India’s megacities—Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Pune—are all suffocating under the weight of their own success. Poor infrastructure, unplanned development, inadequate roads, crumbling public transport, massive traffic congestion, high pollution levels and rampant corruption have left urban residents frustrated and disillusioned. The systemic failure of civic governance has eroded public trust, exposing the lack of accountability and transparency among elected representatives and government officials.
Recognising the potential crisis, the government launched the ‘Smart Cities Mission’, in 2015, promising 100 smart cities to modernise urban India. However, this initiative has largely remained a repackaging of existing infrastructure with costly new projects that failed to address the real needs of people. In cities like Pune, ill-planned projects, like the bus rapid transit system (BRTS) and dismantling of newly-built flyovers, have only worsened congestion and public frustration.
A Case for New Metros
Is there a viable solution to this urban chaos? RC Sinha, perhaps the only Indian with an unbeatable track-record of delivering viable, world-class infrastructure to India, believes that the only way forward is to build entirely new metro cities with state-of-the-art infrastructure, liveable spaces and sustainable urban planning. He argues that adding further pressure to the existing six metros will be disastrous for public health and economic productivity.
In a letter to Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal on 28th January, Mr Sinha outlined his vision: a new metro city built from scratch, structured as a company, financed through equity and free from government funding. The state and Central governments would only need to facilitate land allocation, infrastructure and connectivity. Given the vast sums already spent—and often wasted—on urban infrastructure, his proposal deserves serious consideration.
As a benchmark, Mumbai spans 600sqkm (square kilometres), while Navi Mumbai covers 370sqkmr. Mr Sinha proposes identifying and allocating at least 1,000sqkm for a new city, ensuring ample space for future urbanisation.
A Megacity near Jhansi
In fact, he has identified a big chunk of barren, uncultivable land with barely any trees near Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh that is already available and is an ideal location for a planned new metropolis with minimal ecological impact. His proposal envisions:
- A non-government organisation, structured as a private company with equity financing and private participation.
- Government allocation of land on a 99-year lease with a 10-year deferred payment facility.
- Railway and Expressway connectivity to integrate the city with national transport networks to be committed by the respective Union ministries with construction on a build–own-transfer (BOT) model.
- Commitment from the government to permit lifting of 1,500mn (million) litres of water from a nearby perennial river, with recycling systems for reducing non-potable water consumption over time.
- A governance model that empowers a standing committee of experts to frame development regulations and prevent misuse.
Mr Sinha is confident that a city designed on these principles can become self-sustaining within five years.
Man behind the Vision
Mr Sinha’s credibility in infrastructure building is unparalleled. He spearheaded the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in the 1990s, completing it in record time at half the cost that was originally bid by Reliance Industries. This single project transformed Pune’s economy, spurred tourism in Lonavala and Khandala and established Pune as a major education and IT hub and triggered a massive realty boom. He also transformed infrastructure in Hyderabad under chief minister (CM) N Chandrababu Naidu.
CIDCO, which was conceived by three legendary planners—Charles Correa, Shirish Patel and Pravina Mehta—in the 1970s, is considered one of the world's largest planned cities and will continue to expand and evolve with the commissioning of a second airport this year.
The sticky point about Mr Sinha’s brilliant idea will perhaps be its structure as a non-profit entity with private participation. But this is no longer a unique concept in India. The National Payments Corporation of India and the GST Network (GSTN) are both incorporated as non-profit companies with private investment and not as statutory bodies. The time may be right for experimenting with this model for building a megacity too.
Global Experience with Megacities
Several countries have experimented with building mega cities in the past 40 years, but only few have succeeded. Mr Sinha himself met his Waterloo, at the hands of political machinations. The ambitious multi-modal international cargo hub and airport (MIHAN) was scuttled by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has also failed to revive it in the past decade. (Read:
Kick-starting Infrastructure)
Global successes with building mega cities include Shenzen, a small fishing village in China that was made a special economic zone (SEZ) and has transformed into a bustling metropolis with over 17mn people, by 2020. Today, it is a global hub of technology, manufacturing and urban development. On the other hand India took the SEZ idea and allowed it to become a land-grab scheme of politicians and industrialists which had to be abandoned after public anger and protests., Even in China, an eco-city planned in Dongtan (near Shanghai) was abandoned, due to multiple reasons including lack of political support.
Malaysia developed Putrajaya into a new administrative capital in the mid-1990s, when Kuala Lumpur became very congested. It boasts beautiful green spaces, planned infrastructure and serves as the administrative centre of the government. At the same time, Malaysia also failed to make a success out of Forest City, planned as a futuristic smart city near Johor Bahru and it remains largely unoccupied.
A third success is Sejong City of South Korea which was built to decongest Seoul in early 2000. By 2012, it became the administrative capital and has continued to grow. Nusantara Capital City was planned as the future capital of Indonesia, away from Jakarta which is overpopulated and sinking; but the project has been mired in controversies. India, too, had planned Navi Mumbai as a way of decongesting Mumbai; but the plan was abandoned because our bureaucrats and politicians simply refused to budge and were too focused on profiting from the soaring realty prices in Mumbai.
This brings to mind the stellar work that was done at Pimpri-Chinchwad, one of India’s richest municipal corporations, which was chosen for model development after the Earth Summit and the Rio Declaration of 1992. Instead of building on it, most of the work done then has simply vanished. It raises serious questions about whether we have the political will to convert a good idea into reality.
India’s Path to ‘Viksit Bharat’
India’s ambition of becoming a US$5trn (trillion) economy cannot be realised without addressing the quality of urban life. Urbanisation is inevitable and a long-term plan for new metro cities is critical, despite the many challenges and failures.
Mr Sinha’s vision aligns with this need, offering a structured, financially viable and sustainable approach. If leaders, like Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, embrace this blueprint, it could trigger a new wave of economic development, transforming not just Jhansi but the entire country. The question is: Will India seize this opportunity to redefine its urban future?
BJP ruled states failed to attract IT and high-tech companies. Maharashtra's tech growth was mostly under the 'other' party. Gujarat attracted some, mainly with the backing of Union government.
omestic helps, Drivers, Massagers and other service providers for the rich.
BUT, today, everything in India has to be partnered with the "right" people.
Today Mr Sinha would not be able to sideline Reliance which has a stranglehold on BJP/Modi government.
Either Ambani or Adani will have to get their "malai" before the project can move forward.
t was ambitious but badly planned and lost steam after Naidul lost the elections.