By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, OCT 06, 2017: THE Urban Development Minister, Mr Hardeep Singh Puri, yesterday said that about 50% of India would be residing in urban areas by 2030. He was speaking at an interactive Panel on Building Blocks for a New India, at the India Economic Summit being organized by the World Economic Forum and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at New Delhi.

Mr Puri stated that the Swachh Bharat Mission recognises impending challenges of urbanization and called for mindset change by all stakeholders to help meet the specific targets under the Mission. The bio-mechanisation of waste, mechanical cleaning of drains etc, are some of the initiatives being contemplated by the government under the Mission.

While dwelling on the urban rejuvenation effort of the government through affordable housing, the impact of which would become visible by 2018, he said that there was no other option but to decongest the city. He exhorted the State governments to constructively engage with the Centre to help cities function effectively. He invited the private sector to partner with the government in the building of Smart cities and leverage the huge economic opportunity which it entailed. He also supported the need for an independent regulator in sectors such as real estate to clean up the system.

Mr. Sumant Sinha, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ReNew Power, called for automatic reset of power prices and separating carriage from content for freeing power pricing from government control. He also supported privatization of distribution companies for greater efficiency. The fixation of power tariffs, based on market demand, would lower production costs and make manufacturing competitive. He said that the perception that we have become power surplus is not correct as there is tremendous amount of suppressed demand in the economy.