CityForm-India: Sustainable
urban form in Indian cities
Dr Nicola Dempsey and Dr Shibu
Raman with Dr Seema Dave
OISD: Cities
Contents
• Background information
• Urban forms in India
• Some issues for India’s rapidly growing
cities
• What has research got to do with it?
• CityForm-India
India’s population: 1.15 billion
China’s population: 1.3 billion
Some facts and figures
• Total population: 1.15 billion
• Urban population: 286 million
– 2/3 of population live in rural areas
• There are 35 metropolitan cities
– A metropolitan city in India has at least 1
million residents
Growth of metropolitan cities in India, 1981-2001
1981
1991
2001
Number of metro cities
12
23
35
Population (millions)
42
70
108
Proportion of urban population (%)
26
32
38
Refs: CIA World Factbook (2008); Ministry of Urban Development (2006)
Some facts and figures
• Median age is 25 years
• Population by age
Number
% of total
0-14 years
363,610,812
35
15-59
585,638,723
57
60+
76,622,321
8
Ref: Census of India (online source: www.censusindia.gov.in/)
Some facts and figures
• Labour force (2003)
– Agriculture: 60%
– Industry: 12%
– Services: 28%
• Unemployment rate: 7.2% (2007)
• Population below poverty line: 25%
(2007)
Estimates taken from CIA World Factbook (2008)
Some facts and figures
• Census (2001): 1.9 million homeless
• Action Aid (2003): 78 million homeless
• 40 million people living in slums
– 1m+ live in Dharavi, Mumbai (largest slum in
Asia)
• 360 million people living on <$1/ day
Ref: Unicef (2005); Shaw and Satish (2007); Dave (2008)
Some facts and figures
• 3,000 registered planners (IITP)
– 1 per 100,000 urban residents
– 20,000 RTPI members (1/ 3,000
residents)
– e.g. for 1 per 5,000 residents,
Bangalore would need 5,000 planners
– Approx 400 urban & regional planning
graduates per yr
• 15% take up government planning posts
• Real skills shortage
Refs: Ramanathan (2008) in Town & Country Planning, 77(2): 90-92
Some planning restrictions
• Land-use regulations
– Floor Space Index (FSI)
•
•
•
•
Very low in India - Mumbai: 1.33; Gurgaon: <4
Dubai: 8-34; Hong Kong: 8-20; New York: 30
Planned high-density devt is currently impossible
This has led to widespread urban sprawl
– Urban Land Ceiling Act (1976)
• Restricts amount of land owned w/in city limits
• Has been repealed in some states
– Rent Control Act
• Rents frozen since 1947
• New Acts have been passed in some states
Ref: Dave (2008)
A wide range of urban forms
Shimla
New Delhi
New Delhi
Old Delhi
Delhi
Mumbai
Mumbai
Some issues for India’s rapidly
growing cities
Edge growth
• Edge growth (privately financed)
– Shift of activity centres
– Gated developments/ townships
• Expensive enclaves
Real infrastructure problems in
Gurgaon
Unplanned settlements
• Challenges
– Poverty alleviation
– Clustering of informal settlements
– Pressure on basic infrastructure
Mumbai
Transport
• All manner of transport methods
– Some more hazardous for health than others
– Some more sustainable than others
Transport
• Transport infrastructure differs widely
– Mass Rapid Transit Systems
– No public transport linking gated devts
Metro construction, Delhi
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Delhi
Translating this into research
Need to examine SUF in India
• Patterns of urban growth
• Policy implications
• Delivery and implementation
mechanisms
• Urban governance
• Poverty and migration
• Infrastructure provision
• Relationship between urban form and
sustainability
– Lack of existing empirical research
Exchanging the knowledge
CityForm-India
• Why is OBU involved?
– Adopt integrated approach as used
by CityForm UK
– In-house expertise on social equity/
sustainability by OISD:SUE
– Strengthen this expertise
• within context of rapidly growing
developing countries
www.city-form.org
Real potential to be exploited
• Collaborative India-UK research could:
– Constitute the first holistic examination of
sustainable urban form in India
– Form an international interdisciplinary
research team
– Involve a combination of multidisciplinary
research methods
– Incorporate urban form as the common link
in the study of sustainability for the first time
www.city-form.org
CityForm-India
• An important research question needs
to be asked:
– To what extent and in what ways does
urban form contribute to sustainability
in rapidly growing cities in India?
• Built environment experts will come
together in an international research
exchange on sustainability and urban
form
• Key research networking events are
planned for 2008-9 and beyond
www.city-form.org
Thank you!