Globally, cities are being treated as commodity, used , traded and speculated for generating more money and large wealth for individuals, communities, states and nations for making them rich and prosperous. Despite creating large space for human living, working, care of body & spirit, mobility and employment, cities are made to reel under enormous stress bordering on deficient infrastructure and services. Despite consuming minimum land for housing large population in a limited area, cities are being made places of large land speculation. Considering the major implications of cities in promoting sustainability, economy, productivity, employment, quality of life ;urban spaces need care and healing on priority. It is not the city which are culprits for all the social, economic and environmental ills, it is in fact the way cities have been treated and made to grow, develop and expand. Cities need care and focus to understand the genesis of their problems and evolving appropriate solutions to heal them. Cities need appropriate empowerment, supportive planning, enabling resources and state of art technologies which enable them create happy and healthy spaces for human living. Cities need to be treated like organic/ living entities, requiring appropriate environment, infrastructure and services to enable them to play their designated role in human emancipation and promoting global sustainability effectively and efficiently. Cities would require innovations and out of box thinking to make them safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable.

1. Emerging issues of Habitat Planning in India
 Jit Kumar Gupta
jit.kumar1944@gmail.com
India is urbanising rapidly due to; rapid increase in population, migration of people from
rural areas to urban areas; large investments being made in housing, road network, urban
transport, water supply, power-related infrastructures; promoting mission related to smart
cities, and rapid urban growth, development and expansion of cities. Historically, number
of urban towns and cities have also increased, though not proportionally when compared
with the increase in the urban population. Majority of increase in population is getting
localised in the existing towns/cities, leading to increase in density and high degree of
congestion. Looking at the prevalent trends , urban growth is expected to continue in the
years to come led by migration, urban pull and rural push with Poverty pushing people
to urban areas . During last 100 years, India witnessed, urbanization level going up by 3
times; urban settlements growing merely 4 times; total population multiplying 5 times;
urban population increasing by 15 times and rural population increasing by merely 3.5
times. Massive shift of population to urban areas, is not simply a shift of demographics
but places cities/towns at the centre/core of India’s development Cities are engines of
growth for the economy of every nation, including India. As per Smart City Mission
agenda; nearly 31% of India’s current population lives in urban areas and contributes 63%
of India’s GDP (Census 2011). With increasing urbanization, urban areas are expected to
house 40% of India’s population and contribute 75% of India’s GDP by 2030.
Globally, India is presently ranked as second largest urban system in the world after
China. Considering the existing rate of demographic growth, India will be the most
populated country by the year 2050 with population placed at 1.6 billion. Further, it has
been estimated that 800 million people will be living in urban areas in 2050, as compared
to 379 million living in the year 2011.Being the most populated country and having large
share of urban population, urban India will bring large number of challenges and
opportunities for the nation in the urban development .Challenges posed by rapid and
massive urbanisation will include ensuring rational and planned development of the urban
settlements, growing vulnerability to climate change, overcoming problems of shortage of
housing, increasing pressure of migration, minimising poverty, removing spatial
inequalities, making cities safe and resilient; overcoming problems related to promoting
inclusive and rational economic development.
Looking at the way cities are growing major issues emerging in the urban planning
include;
 Poor Urban Governance; --In Indian context urban centres are being governed by proxy
because of excessive controls exercised by state governments over local bodies. 74
th
Constitutional Amendment Act,I992, provides framework for ensuring independence,
authority, resources and responsibility to local bodies in order to enable them to act and
perform like governments in their own right at local level. However, amendments carried
out in the legal framework for empowering urban local bodies remain on paper and are

2. being followed only in letters and not in spirits. Local governments, being closest to the
people at local level, need to be adequately strengthened in terms of their administrative,
fiscal, technical and political capacities to enable them to emerge as governments in their
right and discharge all their obligations to urban centres with effectiveness and efficiency
 Low Priority to Urban Development;--Looking critically and historically, it can be
observed that policies of national and state governments are primarily biased against urban
sector with approach focused on restricting the growth of urban centres, minimizing
migration and encouraging people to stay in the rural areas. Despite these restrictive
policies, urban centres are growing at a phenomenal pace. This calls for changing our
priorities and strategies towards urban areas. Instead of restricting their growth, policy
should aim at allowing these centres to grow at their natural pace with state acting as
facilitator, ensuring that all urban dwellers have access to basic minimum facilities required
for having an appropriate level of quality of life. Shift in approach to promote orderly
development of urban centres has found favour with the present government, with the
launch of urban focused Mission and Yojnas, which call for promoting planned
development, creating affordable housing, making provision of open spaces, providing
basic amenities/services, providing good governance, leveraging technologies, promoting
green transportation and making cities clean and green.
 Poor Capacityof ULB’;s--If we critically look at entire scenario, it can be safely concluded
that urban growth per-se is not bad, but the rapid rate of growth which outpaces the
institutional, administrative and financial capacity to cope with it. This challenge needs to
be met without wasting resources or distorting the pattern of national development. Poor
capacity of urban India to effectively meet the urban challenges has primarily led to cities
growing in unplanned and irrational manner.
 Mismatch between Resources and Responsibilities;--Despite the fact that urban local
bodies have long history spanning over 3 centuries with Madras Municipal Corporation
being established in 1688, not much headway has been made in allowing these local bodies
to grow in terms of their capacity to effectively discharge their functions, duties,
responsibilities within local areas. The basic tenor, character and structure of local bodies
have remained unchanged despite dramatic change in the complexion of their nature of
duties and people at large. Financial base of ULB’s has been eroded considerably by taking
away most of the productive sources of revenue, diluting/marginalizing their role in urban
development.
 Poverty of Basic Infrastructure--Development perspective of urban areas presents a grim
picture. In the process cities lack basic infrastructures and services, garbage collection
becoming a nightmare, unauthorized constructions and unplanned development emerging
as the order of the day and pot-holes dominating the road network. Quality of life continue
to suffer enormously and city functioning getting adversely impacted. Thus, it becomes
essential that if the urban areas are to become livable places, providing basic amenities of
life to all its residents, ensuring their productivity, sustainability and healthiness, providing
urban infrastructures, on prescribed norms and standards, need to be made the priority area
on the agenda of any government.
 Uncontrolled Urban Sprawl; Urban sprawl or uncontrolled expansion, both in population
and geographical area, of rapidly growing cities is the root cause of majority of urban
problems. In majority of cities, their economic base is incapable of dealing with the
problems created by their excessive size. Massive immigration from rural areas and

3. movement of people from small towns into big cities has led to the urban sprawl of large
metropolises. Urban sprawl is rapidly encroaching upon the precious agricultural land.
 Overcrowding; Overcrowding is a situation in which too many people live in too little
space has been observed, as the distinct character of urban areas. Overcrowding is a logical
consequence of over-population in urban areas. It is naturally expected that cities having
large size of population squeezed in a small space, invariably suffer from overcrowding,
lack of basic amenities, adequate open spaces, problems of safe transportation and quality
public spaces. This is well exhibited by almost all the big cities of India, where high density
in large urban centres remain a major problem.
 Housing Shortage; Overcrowding leads to a chronic problem of shortage of houses in
urban areas. This problem is specifically more acute in those urban areas where there is
large influx of unemployed or underemployed immigrants with little financial capacity and
resources unable to find affordable place to live when they enter cities/towns from the
surrounding areas. Factors responsible for housing problems faced by the urban people
include; high cost of urban land, shortage of developed land at affordable cost; shortage of
building materials and financial resources; inadequate expansion of public utilities into
sub-urban areas; poverty and unemployment of urban immigrants; strong caste and family
ties and lack of adequate transportation to sub-urban areas, where most of the vacant land
for new construction is located.
 Growing Unemployment ; The problem of unemployment is no less serious than the
problem of housing. Urban unemployment in India is estimated at 15 to 25 per cent of the
labour force. This percentage is even higher among the educated people. Growth of
economic opportunities in urban areas have failed to keep pace with the quantum of
immigration. The limited capacity of urban areas to create enough employment
opportunities and absorb the rapid growth of the urban labour force, has led to major
problems emerging in the urban areas.
 Mushrooming of Slums and Squatter Settlements; Unchecked, unplanned and haphazard
growth of urban areas has genesis in the mushroom growth and spread of slums and
squatter settlements which present a striking feature in the ecological structure of Indian
cities, especially of metropolitan centres. Extreme unhygienic living conditions,
impoverished population , overflows excreta, temporary structures, lack of basic amenities
remain the distinct features of urban slums. Housing one sixth of urban population, slums
pose enormous challenge to sustainable development of urban India.
 Inefficient Transportation; According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 10
percent of the world’s road fatalities (130,000) occur in India alone. Traffic crashes occur
every minute, and a life is lost every 3.7 minutes. Crashes have a significant negative
impact on the nation’s economy, costing the country the equivalent of 3 percent of its GDP
between 1999 and 2000. With increasing traffic bottlenecks and traffic congestion, almost
all cities and towns of India are suffering from acute form of transport problem. Transport
problems increase and become more complex as the town grows in size. With its growth,
the town performs varied and complex functions and more people travel to work or shop.
Travel and traffic have emerged as the worst gifts of Indian urbanization. City leaders and
other decision-makers must consider issues of safety not only on the roads, but also in the
surrounding environment. Safety and accessibility are key components for ensuring that
cities become secure, sustainable places to live.

4.  Water Scarcity; Water is valued as being one of the most essential elements of nature to
sustain life. However, supply of water remain invariably short of demand as the cities grow
in size and number. Water quality remains another urban issue. It is said by 2022, twenty
two large cities of India including Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai etc, will become highly water
stressed cities. With only 4% of the total global water, housing 17.3 % of global population
and having largest animal count to support, India faces enormous challenge in ensuring
availability of appropriate quantity and quality of water to all its urban/rural residents
 Deficient Sewerage ; Urban areas in India are almost invariably plagued with insufficient
and inefficient sewage facilities. Not a single city in India is fully sewered. Resource
crunch faced by the municipalities and un-authorized growth of the cities are two major
causes of this pathetic state of affairs. According to latest estimates, only 35-40 per cent
of the urban population has the privilege of sewage system. Most of the cities have old
sewerage lines which are not looked after properly.
 Poor Solid Waste Management; As Indian cities grow in number and size, the problem of
garbage disposal is assuming alarming proportions. Huge quantities of garbage produced
by our cities pose a serious health problem. Most cites do not have proper arrangements
for garbage disposal and the existing landfills are full to the brim. These landfills are
hotbeds of disease due to innumerable unhealthy gasses leaking into their surroundings
 Lack of Safety and growing Crime; Modem cities present a meeting point of people from
different walks of life having no affinity with one another which leads to promote
anonymity in cities. Like other problems, the problem of crimes increases with the increase
in urbanisation. In fact the increasing trend in urban crimes tends to disturb peace and
tranquillity of the cities and make them unsafe to live, in particularly for the women
 Increasing Urban Pollution; With rapid pace of urbanisation, industries and transport
systems grow rather out of proportion. These developments are primarily responsible for
creating favourable options for promoting pollution of environment, particularly in the
urban environment. Majority of urban centres in India are facing perpetually, the problem
of large-scale urban pollution. Smog and smoke have become integral part of urban
environment. Capital city of Delhi is known for high degree of pollution particularly during
winters, when visibility gets reduced and air pollution hits badly the operation of cities.
 Lack of Planning; Planning remains central to orderly growth and development of cities.
Majority of cities in India do not have any planning framework in the shape of Master
Plans/Development Plans to guide their present and future planned growth. As per recent
report of Niti Ayog, 65% of the 7,933 urban settlements in India do not have any master
plan which regulate use of land. Even in case of cities where such plans are available, non-
implementation of master plans has led to haphazard constructions, aggravating problems
like traffic congestion, pollution, and flooding. Majority of cities are accordingly growing
in unplanned and haphazard manner. In addition, majority of plans prepared have also
become outdated and not revised, reviewed and redefined and accordingly do not reflect
the concern of urban local dwellers, which needs serious consideration. Metropolitan Area
Development Plans and District Development Plans, as mandated by 74th amendment
Act, are conspicuous by their absence. Lack of human resource for undertaking planning
on full scale ,lower capacity of State planning departments and lack of political will and
commitment are the major reasons for the existing scenario/ regime of unplanned
development prevailing in urban India.

5.  GrowingUrban Poverty; Roughly one-third of the urban population today lives below the
poverty line. There are glaring disparities between haves and have-nots in urban areas. The
most demanding of the urban challenges, unquestionably is the challenge posed by poverty;
the challenge of reducing exploitation, relieving misery and creating more human condition
for urban poor. There is rise in urban inequality, as per UN habitat report, 2010, urban
inequality in India rose from 34 to 38 % based on consumption in period of 1995 to 2005.
 GrowingEnvironmental concern; Vulnerability to risk posed by the increasing man-made
and natural disasters is increasing in the urban context. Ongoing Covid-19, has adversely
impacted the functioning , operation, economy, employment and livability in urban areas
in a large way. According to UNDP 70 % of Indian population is at risk to floods and 60%
susceptible to earthquakes. The risks are higher in urban areas owing to density and
overcrowding. Urban areas are becoming heat islands, ground water is not being recharged
and water crisis is persistent.
 Inadequate Open Spaces; Open spaces in urban areas remain at premium due to limited
area made available under green uses. In urban India, as against the defined norm of 9sqm
/person, on an average, only 2.7sqm of open space is available in the cities and towns.
Open spaces are known to be valuable for making the communities happy and healthy.
Green spaces are also known to be promoter of more physical activity and create healthy
communities. Lack /limited availability of open spaces has been the root-cause of majority
of health related problems prevailing in urban areas. AMRUT, Mission launched by
Government of India, has mandated the provision of green spaces, develop parks for the
use of communities and create recreational spaces in all the 4041 statutory towns/cities in
India.
 Energy inefficiency; Globally, cities are known to be responsible for global warming,
climate change , generators of large carbon footprints , consumers of resources and
generators of waste, due to consumption of large black energy Majority of energy
consumed in Indian cities is primarily due to planning, designing and construction of
energy-inefficient buildings and making operational large fossil fuel-based transportation
vehicles. Energy efficiency has never been considered as the priority area in the planning
of cities and construction of buildings. However, sustainability of planet will essentially
depend upon making cities energy efficient /zero-energy.
 Outdate Development control regulations: In majority of urban areas, legal framework
guiding the development and construction of buildings have outlived its life and are not in
consonant with the emerging trends/challenges of urbanization. Outdated and irrational
planning regulations and building byelaws often increase the cost of construction, leading
to underutilization of urban land and market distortions. Further, many of these regulations
are being amended without sufficient empirical evidence on their impacts. These issues,
need to be addressed on priority by all the cities/states.
 Inadequate People Participation; People participation remains critical for rational
planning and orderly development of cities and towns. People need to actively participate
in the urban governance and reforms. However, in the Indian context, people participation
remains marginalized and all planning and development projects are prepared within the
closed walls of offices without involving people/communities in the planning and
development process. This has done more damage than good to the urban growth and has
been considered as prime reason for promoting the unplanned and unregulated
development of cities.

6.  Limited use of technology in planning and managing cities; In the art and science of
planning , designing and managing Indian cities ,use of technology including use of IT/IT
enabled services have been found to be minimal, which are still been performed using
manual /outdated processes. Technology holds distinct advantages and has shown its
potential in all facets of city planning, delivery of services, making services accessible to
all its residents, regulating transportation, bringing efficiency in garbage disposal, water
management, street lighting etc. Major challenges facing cities can be effectively and
efficiently met with innovative use of technology.
 Urban Flooding ; Large number of urban centres are now facing the recurring problem
of flooding during the monsoon season. Flooding of urban centres has been attributed to;
creating large built-up area, occupying all available open spaces, having minimum open
spaces; inadequate storm water drainage , paving of all available spaces, bringing low-
lying area under development, destroying all available flora and fauna, encroaching on all
existing/natural channels of water flow, using land under water bodies for urbanization etc.
In order to save cities from recurring problems of flooding ,cities needs to be made spongy
by creating adequate options of managing/absorbing storm water.
As per Niti Ayog recent document,’ Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India- Final
Report; September 2021; major challenges faced by the urban India- its cities, towns and
metropolises have been defined to include;
◦ Complexity and diversity of India’s urban story
◦ Absence of Statutory Master Plans for majority of urban centres ‘
◦ Lack of Preparedness to Capture Benefits of Urbanization in Census Towns
◦ Sub-Optimal Utilization of Urban Land
◦ Large Magnitude of Population Living in Slums
◦ Increasing Risk of Water Scarcity in Cities
◦ Inadequate focus in City Planning for Disaster Mitigation
◦ Increasing pressures on Coastal Habitation
◦ Lack of Multi-Disciplinary and Multi-Sectoral approach in Urban Planning and
Policy framework.
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