Tackling the coming urban explosion

Subir Roy: Tackling the coming urban explosion
Business Standard

The monsoon this year has played havoc with two of India’s leading cities—Mumbai and Bangalore. As things stand, they appear headed for terminal decline. Chennai and Kolkata have also had very heavy and intensive rain but appear to have faced the challenges better. Delhi has not faced similar challenges this year but appears to be better equipped to meet challenges in the future.

There is an urgent need to look at not just the two problem metros but the likely shape of entire urban India over the next few years and more. This is because of two reasons. One, global weather is becoming more and more unpredictable and sharp deviations from earlier patterns are likely. So the capacity to face crises has to be bolstered. Two, rapid economic growth is likely to vastly speed up the process of urbanisation, putting greater pressure on existing cities.

There is thus a two-fold agenda ahead. Get the laggard cities—they far outnumber the rest—to come up to the level of the few better off ones and have a vision so as to respond to the massive likely demand for dozens of new cities. There are two ways in which the central government can help. Maharashtra and Karnataka are approaching New Delhi for large financial assistance to repair the two rain-damaged cities. This is a golden opportunity for the Centre to pressurise them into reforming the cities’ governance structure without which they will not be able to cope with future problems. Without such reform, any large-scale assistance will be money down the drain.

Most of the post-Independence period has been marked by state government officials running the affairs of superseded municipal bodies. The decentralisation and empowerment of the third layer of government, mandated by constitutional amendments, has made substantial progress in the case of the panchayati raj institutions but not urban municipalities. Even where an elected municipal body exists, effective administrative authority often continues to rest with a state government-appointed municipal commissioner. In these cases corporators, along with state governments, control the purse strings but do not have the executive authority to get things done.

The most successful structure of urban governance so far is the “mayor in council” format, prevailing in Chennai and Kolkata, under which the mayor and councillors get elected for five years; the mayor forms his political executive from among fellow councillors the same way a state or union ministry is formed; and this team holds office for five years, exercising full financial and executive authority. This, coupled with substantial delegation of financial powers to the urban local body, can make for both responsible governance and get heavyweights into urban government. Currently, where the municipal commissioner remains the chief executive, the mayor gets elected by rotation for one or two years, has little executive powers and is usually a political lightweight.

Creating a decentralised and empowered structure at the municipal level will be only half the agenda. Such civic administrations will at best be able to run the affairs of their respective cities better than before but it is the state governments and the Centre which will have to devise a vision to cope with the massive urban expansion ahead. Existing cities cannot build new cities; state governments have to will them into being.

New cities will also be part of the solution for the problems of existing cities. The most cost-effective way to help the latter improve their conditions is to decongest them, get a part of their population to migrate to new cities and relieve pressure on existing urban capacities. Bangalore is a classic example of a city coming to grief by growing too fast.

The bane of current urban expansion is most developments stretching over not more than a few hundred acres. These are not self-sustaining. They are unable to bear the shared infrastructure costs. Their residents have to rely on the existing city’s infrastructure to come to work and access education and healthcare. What is needed are new towns of around 5,000 acres which can amortise the cost of their infrastructure and provide work for most of their residents. Not more than 20 per cent of the residents of such towns need to get out of them on a regular basis for whatever reason.

The state government has to acquire the land for such towns at market price and sell it to large builders at no loss to the state. These builders can recoup their entire infrastructure costs from the buyers of floor space. The state government has to pay only for the road or rail link to such a town. A string of such towns can come up along a highway or rail link. And such towns, of course, must have “mayors in council” with sufficient delegated powers. This is the way to successfully manage the coming urban explosion.