Venkaiah chants urban renaissance mantra

​Visakhapatnam: The third edition of three-day BRICS Urbanisation Forum meet, which began here on Wednesday, deliberated on policies to meet the challenges of rapid urbanisation, as Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu emphasised the need for adopting new strategies.

Inaugurating the sessions, Venkaiah Naidu called for thrust on urban renaissance, which would be crucial for country's sustained growth in the coming decades. “Indian government has already launched several urban-oriented schemes and would adopt sustainable models to achieve the objective,” he added.

Stating that there was a rapid transition from rural to urban areas during the last six decades, the Union Minister pointed out that urbanisation had problems like housing, power, sanitation, water and medical facilities.

“The governments need to formulate policy in order to tackle them. Central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been making rapid strides to develop the country with focus on urbanisation,” he stated.

Venkaiah said that the three-day meet was aimed at exchanging experiences of the member countries in urbanisation. He noted that Brazil has 84 per cent of urbanisation whereas India is at 32 per cent, while South Africa has urbanised to an extent of 64 percent.
The BRICS countries have an urbanisation of 53 per cent in the world and generates 23 per cent of the world GDP, he added. The Union Minister emphasised on accountability and transparency in urban development. He added that urban infrastructure and enhanced facilities need to be focussed in the ensuing years.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu outlined that Andhra Pradesh is on the rapid growth path in the areas of electricity, sanitation, solid waste management and surveillance. He said that State would soon become open defecation free in all the 110 municipal towns and a central command at the capital would also come into operation to monitor the use of LED bulbs, sanitation and law and order problems.

Naidu noted that the administration would become participatory and building permissions were made online for the first time in the country. He observed that smart cities mean most liveable, and as an experiment `Sunday Happiness’ was launched in Vijayawada.

Vice chairman of Niti Aayog Arvind Panagariya in his keynote address said that agriculture alone cannot support India’s huge population and therefore, industry and services would also have to be developed, which would mean more urbanisation. “Among the BRICS countries, only 30-35 per cent of India’s population lives in urban settlements at present. As the percentage is staled to grow in the future, huge challenge lies ahead to build quality towns and cities,” he opined.

Panagariya also suggested few changes in urban planning. He said that more space in cities would be provided by vertical growth, and therefore floor space index would be increased. He added that the space of sick industries should be brought into market use. He observed that coastal cities are engines of growth, and South Korea, Shenzeng in China remain as examples for other countries developed coastal areas as urban cities.

Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development Raji Gauba said the member countries have huge challenges as there would be pressure on reforms as the urban areas would be growth centers.