Today there is a major demand and supply gap in urban infrastructure and services due to rapid urbanization in India. This in turn is leading to urban sprawl.While on one hand, this is contributing to the economic growth and productivity of the country, on the other hand, it is also adversely affecting the environment. Therefore, there is a need to make a shift towards sustainable urban planning practices now, more than ever.
Sustainable Urban Planning is planning for urban areas in such a way so as to promote intergenerational equitywhile not putting any stress on the surroundings economically, environmentally as well as socially. As much as sustainable urban planning has emerged as an essential goal to cope with the pressures of urbanization, it still lacks a universal definition. There is a lot of ambiguity with regard to the criteria of sustainable development in India, which poses a major challenge in this subject.
With pollution taking a toll on people’s health all over the country, especially in the National Capital Region, society is becoming more and more conscious of the importance of sustainable development. However, urban local bodies in India today, are facing a mighty deficit of trained and skilled human resources. Moreover, unplanned urbanization and unregulated construction activities in the country are also creating a mighty challenge in achieving sustainable urban development.Another significant obstacle is the inefficiency of land policy in India. In order to produce goods and services for sustainable urban development, the land is the most important resource, yet urban India is afflicted by a shortage of housing facilities and scarcity of land. The crux of this problem is the inadequate and inefficient land policy of the country. National Commission on Urbanisation in India, 1988 acknowledged the need for the promotion of flexibility in land use, adequate supply of land as well as efficiency and equity in the supply of land.It is high time that steps are taken to not just integrate the principles of sustainable development into the programs and policies of the country but also ensure their strict and proper implementation. This will make certain the reversal of the loss of environmental resources while improving the quality of life for the people of this country.
Since land is a scarce resource in our country, urban areas need to be planned in an optimal way so as to make urban form sustainable. Concepts like “The Compact City” and “Multimodal Urban Region” enable this. The Compact City concept focuses on building small scale self-sufficient cities, which provide everything that one needs to live in a community, including work opportunities. This model has been successfully implemented in a number of Chinese cities. However, there is a lack of study to support this in the Indian context. The concept of Multimodal Urban Region is shaped around environmentally sustainable transportation systems.It promotes walking, cycling, and the use of public transport over dependency on private vehicles.
