Independent India has had the curious—if not
unique—distinction of creating large new cities usually when new states
are carved out. After all, the four planned entirely ‘new’
metropolises India has developed so far, have come about thus: Bhubaneswar,
Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and Naya Raipur. Forty years ago, the great steel plants
also forged Bokaro, Bhilai and Rourkela, successors to older
industrialisation-led agglomerations such as Jamshedpur, Burnpur, Durgapur and
Modinagar, but they could not possibly absorb the influx from rural
areas.
Today petroleum, steel, cement, infotech, auto and other
industries are spurring town-to-city transformations, conurbations and
extensions, if not always new cities. Noida, Gurgaon, Navi Mumbai and NewTown
(Rajarhat) are some indicative examples; new ports and extensions at Paradip,
Kandla, Mundra, Pipavav are also part of this trend. Most important of all,
though, is that the government has realised it must take a primary role in
facilitating a crying need for new cities in India. And not a moment too
soon.
In going slow on large greenfield cities, India was in line
with global trends, says J David Foster, an urban affairs expert formerly with
USAID, who lists new capitals like Brasilia, Canberra and Abuja as the few
exceptions. Indeed, more new cities worldwide were stymied by the mixed track
record of countries like Egypt and Britain on that front. But as Indians move on
from Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of village-centred utopias — and pile
into India’s existing urban agglomerations — international failures
can no longer be a disincentive.
Thus in the past five years the
Central government has made a provision for a whopping Rs 1 lakh crore to
bolster infrastructure in 63 major cities in India under the Jawaharlal Nehru
Urban Renewal Mission, it has pushed for SEZs and then, inevitably, greenfield
cities. And if HCC’s under-construction Lavasa, India’s first
post-Independence hill station near Pune, is evidence of the private
sector’s interest, the Centre’s plan to build six brand-new cities
in the next five years may be the catalyst India desperately needs for more such
initiatives.
The
greenfield cities on the anvil—Dholera in Gujarat, Manesar-Bawal in
Haryana, Indore-Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, and Dighi and Nasik-Igatpuri in
Maharashtra—have been conceived on a grand scale, along the Delhi-Mumbai
Industrial Corridor (DMIC). For example, at 900 sq km, Dholera is envisioned to
be six times bigger than Chandigarh. The success of these cities, however,
hinges on DMIC getting private sector investment and the Central government
facilitating soft loans from multilateral agencies with a 10-year moratorium at
least. Read More
Go Green’ is the motto for all leading economies of the world, as reflected by the increasing focus on electric vehicles. US President Obama has envisioned a target of one million electric cars on US roads by 2015 and allocated USD 2.4 billion to boost the development of electric vehicles. Almost 17 European Union nations including UK, France, Belgium, Italy and Spain provide specific tax rebates to promote usage of electric cars. China has also joined the green initiative and has plans to produce one million electric vehicles annually by 2015. However in India, we are still testing the waters to understand the sustainability of these vehicles in the long run. 
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