India’s position in the world would have been completely different if 75 planned cities had been developed since Independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday, adding that well-planned urban centres will determine the fate of the country.
Addressing a post-budget webinar on “Urban Planning, Development and Sanitation”, Modi said “only one or two planned cities have been developed in the country in 75 years of India’s Independence”.
“Poor planning or lack of proper implementation of plans can create huge challenges in the development journey of India,” he said.
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“Urban planning will determine the fate of our cities in the Amrit Kaal, and it is only well-planned cities that will determine the fate of India. Our cities will become climate resilient, and water secure only with better planning,” he added.
The Centre has organised a series of post-Budget webinars to seek ideas and suggestions for the effective implementation of initiatives announced in the Union Budget for the next financial year, 2023-24.
Wednesday’s webinar, which was the sixth of a series of 12 such webinars, was organised by the housing and urban affairs ministry and co-led by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change.
The Prime Minister said his government’s focus has been on planned development of cities.
“There are two key aspects of urban development: development of new cities and modernisation of existing systems in old cities. Keeping this vision in mind, our government has given importance to urban development in each Budget. In this Budget, an incentive of ₹15,000 crore has been declared for urban development and it will provide impetus to planned urbanisation,” he said.
Modi stressed on the need to increase investment in Tier 2 and 3 cities. “Our new cities have to be garbage free, climate resilient and water secure and for this we have to increase investment in urban infrastructure and planning in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities,” he said.
In the Union Budget, the Centre announced ₹10,000 crore for an Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) to create infrastructure in Tier 2 and 3 cities.
The future cities should be defined on parameters such as architecture, zero-discharge model, net positivity of energy, efficiency in land use, transit corridors and use of artificial intelligence in public services, Modi said.
He asked urban development experts to focus on three key areas – strengthening the urban planning ecosystem in states, use of private sector expertise in urban planning, and developing centres of excellence that can take urban planning to a new level.
The Prime Minister also stressed on the need for better transport planning in cities. He said that metro connectivity has improved since 2014 (when his government first came to power) and that India is ahead of several countries in this aspect.
“Our government has worked on providing metro connectivity in several cities. Today, we are ahead of several countries when it comes to metro networks. There is a need to strengthen this network and provide fast and last mile connectivity. For this, we need efficient transport planning,” he said.
He said that India is making “circular economy a major basis of urban development”. He said that today, 75% of municipal waste is processed as against 14-15% prior to 2014.
“The edges of India’s cities would not have been filled with mountains of garbage if this step was taken earlier. Work is underway to free the cities from heaps of garbage by waste processing and it will open a room full of opportunities for recycling and circularity for many industries,” he said.
Modi said that his government’s plans and policies should not only make life easier for people in cities but also help in their own development.