|
|
Berlin
|
818
|
3810
|
7124
|
21700
|
1367
|
475+950
|
Source: Urban Age Conference, Mumbai, 2007
On the other hand, the past decade and half – since beginning of the liberalisation in 1991, had seen unprecedented rise in the number of automobiles. In Delhi, the number of cars increased from 5.13 lakhs in 1981 to 32.38 lakhs in 2001 (Times of India, 2007). Kolkata has more cars per square kilometre of city area than vastly more affluent Berlin.
The combined impact of rising number of automobiles and suburbanisation of urban economy is leading to the emerging spatial development pattern – gated communities connected by highways and flyovers. There are serious environmental implications and doubts about long term sustainability of these kind of spatial developments.
The townships are coming up in peri-urban areas (often technically outside the city limits) without any overall regional master plan and are becoming islands of prosperity, without any linkage with its immediate neighbourhood or with mass transit system. Spatial planning in the fringe areas are increasingly governed by the real estate developers – who typically provide facilities within their jurisdiction. The infrastructure linkages are typically in the public domain and are marred by multiplicity of authorities having uncoordinated priorities and budgets. Unplanned nature of growth is leading to urban sprawl, there by increasing – travel time, transportation and other infrastructure delivery costs.
The emerging spatial structures of the fringe areas are highly automobile dependent, and bear resemblance with the American suburban shift of the 1950s and 60s. American cities changed dramatically as freeways were sliced through them. The American towns were soon getting referred as ‘Donut cities’ – with empty core and affluent periphery. It soon became clear that they had changed for the worse.
Instead of reducing congestion, the freeways encouraged people to move to remote suburbs and drive long distances to work and to shopping, increasing traffic dramatically. One study (Hansen and Huang 1997) found that, five years after a major freeway project is completed in California, 95% of the new capacity fills up with traffic that would not have existed if the freeway had not been built. The similar phenomenon is being realized in Delhi today.
Amongst the Indian cities, Delhi has the most extensive road space along with an elaborate network of highways and flyovers – which are proving highly insufficient., within two or three years of construction.
Americans soon realized how destructive urban freeways are, and citizens organized to stop them. The first freeway revolt was in San Francisco, where the Board of Supervisors voted to cancel seven of the city's ten planned freeways in 1959, after neighborhood groups presented them with petitions signed by 30,000 people (Siegel 2007).
The anti freeway revolt spread in USA as the OPEC oil crisis started 1973, and by the end of the 1970s, it became impossible to build a new freeway through the center of most American cities and New Urbanism theories – which were influenced by the European towns and emphasized dense urban form with extensive public transportation – trams, metro rails and long distance commuter railways. As the Climate Change agenda, gains currency, the compact city with efficient transportation system is turning out to be the desirable urban future.
In India, Mumbai and Kolkata have the most elaborate suburban railway network – a legacy of the British. As celebrated architect Charles Correa points out, Bombay was shaped by the British railway engineers – as they laid the tracks first and development followed afterwards. As the oil price gallops above $90 per barrel, we need to revisit the past and make our Landuse planning system more mass transit oriented.
3.2 Integration of the Informal Sector in the Planning Process
Almost every individual who migrate from rural to the urban area or from small city to the metro, irrespective of education, income and social status, do so with a dream for a better future. Urban areas perceived as land of opportunity – for the poor and non-poor alike. However, imperfections in the urban housing and employment market, thereafter leaves the migrant with very little opportunity in the formal sector.
Various studies on Delhi had indicated that more than 65% of the migrant population take up shelter in slum areas and are involved in informal economic activity, which include petty trade, domestic works, small manufacturing and construction (Dhar Chakroborty, 2001, p.9). Availability of cheap labour, in turn, encourages small traders and entrepreneurs to set up commercial and manufacturing facilities in slum neighbourhoods. Situation in other Indian cities are similar.
According to United Nations estimate (UN 2005), there are over 170 million slum dwellers in India. In cities like Mumbai (Bombay) or Calcutta, slum population constitute almost 40% of the urban population.
Table 5: Proportion of Slum Population in Ten Largest Cities of India
Delhi (Municipal Corp. Area)
|
Source: Census of India 2001
While no authentic figure is available about quantum of contribution of the informal sector in urban economy, it plays a dynamic role in the urbanization process – a fact now acknowledged by the UN (UN 2005).
Disturbingly however, the planning process in Indian cities continues to neglect the informal sector. This phenomenon had led to the emergence of a complex pattern of urban form, in which - the ‘illegal’ and the ‘informal’ city had developed an intricate and organic relationship with the ‘legal’ and the ‘formal’ city, making the planning process largely irrelevant. Delhi, arguably the most ‘planned’ city of the country, plunged into a serious legal-political crisis from 2000 to 2007 due to this dichotomy. The court ordered sealing and demolition of thousands of properties across the city for conforming to the Master Plan guidelines.
While other cities might not have faced such judicial activism, but the role of the informal sector in urban employment generation and settlement pattern, is a realty that needs to be acknowledged. Due to non inclusion in the planning process, provision of basic services – water supply, drainage and sewerage are frequently neglected.
Nearly one third of the urban poor have no access to safe water and more than two-thirds do not have access to adequate sanitation. Though 82 percent of the urban population have access to safe drinking water, only 63 percent have access to tapped water within premises. Water consumption in slum neighbourhoods hover around 27 litres or just about one bucket a day. (Chatterji 2005)
Provision of reliable and potable water supply in most of the towns and cities do not exceed 1 to 3 hours per day and provision of 24x7 water supply is a distant dream. Often the aggregate city level figures meet the norms. But there are pockets of scarcity and plenty in the same city. For instance in Delhi,- there are high levels of disparity in intra city (Raghupathi 2003). Distribution losses are high. Bangalore looses as much as 37 percent water in the process from the pumping station to the consumer’s tap.
High losses and lack of accountability have become synonymous with the municipal administration. Infrastructure planning, management and delivery are largely ad-hoc, and by multiple agencies – with varying schedule, budget and competence level.
Urban infrastructure, over the years, had been, have come to symbolise as a social good – taken for granted, but seldom paid for. So, now we have a situation where the service providers are suffering huge financial losses and the consumers are left with abysmally poor service. Tariff rationalisation, cost recovery and an efficient pricing regime are vital for the financial health of the municipalities, but of course politically unpopular. There is no meaningful political debate at the local level suggesting policy alternatives or attempt to educate people.
4.0 Urban Governance and Leadership
Urban Development had traditionally been low priority agenda at the Indian political level. The mainstream Gandhian ideology – rooted on the concept of self-sufficient village life, displayed a profound anti-urban bias. Only Ambedkar, amongst, the national leaders, had a different view point, as he wrote:’ The love of the intellectual Indian for the village community is of course infinite, if not pathetic…What is a village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism?’ (Luce 2006)
The low priority for Urban Development had implications in budget. Even in National Budget of 2005 combined allocation for Urban Development was just 4.8% of the total. After deduction budget support for the construction of Delhi Metro Rail and maintenance of Government properties – the balance worked out to a meagre Rs.92 per city dweller.
In the recent years, the judiciary in particular the Supreme Court of India had given several strong verdicts about urban environmental quality, in favour of litigations filed by the environmental activists. Most eminent business leaders, Naryana Murthi and Azim Premji, had time and again expressed deep concern at the deplorable state of urban infrastructure, finally bringing urban development issues in the front pages of the national media (Hindu 2004, 2005) and galvanised the highest level government machinery into action.
In Budget 2006, a special allocation of Rs. 50,000 Crore was made for National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM). Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh called this “the single largest initiative of the Government of India for a planned development of our cities” and acknowledged that urbanisation as a “relentless process”[1]
Experience, from cities which successfully managed the transformation process in recent time, such as, London, Melbourne Curitiba (Brazil) to Bogotá (Colombia), shows that most critical element is an innovative city mayor – much the same way as the CEO leads the corporate from the front.
In 1998, Enrique Peñalosa took over as Mayor of Colombia’s capital Bogotá – at that time one of the poorest and most crime ridden cities of the world. In three years, Peñalosa succeeded in turning the tide for the cities 7 million inhabitants – by targeting development efforts for the poor: prioritising social infrastructure – like schools, playgrounds and healthcare.
Jaime Lerner, the former Mayor of the Brazilian city Curitiba turned that city into a paradigm of city planning, and not only for developing countries – but for developed cities as well. He created an infrastructure in Curitiba that kept the city from bursting out of its seams despite its rapid growth. His bus tickets, which were also lottery tickets, have become internationally renowned. Jaime Lerner consolidated the City's basic urban transformations and implemented an Integrated Mass Transport System.
According to Lerner, successful cities have three common attributes: mobility, sustainability, and solidarity. They acquire these attributes by entering into an equation of full responsibility between leaders, citizens and business. Far from being places of despair and instability, Lerner believes that cities are the last refuge of a common global vision, where mobility, education, health care, quality housing and community vitality are all achievable. “Cities are not a problem; they’re the answer.”
Presently the local bodies in India are overwhelmed in handling routine tasks of delivering basic services and financial management. Some of them had taken significant steps towards improving citizen interface through e-governance initiatives. However on issues related to strategic planning or creating a civic vision for a sustainable urban future, there is a pressing need for capacity building.
5.0 Conclusion
Over the past couple of decades, India has seen the implementation and framing of efforts to modernise urban governance and has also revealed in the course of these efforts a commitment to urban development that was hitherto a weak link in the Indian system. Nevertheless, it remains a system in transition that has room for further evolution to match its prevalent ground conditions and capacity building mechanisms.
References
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Chatterji, T., (2003) City Blights – Master Plans as Masterly FailuresTimes of India, New Delhi, 8th September, 2003
Hidefumi, I., Yedla, S., Shirakawa, H., Memon, M.A (2005)– Urban Environmental Issues and Trends in Asia, International Review of Environmental Strategies Vol.5, No.2,
Hansen, M and Huang, Y (1997) Road Supply and Traffic in Californian Urban Areas. Transportation Research A, Volume 31, No 3, pp. 205-218.
Kundu, A (2001): Urban Development, Infrastructure Financing and Emerging System of
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Ministry of Urban Development (1992): The Constitution Seventy-fourth Amendment
Act 1992 on Municipalities, Government of India, New Delhi
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Raghupathi, U., (2003) Privatising Water Distribution, Change Management Forum
Newsletter, Hyderabad, September, 2003
Siegel, C (2007) Removing Urban Freeways, http://www.planatizen.com March 19, 2007
Times of India (2007) The Maze Haze, November 8, 2007
UN HABITAT (2001) The State of the World’s Cities 2001 Nairobi United Nations Centre for Human Settlements
UN Millennium Project (2005) A Home in the City Task Force on Improving the Lives of the Slum Dwellers, page 13
UN Population Fund (2007) State of the World Population 2007
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http://www.hindu.com/2004/08/06/stories/2004080603420400.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/16/stories/2005101609870100.htm
[1] Prime Minister’s speech in the Parliament launching programme on 7th December 2005, downloaded from the website of the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Government of India http://pmindia.nic.in/speech/
