Urban Infrastructure Development in India

The urban infrastructure consists of drinking water, sanitation, environmental regulation, sewage system, primary health service and electricity. Urban infrastructure development in India will lead to a better lifestyle for people and better health for the population. The local governments are getting empowered to make decisions for the economic and service development of their areas. But they require a public finance framework where the expenditures needed for the urban infrastructure development in India are driven through the urban local government.

In this article, we will learn the definition of urban infrastructure, its features and functions, the urban infrastructure development in India, the infrastructure development schemes in India, and UIDSSMT scheme guidelines and objectives. This article also focuses on the issues related to urban infrastructure development in India and how and when the infrastructure development schemes were introduced in India.

Linkage of urban and rural services

The process of urbanisation could be made better and faster by creating a linkage between urban and rural areas and services. The professional staff organisational capacity, who work and plan for urban infrastructure, apply the significant footprint and take the additional function of outlying rural areas. For example, the rural areas surrounding the urban cities tend to indirectly gain profit and have better financial situations because of the prosperity of the city. They can easily earn through the sale of high-value crops and other goods in the urban areas. This will help in boosting the process of urban infrastructure development in India.

Infrastructure development schemes in India

India has the second-largest urban population in the world, and almost fifty percent of our population lives in urban areas. Keeping these statistics in mind, the condition of our cities is not enough to address such a significant change in urbanisation in our country. As a solution to this problem, many schemes were launched by the government.

• Smart City Scheme: This scheme was launched by targeting a hundred cities in mind and developing their living conditions and infrastructure. The main objective of this scheme is to modernise cities by giving them the core infrastructure and giving a decent quality of life. The focus is mainly on providing a clean and sustainable environment to the citizens with the help of smart solutions. This is an area based project which develops cities by transforming existing areas through redevelopment. Other features of urban infrastructure development are the development of the green regions and the adoption of smart solutions using technology to improve services under the project.

• Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation Project: This project was introduced with the smart city project, and they work together. This scheme aims to transform over 500 cities and provide them with better living conditions. An area-based approach was adopted in the smart city, but in the Atal mission rejuvenation and urban transformation project, a project-based approach is adopted. The centre is providing fifty thousand crores for this program which will go on for five years.

• Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana: In this scheme for the urban infrastructure development in India, the aim is to provide a house for all by the year 2022. Under this scheme, central assistance is provided to the states to build houses and buildings eligible for all sections concentrating mainly on the economically weaker sections of the society.

• Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana: This infrastructure development scheme in India focuses on the revitalisation and redevelopment of the unique character of the heritage cities of India. Around twelve cities with the funding of 500 crores are dedicated under this project for urban infrastructure development in India.

• Swachh Bharat Mission:  This infrastructure development scheme in India focuses mainly on keeping all the urban cities clean. For this hundred percent scientific management of municipal waste needs to be achieved.

UIDSSMT scheme guidelines

UIDSSMT stands for Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns. As per the guidelines, the urban local bodies are needed to prepare a detailed report of the project keeping in mind the priority is the development and the issue of the respective town.

The main objective of this project was to create and enhance the public-private partnership in infrastructure development. The duration of this infrastructure development scheme in India was seven years. The coverage of this scheme was of all cities except the cities under Jawaharlal Nehru’s national renewable mission.

Under the UIDSSMT scheme guidelines, the main components were-

• Urban renewal and redevelopment of the old inner cities. This would include projects like widening the old narrow streets and shifting industries from the inner cities to the outer cities to create better-living conditions.

• Sewage and solid waste management

• UIDSSMT includes water body preservation

• Redevelopment of heritage sites

• Construction and redevelopment of roads, highways etc.

Conclusion 

In this article, we learned what urban infrastructure development in India is, the different infrastructure development schemes in India, and we looked at the UIDSSMT scheme guidelines of the government and how it functions.