While Indian cities do not figure anywhere in the list of top ‘liveable’ global cities today, the massive investments expected to flow into the urban sector over the coming years will transform cities and towns, making them more habitable.
ONE of the biggest challenges confronting India over the next few years is that of urbanisation. The country is urbanising at a rapid pace: while more than 30 per cent of the Indian population lives in urban places at present, the figure is expected to jump to 50 per cent by 2050. By 2031, it is projected that six Indian cities will have a population exceeding 10 million each.
According to Census 2011 figures, 377.2 million Indians – out of a total population of 1.21 billion – lived in urban areas as on March 1, 2011. When Census 2001 was conducted 10 years earlier, the urban population was just 286.1 million, showing a phenomenal exponential growth rate of 2.76 per cent (or an increase of 91 million people).
Importantly, the number of metropolitan cities (those with a population of more than one million), jumped from 35 to 53 between 2001 and 2011. And three cities today have a population of more than 10 million each. Way back in 1951, there were just five Indian cities with a population of more than one million. These 53 metros now account for 42.6 per cent of the total urban population.
LIVEABLE CITIES?
The sharpest increase in urbanisation has happened in a state like Kerala, where the number of metro cities has jumped from just one (Kochi) in 2001 to seven in 2011. Kerala is the secondmost urbanised state in India (47.7 per cent of the population lives in cities), after Tamil Nadu (with 48.4 per cent, it is the most urbanised state) and before Maharashtra (45.2 per cent).
The big question though is that while India is urbanising rapidly, are Indian cities ‘liveable?’ The answer is pretty depressing: not by a long shot. A recent survey by the Economist Intelligent Unit (EIU), part of the Economist magazine, of 140 global cities reveals that just two Indian cities – New Delhi and Mumbai – feature in them and that too way beyond the 100th rank.
The EIU’s liveability index takes into account 30 factors and assesses which locations around the world provide the best or worst living conditions. Every city is given a rating of relative comfort for qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
Of course, the world’s most liveable cities would undoubtedly be in the developed world, and urban centres with modest populations. For instance, all the top-10 cities in the EIU’s index are from four sparsely- populated countries – Australia, Canada, Finland and New Zealand. Australia and Canada have population densities of 2.88 and 3.4 people per sq km respectively, a far cry from India’s population density of 382 per sq km (as per Census 2011).
Densely populated cities
Mumbai’s population density is almost 20,500 per sq km. Chennai tops Mumbai, with a population density of 26,553 persons per sq km. Other Indian cities with high population densities include Kolkata (24,250), Surat (14,000), Bangalore and Ahmedabad (nearly 12,000), Hyderabad (almost 11,000), Delhi (7,900) and Pune (7,000).
India’s top-10 cities (in terms of population) include:
» Greater Mumbai
» Delhi
» Kolkata
» Chennai
» Bangalore
» Hyderabad
» Ahmedabad
» Pune
» Surat
» Jaipur
These top-10 cities account for 15 per cent of the country’s GDP and eight per cent of the total population, but occupy less than 0.1 per cent of the land mass. They are the economic hubs of the nation, and consequently act as a magnet, luring the rural masses. Consequently, all these cities confront problems of urbanisation including mushrooming slum colonies, traffic snarls, pollution, lack of civic amenities, transport infrastructure, inadequate water supplies, sewerage, and deteriorating quality of lifefor their citizens.
Yet, surveys indicate that cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad are among the most ‘liveable’ in India. The Institute of Competitiveness, a Delhi-based outfit, has regularly been coming out with its India City Competitiveness reports and the ‘Liveability index’ relating
to Indian cities.
The latest such survey, which has just been released, reveals that most of the top-10 competitive cities in the country have moved a few points up and down, but are nevertheless in the elite category. The most competitive cities include:
» Delhi
» Mumbai
» Gurgaon
» Noida
» Chennai
» Hyderabad
» Bangalore
» Kolkata
» Pune
» Ahmedabad
Building blocks of the nation
The report evaluates the competitiveness level of 50 cities, described as “the building blocks of the nation.” The basis for the competitive index is the ‘microeconomic competitiveness – diamond model – by renowned Harvard professor Michael E. Porter.
The eight core pillars for the survey include demographic, education, health and medical standards, safety, housing options, socio-cultural-natural environment, economic environment and planned environment.
The political capital of India obviously tops the list on account of its relatively good infrastructure – especially in the Lutyen’s zone – including the Delhi Metro (DM), the wide roads and highways, the elaborate network of flyovers and its excellent social, cultural and leisure facilities.
Delhi and the two satellite cities of Gurgaon (located in Haryana) and Noida (in Uttar Pradesh) comprises the National Capital Region (NCR), along with several other smaller cities. The NCR includes, besides New Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida cities such as Faridabad, Mewat, Rohtak, Sonepat, Rewari, Jhajjhar, Panipat, Palwal (all in Haryana), Meerut, Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Bulandshahr, Hapur and Baghpat (all in UP) and Alwar in Rajasthan.
While the NCR at present covers the immediate neighbourhood of Delhi, it is ultimately expected to sprawl across 35,000 sq km covering the four states of Delhi, Haryana, UP and Rajasthan.
One of the major factors contributing to development in the NCR has been the development of the Delhi Metro, which today covers almost 200 operational kilometres, linking 140 stations. The DM has expanded to bring cities including Noida and Ghaziabad in UP and Gurgaon in Haryana within its network, and easing commuting problems for millions of people.
The next phase of the DM will see it being extended to Faridabad and Bahadurgarh in Haryana. Meanwhile, Gurgaon – an IT, BPO and financial services hub, and also a city of skyscrapers – has its own metro system. The Rapid Metro is one of India’s first privately-funded metro system, connecting National Highway – 8 to Delhi metro via Cyber City, Gurgaon.
New developments
While cities such as Gurgaon, Faridabad, Sonepat, Noda, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad are witnessing massive construction activity, even Delhi will see some major developments over the coming years. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) recently conducted a survey and found there were about 5,500 acres of undeveloped land – worth almost `1 trillion.
DDA plans to auction this land over the next few years, which could result in the emergence of new residential townships, commercial blocks, leisure and sports facilities. The DDA also wants to develop a ‘smart city’ on the outskirts of the national capital; it plans to allocate about 24,000 hectares of land in Najafgarh, Kanjhawala and Narela for an integrated smart city, which will be part of the 100 smart cities being planned by the Narendra Modi government.
The NCR will see another major boost over the coming years with the development of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), which will see the promotion of the key railway freight corridor, several smart cities, multi-modal logistics hubs and investment regions.
India’s financial and commercial capital has in recent months seen several key development projects being executed. These include the BandraWorli sealink, the Santacruz-Chembur flyover, the upgradation of the SionPanvel highway, the construction of several flyovers between Chembur and Panvel, and the Eastern Freeway linking Mankhurd to south Mumbai.
The opening of international terminal 2 of Mumbai airport and the series of roads linking it to the Western Express highway has also triggered off a lot of developments in and around Sahar-Andheri. Several five-star hotels have come up and many more are expected to be developed in the vicinity of the airport complex.
The GVK group, which manages the airport, plans to develop a sprawling business district on a 200-acre plot of land near the airport. The proposed GVK Skycity would include office blocks, hotels, malls and theme parks. The group has already floated tenders for development of about 1.8 million sq ft of real estate.
Of course, the Bandra-Kurla complex, located less than 10 km to the south of the airport complex, has also emerged as a vibrant hub in the heart of Mumbai. Many leading international and domestic banks and financial institutions have their offices in the BKC, which has a network of wide roads.
Mumbai Metro
The first phase of the Mumbai Metro is also operational, and plans for the second and third phase are progressing rapidly. The first phase of the Mumbai Monorail project has also taken off and work on the second phase is progressing rapidly.
Mumbai’s transport infrastructure will see a major boost once the SewriNhava Sheva freeway project takes off. Another major project is the VirarAlibaug expressway, which will trigger
off development in the city’s extended suburbs including Vasai-Virar, KalyanDombivali and Thane.
The three southern cities of Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are also undergoing transformation. New metro rail projects are coming up in all three cities (and also in Kochi), though at a lackadaisical pace. Thousands of new jobs are also being created in these cities, thanks to the buoyant information technology and ITeS sectors.
The presence of several higher education institutions – including engineering colleges and business schools – in and around Bangalore and Chennai ensures a steady flow of qualified personnel for the new firms that are setting up operations there.
There is intense competition between the three cities to lure the IT players, and the three state governments are doing their best to attract investments. The generation of new jobs fuels demand for residential housing and even for commercial, retail and leisure facilities.
Though Kolkata has been a late entrant to the new transformation story, it is slowly catching up with its rivals. Pune and Ahmedabad, which are also in the top-10 competitive cities list, are also attracting a fair share of the IT, automobile and financial business that is flowing into urban India.
The recent approval by the central government to the ambitious, Gujarat International Finance TechCity (GIFT) project, which is being developed as the country’s first smart city near Gandhinagar, will boost its development.
GIFT City has achieved financial closure of nearly Rs12 billion for the first phase, which will cost Rs18.18 billion. The city will feature India’s first globally benchmarked International Financial Services Centre.
Work on the much-awaited Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metro rail project is also expected to begin soon with the central government giving its consent for the project.
With the expected investments of billions of rupees in urban India over the coming years, the quality of life in Indian cities will surely improve. The development of smart cities, the promotion of affordable housing and the undertaking of various projects including industrial corridors, new airports and ports will trigger off massive new investment flows into urban India over the coming years.