Urban Development: Growth Prospects and Gainers

We are living in the age wherein the development of cities are being taken at the reckless speed no matter what comes we are bound to grow at least to show that our infrastructure in up to the mark. Who benefits? rather we need to take care how to make maximum out of present development policy of the state and central governments. The urban development bodies of state are in hurry to complete the detailed design without waiting for the citizens to have a look that what is being done for the city. The city leaders are made to sign on the dotted line since the states do not have times to look at what they concerned about. The constitution of India however may have empowered the local bodies to take developmental decisions but its central and state governments calling the shots!! This allows only the local body implement the schemes as per the wishes of the state. The local bodies are not been made capable to decide what is right for them inspite of lots of dissatisfactions from the citizens the state is hell bent on projecting cities as their own political mask for development.

The local businesses or the developers or contractors are seldom benefited from this kind of the activities. Since the grand scale of the project does not allow them to goahead in their economic plans. The multi nationals or the large corporate bodies are running the show whether its development of mumbai, delhi or kanpur. Not only that they have guts to now bid for the minscule projects on the medium and smallers cities for the projects scaled upto crores of rupees.

How does this help the local industries to revive or survive in the present economic slowdown? When we have last heard of environmental ministry hearing for these large scale projects. Rather it was never felt that these require any clearances. Like land acquisition policy we have now development policy which have been enforced to the local bodies no matter what concerns they have its state or central bodies who decides what can roll on these urban lands. Its matter of grave concern that urban planners being party to the development efforts which is reckless and devastating for the cities where in the concerns of the citizens are not taken care by the urban development policies.

What you can do with GIS and Remote Sensing

I am here to share my knowledge about the GIS/RS field in general though there are plenty of information on net I think professionals are required as under

(a) Data Creators-Digitizers – level of diploma/degree holders who can operate software and create digital information.

(b) Supervisor-Digitization- who can organise, georeference and meet the data standards

(c) QC- Spatial Data- required to check the data accuracy, standards and clients requirements.

(d) GIS Analyst- Required to assess, evaluate, propose, program, manage and implements the GIS project.

(e) RS Analyst- Require to procure, interpretate, analyse imageries for the vector data creation, map generation

(f) Subject-Domain Expert- who understands the basics of sector like water resources, forestry, urban planning, infrastructure, disaster, health management, logestics etc has training in GIS or RS in some cases if helpful in project implementation.

(f) Programmers- industry requires programmers with C/C++, Java, C#, .NET or Linux platforms to implements various customized or complex GIS projects. There can be different levels of programmers depending on the tasks and team size required.

(g) Managers- Both at the technical or business development level is required to interface with the clients and service providers – persons with technical as well as managerial skills can come to this field.

(h) Sr. Management -COO, CTO, GMs with technical background, project management skills, implementation and execution experience can handle the tasks at any level.

However these are the placements in the fields whereas there are some companies who have made the recruitments strictly for the ME, Mtech, or other MCA or BCA have not fully understood the technology. The segments requires multi disciplinary team. Any one with proper training can be placed in mentioned positions with appropriate project planning and execution.

I hope students have understood what I mean to say. Guys there are opportunities we need to seek it. Pray you remain in India. we need solutions too !!

Urban Infrastructure: A quick Look

With almost 300 million Indians living in urban areas, the country has the second largest urban population in the world. It comprises about 30 per cent of the total population and contributes to over 60 per cent of the country’s GDP. Essential infrastructure facilities need to be provided to this growing urban population.

• The country has over 3,700 towns and cities. The urban population of the country has been growing at a rapid pace of over 31 per cent over the last decade. This is significantly higher than the growth of the rural population (approximately 18 per cent).

• Employment in urban areas registered a growth of around 38 per cent (over the last decade), substantially exceeding the rural employment growth rate of around 16 per cent.

• A large number of Indian cities and towns need adequate infrastructure facilities, specifically in the areas of water management, roads, transportation, housing, sanitation, sewage etc.

• The government has initiated a number of steps to improve the physical and economic infrastructure and improve facilities in urban areas. In addition to the basic infrastructure projects, a number of urban transportation projects have also been taken forward, e.g. metro rails.

Policy Initiatives

• In India, urban infrastructure facilities are typically provided by urban local bodies that depend significantly on central and state government grants and loans for funds. However, now the urban local bodies have also been allowed to borrow and raise funds from the market for urban infrastructure projects. Most of the state governments have set up facilitating agencies to channel funds into urban infrastructure projects.

• The central government and most state governments have begun looking at different models (BOT/ Concessions/Management Contracts) for private participation in developing, operating and maintaining urban infrastructure facilities.

• The government allows 100 per cent FDI in urban infrastructure projects.

• Non Resident Indians, persons of Indian origin and overseas corporate bodies (OCBs) are allowed to invest up to 100 per cent on a repatriable basis in many housing and real estate projects.

• 100 per cent FDI is permitted for the development of integrated townships, including housing, commercial buildings, hotels, resorts, etc. Prior government approval is required for investment in such projects.

• A 10-year tax holiday is available to investors investing in urban infrastructure projects. This is available to developers, and those carrying out operations and maintenance of water supply, sewerage, sanitation, etc.

Opportunities

The India Infrastructure Report in 1996 estimated that an annual investment of US$ 5.71 billion is required for providing water supply and sanitation facilities for the urban population. However, over the last five years, the government has been able to allocate only about US$ 3.6 billion for such projects. This gives an idea about the quantum of investment requirements and hence the opportunities in this sector alone.

• The government has planned major schemes like:

• Integrated development of small and medium towns

• Mega city schemes

• Special development plan for the National Capital Region

• Accelerated urban water supply programme

• Low cost sanitation

• Urban transport

• Investment opportunities exist in water supply, sewerage and waste management systems in many towns and cities.

• Construction opportunities exist in roads, bridges, flyovers etc in cities, both in Government sponsored projects as well as Build Own Operate (BOO) and Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) basis projects.

• A number of cities are planning mass rapid transportation systems and light rail systems. These projects are mostly through private participation.

• Housing is another major investment area with significant potential.

http://urbanindia.nic.in

Workshop Sponsors

The workshop on the Urban Infrastructure Assessment Management has been organised on the
24-30th July 2009 and Second workshop on Fundamental Techniques of GIS and Remote Sensing on 7th-13th August 2009. We invite the sponsors to send their participants application in advance for pre-registration. We would have special rates for the sponsors willing to send more than two participants.

For the students who have been requesting to participate. please forward a letter from your institutions so get upto 50% discount on single day attendence. The students would be allowed only for 3 day sessions of their choice on per day basis.

So then hurry up guys...