Obsession with 'de-congestion'

MAJOR SOURCE of India's urban management problems is a philosophical mistake. Both, policymakers and the general public have a view that India's urban problems are due to being "overcrowded" and "congested". This leads to the obvious conclusion that the primary solution is to "decongest". The approach is embedded in our regulations—be it National Building Codes, master plans, or building bye-laws of states.

- SANJEEV SANYAL AAKANKSHA ARORA Respectively member and joint director in the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister

MAJOR SOURCE of India's urban management problems is a philosophical mistake. Both, policymakers and the general public have a view that India's urban problems are due to being "overcrowded" and "congested". This leads to the obvious conclusion that the primary solution is to "decongest". The approach is embedded in our regulations—be it National Building Codes, master plans, or building bye-laws of states. Yet, after decades of trying this approach, almost all our cities continue to feel over-congested! Surely, there is a need to rethink the issue afresh.

The reality is that the experience of congestion is only relative to available infrastructure. Thus, successful cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, and Tokyo are very densely populated but have built infrastructure to support the density. This is why density is not the same as overcrowding. Indeed, this goes to the very heart of why cities exist in the first place—to concentrate human activity. If concentration did not have high social and economic value, we would all be living in large, affordable houses in remote locations with no traffic jams.

Given the power of agglomeration, cities require efficient infrastructure that allows for concentration. Instead, what we do in India is the exact opposite. We restrict compact development, thereby spreading the population outwards and thinning out the infrastructure. This misses the point that it is cheaper and more efficient to build infrastructure in a compact area. Take the example of ribbon development all along the Delhi-Jaipur highway. It is simply not possible to provide urban amenities (water supply, sewage etc.) in such a spread-out area.