We Need More Cities
In the 76 years since independence, we have built just three or four new greenfield cities ‒ despite the fact that our population has grown four times and the infrastructure in all old big cities is crumbling beyond redemption.
The only new greenfield cities that I can think of are Chandigarh ‒ built more than 50 years ago ‒ Bhubaneshwar and Gandhinagar. There’s one more but I can’t recall the name. There are of course, extensions like Naya Raipur, Navi Mumbai, NOIDA, Rohini, Dwarka (all satellites of the megapolis Delhi, all clubbed as the National Capital Region or NCR). Amravati was conceived when Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated. Hyderabad was claimed by Telangana and so the CM of Andhra came up with the idea of building a new capital for his state, but it hasn’t really taken off. Dholera in Gujarat is yet another proposal to create an SEZ ‒ a joint venture between the GOI and Gujarat but it is still a work-in-progress. There are possibly a few more like this but the fact remains that all put together are just too few to provide living space for the burgeoning population, because of the constant migration from villages to cities in search of work opportunities and livelihood.
Successive governments ‒ especially the present one ‒ have done awesome work towards building core industry, the IT and Telecom juggernaut that is the envy of the world, apart from IITs and IIMs. We have also expanded our railways and highways network, built a huge civil aviation infrastructure et al. Also, several world class factories in the private sector. However, very little attention has been paid to building new greenfield cities.
Migration from villages to cities is inevitable because our villages are not like those in the west. Most have poor connectivity, inadequate power in homes, no piped water, no sewage lines, very few schools and PHCs (Primary Health Centres) serving a cluster of several villages. Not only are these difficult to reach but most are also equipped pathetically, are housed in ramshackle buildings and often there are no teachers and doctors. At least one teacher in every primary school is present on paper but, in the absence of an attendance monitoring system, they are absent most of the time. They do turn up when some inspector is to visit. The same thing happens in the case of doctors. Despite the mandatory ‘rural posting for every government doctor’ they find ways to beat the system.
Our only solution is to build many new greenfield cities. It is indeed a herculean effort and a very expensive one too, but there are no alternatives. Most of our big cities ‒ Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad etc. have outlived their life cycle; we have just not upgraded their infrastructure, every square foot of available space has been built upon with zero attention to ‘natural drainage channels and retention of water bodies and green lungs. It is fine to take pride in heritage ‒ the “world’s oldest living city” like Varanasi, to attract tourists ‒ but what about basic civic amenities for the people living there? Besides, living with the filth and squalor, there are dangers to life with buildings collapsing every other day in the overburdened metros.
It is high time that attention is paid to this aspect of national development. A few cities are indeed, planned along routes like the Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor and new highways, but these are just not enough. We need many more cities ‒ and need them NOW.
The author is Trustee of The Climate Project Foundation, India, past president of AIMA and past BOG member of IIMC
_20240701120452_original_image_20.webp)
