DeveloPIng SuSTAInAble AnD IncluSIve urbAn InfrASTrucTure ServIceS: A guIDebooK for ProjecT ImPlemenTerS AnD PolIcy mAKerS In InDIA

Development planning is a tool for improving a city's living conditions and infrastructure services. Development planning combines: (1) broad, on-the-ground analysis of various sectors, including land markets; (2) a long-term vision for the city; (3) near-term project prioritizing; and (4) management and financial capacity evaluation. Both the short-term projects and the long-term vision should be based on the underlying local economic conditions. To help accomplish this, metropolitan planning committees in large cities can consolidate cross-cutting urban issues that affect multiple jurisdictions. Capital investment plans (CIPs) are used to guide financial planning for cities to achieve their development objectives over time. Strengths. Development planning provides long-term and realistic direction, while avoiding inequitable, unsustainable, and fragmented development. It is more flexible and easier to prepare than master plans; can help manage urban growth, given limited resources; and can be used iteratively by decision makers. Weaknesses. Development planning lacks statutory enforcement without amending and harmonizing the Town and Country Planning Act and the Model Municipal Acts. It is not well integrated into India's planning schools, and it has yet to be broadly replicated. 1. A city's spatial pattern tends to follow its infrastructure development. Where infrastructure is constructed, increased development activity follows. Infrastructure quality and type determine a city's compactness or sprawl, the growth potential for new economic opportunities, and the populations who will be served or excluded from services and access to jobs. 2. Cities grow in path-dependent forms that change significantly only when major investment in redevelopment occurs. Major changes, for example, city-wide infrastructure expansion, require long-term, well-coordinated efforts among planning, finance, policy, and regulation. 3. Urban development planning should address growth and project implementation by incentivizing positive outcomes rather than by using restrictive regulations. Development planning is not primarily focused on spatial and land use issues. Instead, it focuses on growth and project implementation by enhancing financial feasibility, improving institutional capacity, and building consensus of diverse stakeholders. 4. Participatory planning integrates the concerns of diverse stakeholders from government institutions, the private sector, and civil society, particularly the institutions responsible for operating and maintaining infrastructure. This participatory approach produces projects that have the best chance for success in implementation (financially, technically, and socially). Moreover, it creates the opportunity for consensus among divergent and competing urban agencies, such as municipal corporations, development authorities, and sewer and water authorities. 5. Technical analysis related to planning infrastructure has to be based on real, on-the-ground …