Urbanisation emerging a major challenge: Venkaiah

‘India needs to invest USD 250 billion over the next 20 years to put in place basic urban infrastructure’

Hyderabad: India needed to invest an estimated USD 250 billion over next 20 years for basic urban infrastructure offering a huge investment opportunity, Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the XI Metropolis World Congress, Naidu said as per the estimates of a high-powered committee, country needed to invest USD 250 billion over the next 20 years to put in place basic urban infrastructure relating to transport, water supply, sanitation and solid waste management. “This offers a huge investment opportunity and we are committed to promote private domestic and foreign investment in a big way,” Naidu said.

He said there were ample opportunities for the international investors to come and invest in India and particularly in urban India, because the Union government had decided to allow FDI in infrastructure. At the current level of urbanisation itself, urban areas in India are contributing to around 60 per cent of the GDP which is estimated to rise to 75 per cent in another 10 to 15 years and hence urbanisation is seen as a driving force of economic growth.

Stressing the need for bringing in reforms in urban governance, transparency and accountability in the system, he said people must be able to have hassle-free administration, online registration, online sanction of plans and approvals.

He also emphasised on digitisation of land records and property details of the cities. Hyderabad had showed the way in this regard. Because of digitisation of records, the revenue of Hyderabad had increased manifold, he added.

“Urbanisation is a reality and it’s a challenge, but government of India wants to convert this challenge into a great opportunity and improve living standards of the people. The State and the Centre should work as a team,” he said.