REFORMS IN URBAN PLANNING CAPACITY IN INDIA

1 REFORMS IN URBAN PLANNING CAPACITY IN INDIA Final ReportSeptember 2021 REFORMS IN URBAN PLANNING CAPACITY IN INDIAS eptember 2021 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA NEW DELHIC opyright@ NITI Aayog, 2021 NITI Aayog Government of INDIA , Sansad Marg, New Delhi - 110001, INDIA Report and Cover Design by YAAPE very care has been taken to provide the correct and up to date information along with references thereof. However, NITI Aayog shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever, including incidental or consequential loss or damage, arising out of, or in connection with any use of or reliance on the information in this document.

2 In case of any doubt or query, readers are requested to refer to the detailed document links provided under the reference section. Readers of this document should be aware that the document may be subject to revisions. Any suggestion/input may please be sent to OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR REFORMS IN URBAN PLANNING CAPACITY IN INDIA (Constituted vide OM dated 22nd October 2020)ChairpersonDr. Rajiv KumarVice- chairman , NITI AayogMembersSh. Amitabh KantCEO, NITI AayogSh. Durga Shanker MishraSecretary, MoHUASh. Amit KhareSecretary, Higher Education, MoESh.

3 Sunil KumarSecretary, MoPRDr K. Rajeswara RaoSpecial Secretary, NITI AayogDr Singh chairman , UGCProf. Anil D. SahasrabudheChairman, AICTEMs D. TharaJoint Secretary, MoHUA & Chairperson, TCPODr Bimal Patel President & Acting Director, CEPT University, AhmedabadProf. Dr. RaoDirector, School of PLANNING and Architecture, New DelhiProf. Dr. Meshram Former President, Institute of Town Planners, IndiaSh. Hitesh VaidyaDirector, NIUA, MoHUASh. Rakesh DesaiConvener of Committee & Director,NITI AayogvForeword Urbanization is intrinsic to development and often serves as a major driver of economic growth.

4 As INDIA reaches tipping point of transitioning from a mostly rural to an URBAN society, the focus must be on ensuring the best opportunities for economic growth for all sections of the is a matter of concern that despite huge investment, our cities still face many efficiency-and sustainability-related challenges. None of our cities feature among the top 50 cities in many global rankings. The need of the hour is incisive, insightful PLANNING in the absence of which neither investments nor actions would be able to yield long-term solutions.

5 Unplanned urbanization could result in serious are like living organisms. For them to flourish, it is important that their economic and social infrastructure are in a sound state. There are enormous possibilities to achieve this through adoption of spatial PLANNING tools. We must rethink, reimagine and re-establish the very purpose and approach towards PLANNING of cities and towns in state of human settlements could become a silent crisis in motion. We need to urgently and significantly ramp up the present cumulative CAPACITY of URBAN PLANNING in the country to avoid the creeping and silent crisis that is overtaking human committee focused on arriving at recommendations that can be catalytic in nature and can unblock bottlenecks in the value chain of URBAN PLANNING CAPACITY in lack of human resources has emerged as a major bottleneck in the State machinery responsible for URBAN PLANNING and design.

6 At the same, it is rather ironic that the country also lacks sufficient demand for qualified URBAN planners in both the public and private sectors. There were several other impediments observed in the entire value chain most of which appear to be due lack of awareness about URBAN PLANNING and its utility per ForewordDr Rajiv KumarVice-ChairpersonNational Institution for Transforming IndiaGovernment of IndiaNew Delhi, IndiaviForeword se. A set of major REFORMS have been recommended to strengthen INDIA s URBAN PLANNING CAPACITY -technically, organizationally, and commend Dr.

7 K. Rajeswara Rao, Special Secretary, NITI Aayog, for conceiving and taking forward this initiative and successfully bringing it to completion. My congratulations to Sh. Rakesh Desai, Director, NITI Aayog, for ensuring time bound actions as convener of the committee. A special appreciation to Ms. Anshika Gupta, Senior Associate, for her ideas and hope that this report will stimulate conversation and action on bringing about a qualitative improvement in URBAN PLANNING CAPACITY . The road to reform may be long.

8 The time to start is now, if the country has to keep pace with the emerging demands of new phase of action must begin with this extend my best wishes and support to all the member Ministries, State governments and URBAN local bodies who will be the real drivers behind the implementation of these recommendations to bring about sustainable and equitable growth in the coming years. 6 August, 2021 New Delhi,Dr. Rajiv Kumar IndiaviiMessage MessageUrbanization is the key to INDIA s future. Our cities occupy just 3% of the nation s land, but their contribution to the GDP is a whopping 60%.

9 INDIA is swiftly moving forward for becoming half URBAN in a couple of decades. This would bring enormous opportunities of economic growth and global competitiveness. Efforts must be channelised to ensure preparedness of the nation to manage such a massive URBAN transition and save our cities from the clutches of unplanned urbanization and unregulated construction activities. Our URBAN PLANNING machinery has not grown at the pace of the demands posed by urbanisation and global technological advancements. URBAN local bodies face a massive shortage of skilled and trained human resources as well as financial challenges.

10 Furthermore, poor quality of PLANNING is a huge limiting factor to realize the true economic potentials of urbanization. Over the years, the country has witnessed the expansion of cities based on car-centric PLANNING . However, the future of URBAN mobility and URBAN living needs to evolve on the back of public transportation. The cities need to be very compact and adopt a circular economy system to minimize their negative impacts on the environment. A global city like Singapore was raised through firm political leadership, a professional approach, and intelligently created capacities.