Niti Aayog has proposed relaxation of building bye laws to spur the availability of land and direct benefit transfer schemes such as rental housing vouchers for economically weaker sections as it aims to tap the economic potential of all cities, big or small, through planned urbanization.
“As India transitions from being a largely rural to an urban society, the focus needs to be on harnessing the economic potential of all cities, large and small, including the Tier 2 and 3 cities to take on the mantle in the future. This requires that cities be managed appropriately,” the Aayog said in its report, Cities as Engines of Growth, jointly prepared with the Asian Development Bank.
According to the report, India is already the second-largest urban community in the world and the country is expected to add another 416 million people to its cities by 2050 which will take the urban share of population to 50%. Nearly 460 million resided in Indian cities in 2018 compared to 109 million in 1970.
As per the report, cities in India occupy a central position for propelling India’s economic growth since they only occupy 3% of the nation’s land but their contribution to GDP is massive at around 60%, though primarily limited to large cities such as Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Pune.
The report suggests developing a comprehensive economic vision for a long-term horizon (10–15 years), setting up a city economic council and creating a promotion and marketing budget for cities. “Create differentiated incentive policies to attract investments in smaller and underdeveloped cities and a city-level single window facility for service sector industries based within natural city limits such as hospitality, healthcare, commercial developments and education,” the report said.
Further, it has suggested adoption of an integrative regional approach to planning by demarcating the larger urban region with resilient infrastructure and by planning the city and commuting regions together. “Develop a capital investment plan to identify projects and schemes that are economically self-sustaining and preferably revenue-generating,” it added
Further, it has proposed digitization of land records systems, and integration of institutions of revenue, registration and survey functions at the state level to harmonize land records data. “Explore alternative models for land acquisition and assembly and relaxation of building bye laws that may be constraining the supply of land,” it said
The report has also proposed improving the existing economically weaker section or low income group housing stock through incremental in-situ upgradation and exploring alternate models for providing rental housing close to work centres. “Develop direct benefit transfer schemes such as rental housing vouchers and leverage existing funding that is already available in state and central government schemes for vulnerable groups,” it added.
