Cement, Energy and Environment

capital and operating expenditure together is today covered by user charges. Similarly, close to 60% of the $1.2 trillion capital expenditure for the future should be raised Gathering Storm? At current rates by monetizing land, the report proposes. In fact for Tier I and II cities, the report says that 80- 85% of expenditure can be covered by their internal revenues including property tax. Simultaneously, the report calls for a tripling of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission fund. • Peak vehicular densities are likely to reach as high as 330 vehicles per lane kilometer. At such densities, an average journey may take up to five hours in peak morning traffic. • Per capita water supply could drop from 105 litres currently to 65 in 2030. • Gap in affordable housing could rise to 38 million units Road to 2030: What's Needed • Between 700 million and 900 million square metres of residential and commercial space a year, equivalent to adding more than two Mumbais each year • 350 to 400 km of metros and subways every year, more than 20 times the capacity built of this type by India in the past decade. ., • Between 19,000 and 25,000 km of road lanes every year (including rapid transit systems), nearly equivalent to the amount of road lanes that have been constructed in the past decade. Urbanisation, already lop– sided across states in India, will remain so by Me Kinsey's projections Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Punjab will join Tamil Nadu in being more urban than rural by 2030. In 20 years, India will have 68 million-plus cities, 13 four million-plus cities and six megacities of over 10 million. The report does, however, see cities as the drivers of prosperity. Cities will account for nearly 70 per cent of India's GOP as against 58 per cent in 2008, assuming an average annual GOP growth rate of 7.4 per cent of the next two decades, the report projects. However Tier I and II cities are not growing at their potential and are not outperforming the national cities in China, for example, do, the report notes. In fact Tier Ill and IV cities are growing almost as fast as far bigger cities with far greater municipal investment. Where the report is likely to diverge with other prescriptions for India's urban development is also in its placing of faith in Tier I (over 4 million and II (1-4 million) cities. The report calculates that it is more cost-effective to provide basic services in densely rather than sparsely populated cities and high-end services like airports are cheaper to run in Tier I than Tier Ill cities. While the report does also talk of development in smaller towns, it continued emphasis on big cities is likely to be at odds with calls for more dispersed urban growth. Courtesy: The Times of India, Apri/23, 2010. P15. 68