NEW METROPOLIS

I was just plotting India's top 6 cities in terms of population and business strength. I got 6 - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. List of most populous cities in India

Notice something here? Of the six, 3 are in the south, 2 in the west, 1 in north, 0 in center, 0 in the east and 0 in the northeast.  Lack of major metropolises is significantly hampering growth in a vast chunk of India. Poor growth leads to more separatism - all the major troubles (Naxalism, secession movements) are quite far from these metropolises where poor growth and high unemployment attract new recruits.

Cities are so vital to culture and economy that states fight to bitter ends to have control over the metropolises. Of all the state division in the past 3 decades, only the Telengana issue raise this much emotion. 

The reason is that only this division involved a Metropolis - of Hyderabad. In short, AP and Telengana was fighting primarily for this one city. In other state divisions (such as in Bihar, MP and UP), no major metropolis was involved and things turned out quiet.

We need to build massive metropolises.

In the past century, India built a few new cities from scratch. These were, 

1.     Chandigarh & Mohali

2.     New Delhi

3.     Rourkela

4.     Durgapur

5.     Bhubaneswar

6.     Gandhinagar

7.     Navi mumbai

Out of these, only New Delhi grew up to be a viable metropolis and that is because of its special status as a capital. Others have done well, but need more. A lot more.

200 New Metros Structure

I'm proposing something grander. About 200 new Metropolises built almost completely from scratch. Based on my travels around India and elsewhere, I believe the average size of about 5 million people housed in a 1000 sq. km area provides for an ideal metro. In other words, the new Metros would approximately have the population of Pune in 50% more land, with much more vertical growth and much more open spaces for public recreation. Such a population density (slightly less than that of San Francisco) creates much more vibrant communities and become an epicenter innovation. If we go for too low density, the city loses its life. 

1.     With this we can house 80% of India [1 billion people] in about 6% of the land [200,000 sq. km]. This would allow India to grow without taxing too much on our precious ecological or agricultural resources.

2.     Even the smallest states would get at least one of the new metropolis and the bigger states would get a dozen metropolis or more. This would create a much more well rounded and distributed growth.

3.     Almost every Indian would be close to a major metropolis, allowing them to pursue quality education, get quality healthcare and work in high paying jobs without migrating a lot.

4.     All the cities will have a strong commerce center that would power India's growth. Imagine having 200 Bangalores instead of just 1.

What each city should contain?

Cities would vary a lot based on the geography and the core concentration of industries. However, there must be some basic features:

1.     A major university - the university will both act as the intellectual core as well as the primary vehicle of skill development for all adults.

2.     A network of hospitals - a city is only as healthy as its people.

3.     A metro train system - it is easy to build a metro system when the city is built from a scratch.

4.     Completely walkable & bussable, without need for cars.

5.     A complete water management system with self-sufficient water supply and effective drainage system.

6.     A complete energy management system with solar, bio and nuclear power supplemented by natural gas.

7.     A central transportation hub with a multimodal option - interstate trains, short-haul buses and international flights.

8.     Greenhouses to grow exotic stuff - almost all agricultural land that falls in the city should be well utilized with highly lucrative green houses that will supply the city's fruit and flower needs.

This is how the metro map might look after we built the 200 cities. Almost every Indian will be close to a major metro. This wil rocket up our HDI and GDP.

One in every state, with more on the coast to have a well managed water infrastructure.

Land Acquisition

One of the trickiest thing in such a project could come in land acquisition. For part of the things, we need to strengthen our laws and allow Eminent domain takeovers. For instance, in the US if the state deems a land to be of public use, it can take it over and provide a compensation. That is how so many of the public infrastructure projects were built.But, we can also do it without a lot of force. That would require us to follow some successful examples like this: The Magarpatta model for land acquisition Farmers pooled 400 acres of land to create a new city (Magarpatta) where they owned a part of the equity. That is a great model.

Acquisition model could be based on that. Let's say a farmer has 1 acre of marginal agricultural land [all top notch, fertile agri land should be used for agriculture as I covered above]. He could be given a down payment of say Rs.50000 and 20% share in the resulting development. Once the metropolis grows, that property could be worth in 5 crores or more. The farmer would get at least 1 crore for that 1 acre of property. Once a few farmers become crorepatis (millionaires) it might be that hard to convince the rest. Equity is the fair way to acquire land.

The new image of India will be...

How can the government go about?

1.      Find out the ideal locations. Ideally, it should be sparsely populated with mostly waste lands or very marginally useful agricultural land. A necklace of cities on the coast from Gujarat to Bengal could be explored.

2.     Create the agri-business as step 1. The first business in the city could be agri-businesses - milling rice, warehousing grains, processing fruits, creating ice cream etc from the produce of the rural area surrounding it. 

3.     Build greenhouses. Never waste any good agricultural land and if such a land falls inside the city perimeter make it into a hightech greenhouse. This could make the farmers rich. 

4.     Build the university and education institution. Student don't always hesitate to study in an upcoming city.

5.     Build the power plants. Every city should have its own major power supplies and should be fairly self-sufficient in this. A major power plant could attract a range of industries which will use the uninterrupted power.

6.     Built the transportation hub and warehouse infrastructure. This would connect not just the city, but its whole surrounding with the rest of the world. 

7.     Build the core industries. Government should build 2 core specializations for each city. For instance, a city near Sriharikota could be built on space tech industry. Each city should seek to be world top player in that niche. Pharma, software, diamond polishing, textiles, auto are all various other options for the specilization.

8.     Create a massive skill training program. Gate the city and allow only skilled labor into the new city. For non-skilled labor, get them through a skill development program funded by the government that could be used by the city's factories.

9.     Bring in the offices. Once you have the new industries, university and transportation hub in place, there would be enough business activity for commerce to move. 

10. Enable the culture. Convert all ancient temples and houses in the land acquisition process into heritage spots through well thought out marketing. This way, we will destroy the least while still getting the job done. Make many of the cities as centers of their own regional language movie industries. Usurp any historical heritage in the region and connect that to the city.

Mahey Alam,MBA