Urban Development

Urban Development
Introduction to Urban Development
• Urbanization in India with reference to growth of
cities, pattern, growth its trends, causes and
prospects of urbanization, cost of urbanization,
growth of urban population, resources of urban
development, spatial pattern of urbanization,
problems of metropolitan cities in India policy
issues and their need, trends and projections for
urbanization.

Urbanization in India
• Although the population in India is still
predominantly rural, the progress of urbanization
during the last two decades has been fairly rapid.
During the first three decades of the century, the rate of
urbanization was very slow.
• But it was during the thirties that urbanization
began at a rapid rate. During the forties, the rate of
urbanization has been even more rapid. The urban
population of Indian Union alone has Increased by
over 18 million and the proportion of urban
population in total has increased to 17.3 %

Patterns of Urbanization
• In the absence of separate data on the natural
increase of urban and rural population, it is not
possible to determine what proportion of the
increase in urban population during each decade
has been due to natural increase and what
proportion is due to migration.
• The natural Increase of urban population would
have amounted to about 5.9 million. The balance
12.2 million therefore represents migration.

Patterns of Urbanization
• The proportion of the increase in working
population of rural areas absorbed by urban
migration would undoubtedly have been
considerably higher than this, because as is well
known, the percentage of workers in the
population migration to towns is generally higher
than this in the general population. Urbanization
is, therefore, already a very significant factor
in relieving the pressure of population and in
particular in absorbing the increases in
working population of rural areas

Growth of Cities
• A notable feature of urban development in India is the
very rapid growth of cities and large metropolitan
centers. In 1931, there were 35 cities in Undivided
India with a total population of 9.14 million. By
1951, the Indian Union alone had 73 cities and their
population totaled 23.55 million. Thus, in 20 years,
the population of cities has increased almost three
times. In 1951 city population formed 38 percent of
the urban population and nearly 7 % of the total
population of the country. During the 1941-51
decade, out of the total increase of 18 million in the
urban population, one half was accounted for by
increase in city population.

Growth of Cities
• Among the cities also, there is a marked
concentration of population in the very
urban centers. Over 12 million people or
half of the city population is concentrated in
8 cities with a population of five lakhs and
over. Five metropolitan centers Kolkata,
Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Hyderabad
each with a population of one million and over
have population between 1,00,000 and 250,000
have only about 6 million inhabitants.

Growth of Cities
• The Great majority of Indian Cities are
commercial centers of agricultural regions.
Capitals of States, Industrial Centers and
Transportation centers have also originated in
most cases as regional centers.

Growth of Cities
• In order to get an Idea of the growth of different types of
cities, cities were divided into the following 8 classes,
depending upon their economic functions:
• Capital(C)
• Non Capital but important Government Offices (G)
• Industrial Centers (I)
• Port (P)
• Regional Commercial Centers (R)
• Pilgrimage Center (PI)
• Hill Station or Other Resort town (H)
• Military Station (M)
• Each city was given one or more symbols depending
upon its important functions.

Growth of Cities
• Of the 13 cities with population increases of
more than 300 percent, 3 are capitals, 2 are
non capitals with important government
offices and 3 industrial centers. Of the cities
with population increases between 200 and
300 %, 5 are capitals, and 3 are industrial
centers.

Causes of Urbanization
• The principal cause of urbanization in India as
in other countries, is the growth of modern
type industry, commerce and service
occupations all of which are concentrated in
urban areas, and especially in the cities.
During the last decade, two other factors have
accelerated the movement of population to
urban areas and especially to the cities

• Expansion in government services, commerce
and industry as a result of second world war.
• Migration of displaced persons from Pakistan
after the partition of the country in 1947. A
large number of displaced persons living in the
urban areas of Pakistan, as also those living in
rural area but following non- agricultural
occupations have settled down in urban areas
in India. As against this emigration to Pakistan
from the urban areas of India has been
considerably less.

• Also, it must be pointed out that the very fact that
displaced persons have settled down in Urban
areas, and have been absorbed, by and large,
in the urban economy is a result of the
existence
of
adequate
employment
opportunities in Urban areas.
• The Increase in urban population due to
settlement of displaced persons should
therefore be considered only a special phase of
the general process of urbanization.

The Cost of Urbanization
• Urbanization is very costly and this cost itself is likely
to stand in the way of rapid urbanization of the
country.
• Take housing for example. In the rural areas, most of
the land less laborers and sub marginal cultivators
who constitute the great majority of the migrants to
the towns, live in huts and similar very modest
dwellings.
• There is no elaborate provisions for sanitation, water
supply facilities etc. Such living conditions are possible
in the rural areas. But, when these people move into
towns, provisions has to be made for a minimum standard
of housing as also for providing basic necessities like

• The number of additional families in urban
areas as a a result of the growth of urban
population during the last decade may be
estimated roughly at 3 ½ million.
• To provide housing alone for this minimum
standard of 2000 Rs would mean a capital
outlay of Rs 700 crores. The expenditure for
other civic amenities would be in additional.

• Thus the provisions of minimum housing for the
increase in Urban population alone would take
approximately 10 % of the total investment of the
country.
• As a result partly of high costs and partly on account of
other difficulties like shortages of building materials,
expansion of housing and other facilities in the urban
areas lagged far behind.
• The situation is now much better, in most cities as a
result of building activities of the last four to five years.

The Prospect of Urbanization
• Although it is extremely difficult to forecast
the future trends in urban development, a few
observations may be made on the basis of the
demographic trends of the past few decades
and the foreseeable trends in the economic
development of the country.

• The first five year plan did not envisage rapid
industrialization. Its emphasis was mainly on
Increase in agriculture production and on
development of rural areas. Although these
two are likely to continue to receive primary
attention in the second five year plan is
likely to be much greater emphasis on
industrial development.

• The emphasis on small-scale industries is
necessary for tackling the enormous problem of
providing employment to the large manpower of
the country. The industrial dispersal to small
and medium towns is a trend in all countries,
and is being accelerated by such developments as
transmission of electricity over long distances at
economic rates, and growth of motor transport. In
a country like India the very high cost of
development of large urban centers is also
likely to be a factor against increasing
concentration of population in large cities.

Growth Trends
• As regards growth trends for individual types of towns,
we may say
• Capital will continue to grow as the sphere of
governmental activity will continue to expand,
especially in the social welfare and economic fields.
• Many small and medium sized towns will grow
rapidly as agricultural production increases and the
rural areas develop, and especially as electricity and
communications are further extended. Towns with
special advantage like cheap electricity power,
availability
of
raw
materials
or
good
communications will grow most rapidly.

Growth Trends
• Some of the medium-sized and smaller cities,
whose advantages have not been sufficiently
realized, may grow rapidly. Example of such
rapid growth during the last decade have been
Bangalore, Pune, Dehradun.

Growth Trends
• Large cities are extremely congested, especially in their
central areas. They are not likely to maintain the
phenomenal growth rate of the last one or two decades; their
growth will be slower and will be mostly at the periphery.
The process of the growth of suburbs and satellite towns,
which has already started, is expected to be accelerated.
• Close proximity to large cities is still a great advantage
for businesses, and for many types of industries.
Transport, skilled labour, power, water supply and
numerous other facilities can still be had much more
cheaply in cities than elsewhere. A crucial advantage is the
remarkable concentration of capital, enterprise and educated
manpower in the cities.

Understanding Urbanization
• Urbanization is a process of great economic
and social significance. Although in the case
of India, there are difficulties and the
character of the process may differ from that in
the west due to particular social and economic
conditions, there can be no question that
urbanization is likely to be an important
feature of the demographic situation in
India during the next few decades.

• The character of the movement, the forces
that impel it at the rural and urban ends,
the fluctuations in it from year to year
should be carefully analyzed and properly
understood.
• Such understanding is very important for
formulation of economic and social policies
and for the proper direction of the
movement itself.

• The National Sample Survey, which undertakes
collection of comprehensive economic data for
the whole country has been extended to urban
areas. These studies and surveys will collect
detailed information on various aspect of
urbanization, the magnitude and character of
migration, the social and economic conditions of
the migrant to mention only one, which will
make possible much better understanding of
the urban problems than is possible with the
data available at present.

Resources for Urban
Development
• At the heart of India’s urban problem are
grossly inadequate inputs of finances and
management needed for efficient functioning of
urban government and for expansion of
housing and services to keep pace with the
rapidly growing urban population. Provision of
adequate finance will not be easy because of the
great demand. But steady progress toward
reducing the present inadequacy can be made if
there
is
greater perception
of
the
interdependency between urban and rural
development.

Resources for Urban
Development
• The present shortage of urban housing and
the inefficiency of urban services not only
cause great hardship to the urban
population but also results in enormous
losses of output. They act as a major
disincentive on product investment. The letter
effect is most apparent in the case of
services such as electric power, for
prolonged cuts and erratic supplies have
become a daily occurrence in most cities.

Resources for Urban
Development
• Most of the funds needed to finance expansion or
improvement of urban housing and essential
services will have to be provided, as at present by
grants and loans by the central government and
channeled through the state governments or by
loans from financial institutions which are
controlled by the central or state governments or by
loans from financial institutions which are
controlled by the central or state governments. It
would be unrealistic to expect the municipal bodies,
even of the largest cities, to raise more than a small
proportion of the funds needed for these purposes.

Resources for Urban
Development

Urban Planning
• The plans for individual cities and towns
should form part of the five-year and annual
plans of the states in which they are located, so
that they can be financed as part of the state
plans. Preparation of urban plans and their
integration with the planes of states will also
give the municipal bodies a strong incentive
for greater mobilization of local resources.

Urban Planning
• The practice of matching grants, under which the
cost of implementing a project is shared
between the state government and local
communities, has been successfully used for
rural development programmes. It can be used
even more effectively for urban development
programmes because the potential for local urban
development programmes. It can be used even
more effectively for urban development
programmes because the potential for local
resource mobilization is greater in the urban area.

Management
• The principal need is for providing highquality managers and technical officers to
run large cities and for implementing
development projects and programs. A
number of related development lead us to
expect progressive improvement in the
availability of high-quality managers and
technical officers for urban administration
and urban development projects.

Better Manager and Technical
Officers
• Similar developments- limited opportunities
in the state or national governments and
increasingly attractive opportunities in
municipal administrations should attract a
growing
number
of
well-trained
administrators and professional officers.
Such opportunity will, in future be available
only to a very few members of the higher
administrative services.

Officers

Officers
• Most of those who have filled top management or
technical positions in these cities find that those posts
offer opportunities for achievement which are as good
as any available in the state or national government.
• The commissioner and the senior technical officer of
the municipal corporation of a large city can
immediately see the result of their decisions, into
increasing in economic activity or in the welfare of
hundreds of thousands of people. Most of their
counterparts in the state or national bureaucracies, on
the other hand, see themselves as merely cogs in a giant
machine who have only a minor role in its functioning.

Increasing Participation of Business
Leaders in Urban Affairs
• The prospects of expansion and consequent
growth of opportunities for management and
technical personnel are greater in the private
sector than in the public sector. But the challenges
and opportunities in municipal administration
will, in the near future, begins to attract a
significant number of managers and
technocrats from the private sector. One reason
for this trend will be the increasing participation
of leaders of business and private industry in
urban affairs.

Increasing Participation of Business
Leaders in Urban Affairs

Growth of the Urban Population
• The World Development report 1984, has on the
assumption of a high rate of rural-to-urban
migration, projected a growth rate of the urban
population averaging 4.2 % a year during the
period of 1980-2000 period.
• The seventh Five-Year Plan’s projection assumes a
rate similar to the average rate of 3.5 %
experienced during the 1961-1981 period. Mohan,
however, projects a sharp slowdown of the urban
growth rate during the 1990’s with a similar decline
in the growth rate of the total population.

• And would constitute one-third of the total population.
• Both the WDR and the Seventh Plan also assumes rapid
growth of gross deposit product (GDP) per capita.
• The fastest growth rates were recorded by the cities with
population of 5,00,000 or more, excluding, however, the
four metropolitan cities of Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai
and Delhi. These cities registered average growth rate of
3.3 % a year during both decades.
• The low growth rates were recorded by the small urban
places with populations below 50,000 and especially
those with population below 20,000.

• Three factors contributed to rapid growth of the
larger urban places; natural increase of the
urban population; in migration from villages or
smaller urban places; and expansion of urban
boundaries to include adjacent villages and
small towns.

The Spatial Pattern of Urbanization
• During the early 1960s, much discussion took place
about the most appropriate spatial pattern of
urbanization for India.
• The Impetus for the discussion came from the industrial
planners and economists who were concerned with
location of industries and from urban planners who were
preparing urban development plans. Industrialization
was seen as the key element in urbanization despite
mounting evidences that the need of modern industry
for labour were relatively limited far less than they had
been undergoing industrialization.

• The consensus was in favour of dispersed
development of industries, which would contribute
to disperse urbanization. Several strands of through
converged to form this consensus. First was the
realization that urbanization, with a focus on rapid
growth of the large metropolitan cities, would
involve high costs of expansion. These costs would
be much lower, however, in small urban places and
on the outskirts of large cities, and there would also
be greater scope for use of simple technology and
cheap local materials. Self help by the beneficiaries
could reduce the cost further.

• The second strand of thought was promotion of
small-scale and agro-based Industries. The
employment potential of such industries was
much larger than of large, capital –intensive
industries. Furthermore, growth of small and
agro-based industries. Furthermore growth of
small towns would promote growth of
entrepreneurship and diffusion of Industrial
skills.

• A Third consideration was the need to accelerate
development of backward regions. The political
leaders of these regions first concentrated their
efforts on securing large, central financed resources
development on industrial projects: Irrigation and
hydrostatic projects in the early 1950’s and public
–sector industrial projects in the late 1950s and
early 1960s. The projects were seen as the nuclei
of regional growth which would through their
multiple backward and forward set in motion a
process of rapid economic growth in the region.

• Official intervention for promoting dispersed
industrial development included both incentives
and sanctions. From the outset the emphasis was
on the former. The principal incentives were
providing land and various infrastructure facilities
needed by the industrial units. Quickly and at low
cost, providing concessional loans and other fiscal
incentives for the entrepreneurs, and providing
technical assistance for project appraisal and
selection of equipment, for example, or in certain
areas of management.

The Spatial Pattern of
Urbanization
• These facilities were provided typically for industries
locating in the industrial estate or industrial area which
began to be built by the state governments from the mid
1950s under a programme sponsored by the central
government.
• While promoting development of small industries
and industrial dispersal remained the professed
objective for industrial estates, their actual location
indicates that the state governments attached at
least equal importance to promote the industrial
development in states.

• Thus while many industrial estates and areas were
built in backward regions or near medium sized
towns, some of the largest and most successful
ones were located in the vicinity of large cities,
including the state capital and metropolitan
cities like Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai.
• In their eagerness to promote development of
industry, the states government were ready to
provide these facilities wherever the
prospective industrialists wanted them.

• Despite the lack of interest, one element of the
strategy of industrial location has remained;
encouraging location at the outskirts of
cities and in backward regions. Such
location have continued to be encouraged
through substantial capital investment by the
state governments in developing industrial
areas and estates.

• On the other hand, there has been little action
to check rapid growth of the large cities
despite evidence of increasing deterioration
in urban conditions.

• The inevitable of rapid growth of the cities,
including the largest like Mumbai and Delhi,
has been accepted. Indeed, not only has the
growth not been discouraged, but it has at
times been encouraged by official actions.

• On the contrary, further concentration of
population and economic activities in the
central area of the city was allowed and even
encouraged by permitting construction of
high rise residential and commercial
buildings.

• The wider range and higher quality of
infrastructure and social services in or near the city
is itself very attractive, because the range of such
services is limited away from the cities and their
functional efficiency is low.
• States like Maharashtra may continue their policies
of diverting industries away from the over
urbanized Mumbai-Poona region to the less
developed region of the estate, but the dominant
trend among the state government will be toward
further back-pedaling on the industrial location issue
and encouraging prospecting investors to locate
industries almost anywhere they want.

• Indeed, the state governments efforts to
attract industrial investment in their states
are expected to become aggressive in the
future, culminating at times in intense
competition to attract large industrial units.

Problems of Metropolitan Cities
• Despite the improved prospects of acquiring the
funds and top level personnel for urban
administration and undertaking projects to
meet the needs of urban growth the prospects
of metropolitan cities are much less sanguine.
• Indeed, in the case of Mumbai and Kolkata,
where the urban systems already showed
inability to cope with the present populations,
it is not at all clear how the pressure created by
the projected doubling of the population will
be met.

• The answers to the question will relate, finally, to
political judgment and the will to provide the
needed resources and ensure that institutional
and administrative reforms are undertaken
and that projects and programmes are
implemented with speed and efficiency
• Some of the task that needs special attention in
these cities include housing, food supply, water
and electricity, transport, maintenance of
peace and security and restriction of
immigration.

Housing
• Expansion and improvement of housing will
remain the most difficult problem. The present
deficiency is so acute and growing so rapidly,
and at the costs of expansion of housing are so
high in comparison with the incomes of great
majority of urban residents, that the best that
can be hoped, even with the most intensive
efforts, is avoidance of a serious aggravation of
the present situation.

• In Delhi, for instances, the current estimate is of a
shortage of 3,00,000 dwelling units and a
requirement of 1.62 million units over the next two
decades.
• Aquition of land for public housing for the poor is
itself a most difficult problem. Reference was made
earlier to the fact that acquisition of land for such
housing was delayed and the area of land available for
this purpose was progressively reduced by private
interests who obtained political support and used a
series of court injuctions against acquisition.

Food Supply
• Ensuring both adequate supplies of Cereal to the
cities and their availability at prices fixed by the
government, never easy, should not be
unmanageable of the growth rate of cereal output
achieved in Industry during the last twenty years
can be maintained. The spread of the wheat
revolution from its core area in Punjab,
Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal and the
improvement in the last few years in the rate of
growth of rice output give hope of this
prospect.

• Increasing, or even maintaining, the present
low levels of consumptions of foods rich in
protein, minerals and vitamins or even such
essential as oils and fats will be very difficult
unless there are major improvements in the
technologies or producing, processing, and
transporting these staples and their prices
get more in line with the income of the great
majority of urban residents.

Water and Electricity
• The problem of providing adequate water and
electricity could grow even worse unless there are
sustained efforts to increase supplies. Large
investments in expansions of the systems of supply,
transmission and distribution, as well as progressive
improvements in their management, will be needed.
Expanding the water supply may present a more
complex problem than that of electricity.
• The acute shortage of water experienced in Chennai
in 1984 is an indication of these difficulties.

Transport
Expansion of the transport system to cope with
the needs of growth will present special problems in
all the cities. The worst case again is Kolkata, where
the transport system is a nightmare.
In Mumbai too, the transport system is
approaching conditions of near chaos and the cost of
its expansion will be immense. If a large part of the
projected growth takes place on the mainland across the
bay from the present city, large investment will be
required for construction of bridges and other works
linking the transport system of the two parts of the city.

Maintenance Peace and Security
• This task will require political and administrative
management of a very high order. Above all, the
cities must insure access to the basic needs for
food and water, access to other essential services
and housing and opportunities for gaining
employment. The tensions ever present below
the surface in the Indian Cities, tensions which
find their outlet in periodic outbreak of
violence, can be kept within manageable limits,
and the growth of underworld activities
curtailed, only when these fundamental
conditions are met.

Restriction In-Migration to the Cities
• From time to time there is demand for curbing inmigration to the Metropolitan cities, and to
smaller cities such as Bangalore, which have
experienced very rapid growth during the last two
or three decades.
• The motive for the demand may be political, or
they may be administrative.
• The only solution to the problem of inmigration to the giant cities is to increase the
attraction of alternatives, including satellite
town.

• India’s Cities and Urban regions face a
difficult future. Urban Infrastructure and housing
are inadequate and cannot absorb the massive
number of newcomers. Urban economic and
social conditions are deteriorating, which
results in higher levels of unemployment and
social unrest. In these adverse circumstances
India’s urban areas must become the focus for
new policy initiatives emphasizing population
control, rural development, and urban growth
containment.

The Story of Dharavi: Largest Slum,
Enterprising People
• Spread over 175 hectares and swarming with one
million people during the day, Dharavi in
Mumbai is extraordinary mix of most unusual
people’. They have come from many parts of
India. Living in Dharavi is not easy.
• Within congested Mumbai, Dharavi has the
highest density of population, an unbelievable
45,000 persons per hectare. Everywhere there
are open drains, piles of un-cleaned garbage, filth,
and pitiful shakes. The other parts of the city’s
population would like to believe that Dharavi
does not exist.

Enterprising People

Enterprising People
• For them, the slums are dirty, and the
inhabitants are criminals. Over the years,
unsuccessful attempts were made to ‘develop’
Dharavi. The story of Dharavi tell us that
managing the urban population is becoming
a bigger and more complex problem with
each passing day.

References
• Urbanization Urban Development
Metropolitan Cities in India
• Dr V. Nath Concept Publications

&

Urban Development

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