Sanjeev Sanyal, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, has called for a significant overhaul of urban planning in India. Speaking at the Global Economic Policy Forum 2024, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Sanyal emphasized the need for a bottom-up approach to town planning rather than the prevailing top-down model. He stressed that urban design should prioritize creating dense, economically viable, and aesthetically pleasing cities that cater to the lifestyle of residents.
Sanyal pointed out that many of India’s current urban spaces are inefficient and not aligned with modern needs. Citing Chandigarh as an example, he criticized its sprawling layout, calling it an economically unviable city. “Chandigarh occupies a huge amount of land to house a very small number of people. It’s a subsidy scheme for bureaucrats. It’s not a city,” he stated. Sanyal argued that recreating such cities would not be a wise approach for the future of urban India. Instead, he advocates for densifying cities to make better use of available land. “Densify cities and use the land efficiently as it’s actually cheaper to run these denser cities. You need fewer kilometers of metro lines and other infrastructure when you go vertical,” Sanyal explained. He believes that building denser cities would not only be more sustainable but would also make them more economically viable, avoiding the unnecessary spread into farmland and forest land.
One of Sanyal’s key points was that urbanism often fails when cities expand under the guise of decongesting. He noted that this “sprawl” leads to unsustainable cities that aren’t dense enough to function effectively. To illustrate this, he compared the density of Mumbai to that of global cities like Singapore and Hong Kong, pointing out that Mumbai is less dense, highlighting a missed opportunity in urban design. Sanyal also spoke about the need for urban spaces that cater to the Indian way of life, suggesting that gated residential colonies and open commercial spaces should be integrated in a way that reflects local aesthetics. “We are wasting too much real estate creating walls between our commercial spaces,” he said, advocating for more fluid and accessible urban environments. In summary, Sanyal’s vision calls for a radical shift in how Indian cities are designed and built—focused on density, sustainability, and functionality, with a long-term view of making urban spaces not just livable, but also economically thriving.
