India Needs National Council for Coordinated Urban Growth: Report
A new report suggests India establish a national urbanisation council, chaired by the Prime Minister, to coordinate urban development. The council would set policy, resolve conflicts, and align schemes with urbanisation goals. This aims to address a fragmented system where urban growth occurs across
Key takeaways
- India needs a national urbanisation council chaired by the Prime Minister to coordinate urban growth.
- The council would set policy, resolve inter-ministerial conflicts, and align schemes with urbanisation goals.
- The report highlights fragmented urbanisation and lack of services in areas like Census Towns.
- Peri-urban growth is pervasive but lacks data and planning strategies.
- The proposal aims to address these issues by creating a structured approach to urban development.
India requires a national urbanisation council, potentially led by the Prime Minister or a senior cabinet minister, to effectively coordinate urban growth. This body, along with state-level councils chaired by chief ministers, would aim to streamline efforts across various ministries and government levels.
What Happened
A report, prepared by World Resources Institute (WRI) India at the request of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), proposes the creation of national and state urbanisation councils. These bodies would be responsible for setting national urbanisation policy priorities and standards, resolving inter-ministerial disagreements, and ensuring that centrally sponsored schemes and Finance Commission incentives support urbanisation objectives. The report also recommends common criteria for transitioning rapidly developing rural settlements into municipalities and a regional planning system for areas outside existing municipal limits.
Why It Matters
The report highlights that India's urbanisation is not limited to established cities, extending to villages that are evolving into small towns and areas remaining formally rural. The current system is described as fragmented, with no single policy providing a clear direction for planning, managing, and governing urbanisation across economic, environmental, and social domains. This fragmentation results in areas classified as urban by the Census, such as Census Towns, lacking essential municipal services and spatial planning capacity due to their management by rural administrations. The report notes significant increases in Census Towns in states like Kerala and West Bengal between 2001 and 2011.
Peri-urban growth, which is widespread, lacks sufficient data, measurement methodologies, and policies for management and planning. Existing concepts like Urban Agglomerations do not fully capture the rural-urban continuum. The report points to Bengaluru as an example where many major infrastructure projects are located outside the statutory planning boundaries of authorities like the Bengaluru Development Authority. Delays in expanding these boundaries are attributed to land disputes, environmental objections, and political constraints.
According to WRI India's application of the UN-promoted Degree of Urbanisation methodology, approximately 61.6% of India's population is urban and an additional 26.66% is peri-urban. This contrasts with other estimates, such as the UN Population Division's 2025 projection of a 44% urbanisation rate, placing India's urban population above 500 million.
Key Facts
- A report suggests India needs a national urbanisation council, chaired by the Prime Minister or a senior cabinet minister, to coordinate urban growth.
- State urbanisation councils, led by chief ministers, are also proposed.
- The national council would set priorities and standards for a National Urbanisation Policy, resolve inter-ministerial conflicts, and align schemes with urbanisation goals.
- The report, by WRI India for the EAC-PM, also proposes common national criteria for classifying rapidly urbanising rural settlements as municipalities.
- In Kerala, Census Towns increased by 366% from 2001 to 2011, accounting for almost all urban population growth.
- West Bengal saw Census Towns rise from 252 to 780 between 2001 and 2011.
- WRI India's analysis of Bengaluru indicated most strategic projects are outside the Bengaluru Development Authority's statutory planning boundary.
- Under the UN-promoted Degree of Urbanisation methodology, 61.6% of India's population is urban and 26.66% is peri-urban, according to WRI India.
Sources reviewed
Project Chintan independently synthesized and analyzed information cross-checked across the sources listed above.
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