Urbanization, Urban Development and Metropolitan Cities in India

This book is a collection of essays by Dr. V. Nath, former Chief of urban and regional planning at the Planning Commission. He wrote these essays as India was urbanizing since independence until more recent times when India is experiencing a state of restructured and globalised economy. It includes discussion on myriad aspect of urbanization and metropolitization with special emphasis on trends and reasons for rapid urbanization; concentration of urban population in cities and mega cities; emergence of rurban corridors as priority areas of urban growth; role of cities as vehicles of economic growth and modernization; urban poverty and growth of slums. Several essays focus on changing spatial structure of the cities: the old model, the emerging model and the need for a new model to encompass the outward spatial growth engulfing villages around it and the growth of slums along side the central city. The focus is also on lack of urban renewal, slow or half-hearted implementation of the plans for growth of cities, politicization of municipal bodies, insufficient investment for expansion in provision of services like water supply, sewerage and roads. It gives hope for the future due to improvement in urban management and the activist’s role played by the judicial system–the courts–and several civil society organizations. The book is especially a good reading who wants to peep into the processes of Indian urbanization with policy implications and hence suitable for urabanalogists, urban planners and students with interests in India’s urban and metropolitization problems.