Track2Realty: Union Minister for Urban Development Kamal Nath has promised to enhance collaboration with UK to improve overall urban infrastructure. He was speaking on Monday, Oct 8, at RICS international conference-Cities 2030: Are we on track?
India’s urban housing today could at best be described as a soda bottle syndrome where the constant rural push to the select few urban centers could explode at any given point of time. It is not that the policy makers are unaware with the growing population and its dependence over the metro cities. As a matter of fact, when the country’s first planned city, Chandigarh, came into existence as a horizontal city that could cater as the capital of both the Punjab and Haryana State, it seemed to be independent India’s first tryst with organized urban planning in general and its housing solution in particular.
The private developers can at the best maintain some components of social infrastructure like schools & hospitals, but not the key components like police station or post office in the vicinity.
While there is no denying that quality social infrastructure projects like Golf Club have been the USP of India’s luxury landscape in Gurgaon, yet such projects have often fallen into the no man’s land in terms of its ownership issues and challenges to create.
Known for fresh water lakes of Himayath Sagar and Osman Sagar, Rajendra Nagar for long had been known for the Shamshabad Airport and the Mrugavani National Park. But today the area is also famous for some of the quality educational institutions, like Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) and Andhra Pradesh Prohibition and Excise Academy. There are also many international schools in the area.
As per the recent Bangalore Development Authority’s (BDA) Revised Master Plan 2031 report, Bengaluru’s 1.18 crore citizens waste 60 crore man hours annually. This translates to INR 3,700 crore, including INR 1350 crore on fuel alone, and the rest on productivity (man hour) loss.
Some of the mega infrastructure projects, when completed, like Hyderabad Metro project next year and the other projects like Strategic Road Development Project of INR 3000 crore and four major flyovers/skyways to decongest busy junctions and nodal city points, are very promising from the standpoint of transportation in the city.
The Indian real estate that has been struggling for new ideas and innovations soon found a sound business opportunity with the theme and hence there has been increasing focus on the star of the home in selling the home. Now it is no more about the social infrastructure in the vicinity but also what are the value added propositions for the child within the project.
Urbanisation is inevitable and it changes the very look and feel of the cities across the country. However, probably none other city has been completely transformed the way cities like Ahmedabad and Vadodara and traditional old world charm has been overtaken by a thriving urban metropolis.
It is the roll out of the policies by the respective urban bodies that have been behind the BKC emerging as a case study of urbanisation with booming economy while Noida ending up as a ghost city sitting over piles of unsold housing stock. Both the markets nevertheless had the tremendous potential in its early stage of inception.