I see India's growth pattern as unique and very rare compared to the rest of developing economies.

BV Anand, Former Member, Karnataka State Policy & Planning Commission

How do you assess India's overall infrastructure development and the government's role in this?

We are witnessing an aggressive and a very strategic focus on infrastructure by the Central Government facilitating added value to induce accelerated growth in almost all the sectors. The infrastructure outlay on the Central Budget has increased from Rs 3.8 lakh cr in 2018-19 to Rs 13.7 lakh cr for 2023-24 (33% increase from last year's Budget), wherein, Rs 2.7 lakh cr have allocated for the roads and highways alone.

Practically, the Government's approach is a combination of 'Whole to Part' as well as 'Part to Whole'. In fact, it is the 'Nal Se Jal' in 2014 and subsequently the 'Jal Shakti Yojana' and 'Atal Bhujal Yojana' from 2019 onwards, was a true game changer for New India that has a multiplier effect on all the other sectors too. For example, the Functional Household Water Supply tap connection till 2019 (for 72 years) in Amethi and Raebareli was just 0.98 % and 1.02% respectively, was raised to 39% and 35% respectively in just four years. And today almost 62.5% households in India have access to pure drinking water and 19 states in the country has achieved 100% coverage of functional household water supply tap connection.

The various missions, especially, the Jal Shakti Mission, AatmaNirbhar Bharath, PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, the Digital India Mission, the National Hydrogen Mission, National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) and the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP- with 8,200 projects), and the creation of the Gati Shakti Portal to coordinate and accelerate the projects across 18 ministries, marks the emergence of New India in real terms.

How do you rate the current developments happening in roads & highways, railways, ports and airports infrastructure?

This Government has aggressively accelerated the implementation of all the physical infrastructure projects. The primary goal is to increase the trade flow, reducing the logistics cost by creating a seamless multimodal infrastructure with a goal of last mail connectivity, development of back up infrastructure, utilization of Inland waterways and integration of multimodal logistics.

This year's Budget allocation of Rs 2.4 lakh cr for railways and Rs. 2.7 lakh cr for roads & highways is the highest ever. The Government has identified 125 railway tracks to be doubled or tripled. Doubling of these identified 125 railway tracks facilitates the movement of an extra 1,875 goods trains. Since, 95% of EXIM trade is through sea route, the Government has allocated Rs 2,218.75 cr to upgrade and implement many new projects related to both major ports and non-major ports. That has induced growth of cargo to 3% CAGR in the last five years. The special emphasis by the Government on non-major ports has resulted in growth of cargo by 4.3% CAGR with a port utilization of 58%. Due to this, the non-Major ports have facilitated to cater the needs that major ports aren't catering. The Government has proposed to revive of fifty additional airports, heliports, waterdromes and advance landing grounds for improving regional air connectivity.  

What are the major drawbacks you are experiencing in the current project implementation processes?

The real challenge is that the projects have to go through the approval of the three-tiered administrative structure. Many projects are facing challenges under the existing Environment Laws and hence, the Government needs to put its best conscious efforts to mitigate the project impact in advance and implement projects without much ecological impact.

Land and agriculture are of state subject. The states need to bring in necessary amendments in their existing land acquisition act to facilitate and expedite the development of new townships.

The Central Government should engage intensely and encourage the state governments to expedite to implement its reforms.

If Logistics Policy and Gati Shakthi project must be successful, the states too need to prepare the State Level Master Plan (SLMP) and integrate it with the overall National Master Plan, by showcasing the siding and connecting infrastructure to its MSMEs, industrial clusters, granaries, cold chains and markets.

How do you view the urban infrastructure developments happening in the country? What are the major challenges faced by the metro cities in the development plans and execution?

The accelerated focus on urban areas started in 2015 with the Central Government initiating 100 Smart Cities and 118 Aspiration District Programs with Rs 98,000 cr to be spent on Urban Development Mission. Subsequently, in 2021, the Centre approved Rs 4.13 lakh cr for 6737 projects related to urban development. Many ad-hoc projects are implemented based on the issues and problems that emerges from time to time. These cities don't have real-time Master Plans, City Mobility plans, city logistic plans and are not supported and integrated with regional plans and ward level comprehensive plans. In fact, Bengaluru doesn't have a Master Plan from the past eight years and we are already witnessing traffic congestion large scale encroachment on existing lakes and in areas proposed for roads and the erosion of 830 sq km of green belt and emergence of 8,647 acres of unauthorised colonies and around 500 slums. We are slowly witnessing the decay of these cities' inner-city areas and its high value urban assets. There is a lack of coordination between different governmental institutions, as well as there is a need to ramp up its institutional capacity.

What kind of approach is needed to overcome these challenges and streamline the overall processes? How do the approaches vary for different cities?

The only way to overcome and streamline these cities is to create Real-time Master Plans, City Mobility plans, City logistic plans that are supported and integrated with regional plans and most importantly, the ward-level comprehensive plans. Different cities have different locations, topography, climate and economic activities and hence, zoning regulations and building bylaws should be based on the character of the city and its area.

In this context, the Central Government has announced to extend the 50-year interest-free loans to state governments for one more year to aid infrastructure investment with an outlay of Rs 1.3 lakh crore, to transform Indian cities into sustainable cities of tomorrow. The special assistance under Urban Planning reform from the Central Government plans to support and incentivise the state governments to prepare Master Plans, City Mobility Plans, develop New Township policy, modernization of Building Bylaws, and implementation of Town Planning schemes. The Central Government has announced financial assistance and incentive to create Sponge Cities (conservation & rejuvenation of water bodies), waterfront/river front rejuvenation, urban-forest, etc.

What is your message to further strengthen the country?

The logistics policy emphasizes the need for training the youths in logistics skills. There is a need to expedite the creation of an IT backbone for the logistics through the Integration of Digital System (IDS), Aviz, and Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) to achieve Ease of Logistics (ELOG).

Incentive mechanism like 'Green Bonus' under 'Climate Finance Delivery Plan' (CFDP) can be imparted to a slew of projects adhering to compliance to Zero-Emission. The Government should also aim at encouraging private investments for creating more natural forests in the areas adjacent to existing forest areas, by encouraging 'Private Forests'.

The states should create plans to integrate with Central Government projects and economic plans need to integrate with spatial plans.
Many smaller towns are acting as satellite towns (without designation) and some as countermagnets to the large cities need to be identified and upgraded.

How do you visualise India's growth by 2030?

Observing the present grown pattern, I see India's growth pattern as unique and very rare compared to the rest of developing economies. The biggest challenge is that we still don't have regional plans in many states and almost 62% of urban areas don't have Master Plans. However, I envision to see every small town becoming more vibrant and economically competing with its neighbouring town. Further, the Central Government has allocated Rs 10,000 cr for Tier-II and Tier-III cities, Rs 79,000 cr for affordable housing and Rs 15,000 cr for implementing urban reforms. For the first time since Independence, it is encouraging to see that the Central Government has mindfully recognized the weaning of the urban-rural continuum and hence is focusing on inducing the urban quality infrastructure in smaller towns and rural areas too. The Aspiration District Program for 115 districts across the country is just the starting point and should be extended to all the backward regions of all the districts.

With broadband ecology being built covering the rural areas and with good road network, sanitation and pure drinking water reaching our villages, we will witness an organic reverse migration.

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