Next time, build a new town

Delhi might or might not get its act together for the Commonwealth Games. In either case, the games too shall pass. The lessons from how Indian authorities prepared for the games would remain. The principal one would be that additional construction of urban infrastructure for an event like the commonwealth games or the Olympics should integrate into organic process of the nation���s urbanisation. India is urbanising fast, which is natural for a country such as this, where fast growth comes in the context of an extremely low level of urbanisation ��� 28% as per the last Census and probably 32% as of now. People have at large noticed that the share of agriculture in the country���s output has been dropping rapidly ��� it has dipped below 18%, from about 27% at the turn of the decade.

Correspondingly, the share of industry and services in GDP has gone up. Now, it is not the case that no service sector or industrial activity takes place in rural areas. However, indisputably, the bulk of high-value industry and services take place in an urban setting. Fast economic growth is driven by high-value services and industry. These require the physical environment of a town. They also require manpower to move to towns, on an increasing scale.

Back of the envelope calculations show that India���s urban population will go up by at least 20 crore people over the next 15-20 years. Considering the level of preparedness of our existing cities to accommodate their present population in a manner half-way decent, we can well imagine what hellish conditions would be created, if these additional 200 million people were to descend on our present clutch of towns.

We badly need to build new towns. And these towns must be designed to minimise energy consumption even while being designed for generalised prosperity ��� note how government housing in Delhi only provided for scooter garages, the authorities never dreaming that hoi polloi would own cars. An event like the Commonwealth Games would serve as the perfect occasion for building precisely such a brand new town from scratch, instead of grafting some structures on to an old town.