India has one of the largest urban populations in the world, consisting of more than 377 million spread across 6,166 metropolises/ urban towns out of a total 7,935 towns in the country according to the 2011 Census. The United Nations estimate that much of the population increase in India between 2015 and 2030 will take place in urban areas which will add around 164 million people to its urban base. An estimated 60 per cent of infrastructure and housing will be built in India in the next 15-20 years, presenting a tremendous challenge but also opportunity to innovate and leapfrog a generation of technologies towards overall low carbon and sustainable/resilient development.

 

The process of urbanization in India – if not well managed, will have grave implications on quality of life, public health, internal migration, economic vitality and on sustainable development. In order to reach the goal of making Indian cities productive and healthy places to live and work in, a continual path towards improving the planning, managing, financing, and governing of cities needs to be followed.

 

In India, UN-Habitat has been expanding support for sustainable urbanization with a focus on accelerating progress on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda to achieve SDGs particularly SDG 11, to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable by refining urban planning and design frameworks, providing infrastructure upgrading policy and technical guidance, implementing pilot projects for learning-by-doing, and mainstreaming innovations through testing technology solutions to transform India’s urban landscape.

​​

Implementation Framework for the Strategy