THE CITY IS BROKEN: WHY THE URBAN DREAM FEELS MORE LIKE A NIGHTMARE

INDIA’S URBAN CENTRES are suffocating under the weight of misgovernance, systemic neglect, and poor design.

- By Vikas Singh

Roads collapse, pavements vanish, traffic snarls stretch for hours, and garbage often remains uncollected. Public transport struggles to keep up. Yet rents keep rising, real estate prices soar, and migrants continue to arrive.

Urban India is not simply congested. It is broken.

Cities are meant to be platforms for prosperity. But most metropolises have become bottlenecks that drain productivity, widen inequality, and wear down their residents. For decades, India's urbanisation has followed demographic drift, not deliberate planning. The result is cities that sprawl without services, expand without equity, and grow without grace. Rising urban climate threats like floods, heatwaves and resource strain are deepening the crisis.

Urban Decay Extracts a Heavy Toll

The root of the problem is not size but weak institutions. India spends only 0.75 per cent of its GDP on urban infrastructure and a fraction of China's 5.7 per cent or Brazil's 2.3 per cent. South Africa’s city governments, backed by clear constitutional mandates, manage 18 per cent of public spending. In contrast, their Indian counterparts control just three per cent to five per cent, leading to chronic urban failures. Bengaluru loses an estimated $6 billion each year to traffic congestion. Delhi’s polluted air claims around 30,000 lives annually. Mumbai’s trains carry three times their intended capacity. Chennai floods with every monsoon.

Inadequate urban infrastructure imposes heavy costs on both citizens and the economy. Health suffers from long commutes, pollution and stress, leading to medical bills and lost income.