Well planned cities will determine fate of India: PM Modi

"Urban planning will determine the fate of our cities in Amritkal and it is only well-planned cities that will determine the fate of India," Prime Minister said in his 6th Post Budget Webinar on the subject of 'Urban Development with focus on planning'.

He remarked that India’s position in the world would have been completely different if 75 planned cities had been developed in the 75 years of its independence.

Underlining that the development of new cities and the modernization of services in the existing cities are the two main aspects of urban development, the Prime Minister highlighted the importance given to urban development in every budget presented by his government.

He informed that an incentive of Rs 15,000 crores has been declared in this year’s budget for the standards of urban development and expressed confidence that it will provide impetus to planned urbanization.

Reiterating the role of planning and governance in urban development, he said, "that poor planning of cities or lack of proper implementation after planning can create huge challenges in the development journey of India."

He stressed the need to work in a very focused way in areas of spatial planning, transport planning, and urban infrastructure.

"Our cities will also become climate-resilient and water secure only with better planning," he emarked.

"India is making the circular economy a major basis of urban development," the Prime Minister remarked as he noted that thousands of tonnes of municipal waste such as battery waste, electrical waste, automobile waste, tires and waste used for making compost are generated in our country every day.

The Prime Minister informed that 75 percent of waste is being processed today compared to only 14-15 percent in 2014.

He noted that the edges of India’s cities would not have been filled with mountains of garbage if this step was taken earlier.

The Prime Minister underlined that work is underway to free the cities from heaps of garbage by waste processing and noted that it will open a room full of opportunities for recycling and circularity for many industries.

"Our new cities must be garbage-free, water secure, and climate-resilient," the Prime Minister remarked as he highlighted the need to increase investment in urban infrastructure and planning in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

The Prime Minister said that our future cities should be defined on parameters such as architecture, zero discharge model, net positivity of energy, efficiency in land use, transit corridors and use of AI in public services.

"The plans and policies that the government is making should not only make life easier for the people of the cities but also help in their own development," the Prime Minister said.

Modi informed about the government’s commitment to spend about Rs 80,000 crores for the PM-Awas Yojana in this year's budget and said that industries like cement, steel, paint, and furniture get a boost whenever a house is built.

The Prime Minister requested the experts to come up with innovative ideas and highlighted the role that they can play in areas such as GIS-based master planning, the development of different types of planning tools, efficient human resources, and capacity building.

He mentioned that their expertise will be much needed by urban local bodies thereby creating many opportunities.

Calling the transport planning an important pillar of the development of cities, he said, the mobility of our cities should be uninterrupted, adding that the present government has worked on metro rail in many cities and overtaken several countries in terms of metro network connectivity.

He emphasised the need to strengthen the metro network and provide first and last-mile connectivity.

"The widening of roads in cities, green mobility, elevated roads, and junction improvement have to be included as part of transport planning," he said.