AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on: Envisioning Urban Planning and Infrastructure Development for Amrit Kaal.

Participants: 

1. D. Dhara, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
2. Omvesh Upadhyay, AIR correspondent

Context:  Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed a post-budget webinar on Urban planning.

Introduction:

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed a post-budget Webinar on the subject of Urban Development with a focus on planning. 
• The webinar is one of the twelve planned webinars that intends to seek ideas and suggestions for the effective implementation of initiatives announced in the Union Budget 2023-24.
• The Union Government has allotted an incentive of 15000 crore rupees for high-end urban development. It should be noticed that it is the second year when such an incentive has been announced (it was 6000 crore rupees in 2022-23).
• The government will use this incentive to bring focus to urban planning in cities and encourage the states to ramp it up. For instance, in 2022, thirteen states amended their laws to focus on the Transit-oriented development of urban areas.
• The water management angle was also integrated into urban planning through the concept of sponge cities. It stressed on aspects like surveying the water bodies in the city, drawing a plan to protect and rejuvenate them, etc.
• Though there were some challenges in 2022 in utilizing the incentives, identifying milestones and goals, and achieving them; it was a catalysis that built the foundation. In 2023-24, it can be taken further to conclusive actions.

Also read: Urban Planning and Development in India

Concerns associated with urban planning and way ahead:

• In the post-budget webinar, two important questions were raised:
  • Proper utilization of available expertise in the private sector for urban planning.
  • Developing a Centre of excellence to take planning to a new level.
• There are weaknesses in the existing urban planning ecosystem in terms of personnel and processes.
• Urban planning and urban design are relatively new concepts in governance that have not received adequate attention in previous decades.

Measures to address the concerns:

• Steps should be taken to carry forward urban planning in a very concrete and constructive manner.
• Gaps in the existing ecosystem should be identified and the actions taken to address them should be incentivized.
• A platform can be provided where the private experts can meet the policymakers and the officials of state and city development departments.
• The experts can also be impanelled into various committees to interact with the residents of the cities and provide pre-determined arrangements.
• Every city should become aware of the rainfall pattern, groundwater availability, water bodies, etc. in order to harvest water and charge aquifers.
• Infrastructure gaps in water should be bridged 

AMRUT 2.0:

• AMRUT 1 focused on supplying drinking water to around 500 cities with 100000 plus population.
• AMRUT 2.0 is for all cities of the country. Its mantra is to ensure water secure cities. It should be completely planned in order to maintain the water balance in the cities. This would require an analysis of:
  • Locations of water resources
  • Households receiving water
  • Share of non-revenue water 
  • Source re-generation 
• Water security is also a part of AMRUT.
  • Water security covers aspects like re-supply and re-use of treated water for industries or non-potable purposes.
• The three pillars of AMRUT 2.0 are:
  • Infrastructure gaps in water supply should be bridged to supply water to entire population in 4900 cities.
  • Treating used water and re-using it for other purposes in order to reduce the freshwater demand.
  • Rejuvenation of water bodies so that the source can be preserved and brought back to life.

Also read: AMRUT Scheme – Full form, Components & Objectives (UPSC Government Schemes)

Urban Development in Amrit Kaal:

• Notably, urban planning is a state subject. Thus, the union government plays a facilitating or catalyzing role.
• Urban development in Amrit Kaal is not only limited to Tier 1 cities and gives a special focus to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
• Planning is quintessential for any sustainable development. However, it was not internalized in governance previously. The government has now started focusing on the holistic development of urban areas and has launched various missions like National Water Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission, etc.
• Urban planning is fundamental to every city, but the nature of planning changes from one place to another and thus requires appropriate mapping of all the resources like water bodies, green spaces, transit areas, etc.
• Affordable and suitable housing is also an aspect of urban planning and design. For instance, in metropolitan cities, vertical development is encouraged.
• It should be noticed that urban planning should be balanced with the cultural heritage of the region. There are city renewal programs in various cities of the country like Ahmedabad, that conserve the living heritage through tradeable development rights for reducing zones of high-rise development.
• The cities are agglomerations of several dynamics like cultural or heritage area, green spaces, or industrial areas and thus requires differential bylaws.
• In inner city regions, development can be rekindled by establishing transit and water infrastructure linkages.
• Climate resilience is a crucial element of urban planning in today’s scenario of climate change. In order to make a city climate resilient it is important to reduce pollution load and carbon footprint.
• Moreover, public transport should also be made more accessible, affordable, reliable, efficient, and adequately available. This will automatically reduce private transport and further reduce air pollution.

Role of technology in Urban planning:

• During the webinar, Prime Minister highlighted the role of technology in urban development and requested startups to find new and innovative ways to transform the urban landscape.
• AMRUT 2.0 also funds startups and there are 75 startups that are working with cities. They have suggested some innovative solutions like detecting the damaged part of the pipeline, making old electricity meters smart by inserting a layer of AI, or rainwater harvesting consoles.
• The innovative solutions not only suggest easy solutions but also are very cost-efficient.

Read previous AIR Spotlight articles in the link.

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