The news of deteriorating infrastructure in the metro cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai is constantly in the newspapers. Even cities like Pune in their quest to become metros are facing issues like shortage of water supply, floods during the rains, massive traffic jams etc. due to poor and underdeveloped infrastructure. Hyderabad will soon be joining the bandwagon which is evident in the slow-moving traffic and the quality of life is going down overall. All these major cities have major environmental problems, especially poor air quality, leading to major health concerns.

Currently only 8% of the population of India is living in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Soon, over 40% of India’s population is estimated to live in urban areas. Is the nation prepared for a situation where quality of life meets health parameters? The WHO report indicates that the living conditions in cities, especially major cities in developing countries, are going down from bad to worse. India cannot come only to Mumbai! This can be corrected if the influx of immigrants can be diverted from the metro cities. This is possible only if new metro-type cities are developed all over the country.

The cost of housing and living in the metro cities is going up leading to an increase in wages which affects the cost of production and services. In the era of the global economy, this makes the products and services less competitive worldwide which leads to the increasing gap between export and import. All efforts of the Minister for Roads to reduce the cost of logistics will not be effective unless we develop at least half a dozen urban areas away from the existing centres.

The land selected for the development of these green cities should be non-irrigated, barren, waste, uneven and low in R.R. rates but near a perennial water source. In India, we can find many places where these types of land are available. The rest of the infrastructure like rail and road connectivity or even an airport can be provided. For example, we can select one such place near the border of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The area should measure at least 1,000 sq. kms. so that there is enough area for road, rail, parks, water supply and drainage, schools with a playground, hospitals, theatres and even graveyards. In broad terms, the open area for non-commercial activities should be about 25-30% as per international standards.

A company can be constituted for the development of this new mega city, the major shareholding of this company should be leading builders from the west, north, east and south.  The government land acquired for this project should be transferred to this company on a 33-year lease and for the first five years, no lease rent and occupancy charged should be capitalized. The rest of the amount can be paid in the next ten years as per the bank rate. The company should have the right to acquire the land under the City & Town Planning Act and pay the market price. Landholders can also be made a part of the land development on the same lines as being done by CIDCO in Navi Mumbai.  

The company should be given powers of Planning Authority under the Town Planning Act.  To ensure that the provision of the Act is not misused a Committee of 5-6 persons having the reputation of work in the Town Planning department and organizations like DDA, MMRDA can be constituted. Any order under this act will have to be vetted and approved by the committee.

A CEO or managing director can be appointed for the company who will be responsible for executive decisions, however, land allotment and medium or major contracts will need the approval of the board of directors.

The government will have to provide a few facilities like road, rail connectivity and water for the city without royalty for the first ten years. The government also has to allow with the approval of the RBI to give loans for the purchase of land.

The bold step of moving away from metropolitans to these liveable cities will help not only to reduce the load on the metro cities but also in the growth of GDP as well as the index of quality of life.

Dr. Sinha is IAS (Retd).