India’s Next Frontier: Building New Cities Right

T.K. Arun

Fast-growing countries urbanise, and the share of urban population rises. Since India has not had a Census since 2011, the size of the current urban population is an estimate. The World Bank puts it at 37%, below the world average of 58% and China’s level of 66%. Towns are where the bulk of economic activity, particularly in the modern, evolving sectors, takes place. If India is to grow, so must its total urban space.

In 2023, the government gave up a scheme to build eight new greenfield cities. Now, it offers states some special borrowing accommodation, whether for expansion or densification of existing towns or building new towns. There is no reason why greenfield and brownfield urban expansion should be mutually exclusive.

Some economists and town planners oppose the idea of artificial cities, and seek to focus on organic growth. Of course, there is a case for organic growth where it is economically feasible, especially by redevelopment of already built areas that can house larger populations. But to rule out building new towns from scratch is to forgo the ease of incorporating modern concepts and ingredients of an efficient town in a new venture and ignore evidence of dysfunction in overcrowded old cities and flourishing of brand new towns in China and other parts of East Asia.

It used to be fashionable to scoff at China’s ‘ghost towns’, even ten years ago. China built towns in advance of urgent demand for occupancy, and these vacant structures served as butts of jokes. But over the years, they have been filling up, bustling with industries working at the frontiers of technology and finance, while India’s Silicon Valley crawls in gridlock, blood pressure rising over aborted meetings and wasted hours stuck in traffic.

In 2017, China started a new city 100 km to the Southwest of Beijing: Xiong’an New Area, and it should come as no surprise if it rivals Pudong New Area, the financial hub in Shanghai. Zhengdong New Area (Zhengzhou, Henan Province), built from scratch from a masterplan finalized in 2001, has grown to over 1,400 sq km, almost the size of Delhi, and houses advanced manufacturing in IT, biomedicine and the like.

India’s experiment with new towns has not produced spectacular successes like Shenzhen or Zhengdong. New Raipur struggles to do as well as even relatively sedentary Gandhi Nagar. Indore’s new extensions are a remarkable success, however. Navi Mumbai is poised to create its own vibrant identity, now that the airport has become functional. Noida and Greater Noida will become buzzing urban centres, rather than adjuncts to Delhi, once the Jewar airport gets going.

Modern business is global. Modern business hubs need to be globally connected. That means an airport with predictable flights within easy reach of any new town, and rail links to other cities, preferably high-speed ones.

Another desirable feature of a new city would be a new university, with a focus on research, rather than skilling. Skills are transient and students who spend time in education learning skills waste their potential. Their time at places of education — school, college or university — should be spent on developing and expanding the mind, so that India’s young can contribute to creating new knowledge and would be prepared to learn any new skill that comes in vogue, before it turns redundant and yields space to a new skill.

The challenge is to locate new towns in places that are resilient in the face of climate havoc, have access to water, are in the reasonable proximity of highways and rail routes, and have zoned, planned space to expand, and can house an airport with at least a couple of runways. When new cities are designed from scratch, Metro rail can be built underground first, along with sewer networks, and tunnels for pipes to carry electricity cables, optical fibre and water. Ideally, cooking should use electricity as fuel, rather than gas.

India needs to upgrade the urban planning syllabus, still based on old, car-dependent American ideas of segregated work, residential and recreation areas. Energy efficiency comes from planning for mixed land use to avoid lengthy commutes, city design that focuses on mobility rather than roads and parking, incorporating public transport, planned last (or first) mile connectivity, cycle lanes, and pedestrian pathways, rather than merely deploying electric vehicles or complying with LEED or GRIHA norms for buildings.

Building plans must be vetted not just for stand-alone efficiency but for locational optimality to prevent the build-up of heat islands. Public areas for assembly, and recreational as well as organized sports, must be incorporated.

Every drop of water should be recycled, solid waste sorted for recycling and bio-digestion. What remains must be filtered for noxious substances and the rest incinerated with carbon capture.

Urban governance must be instituted with accountability, for both officials and citizens. Civic education must be backed up with ease of compliance: garbage bins, efficient collection, repair. Ghettos and slums should be eliminated by design. States should determine the minimum share of property value to be collected by towns as tax.

Except in remote areas, city grids should be connected to the state power grid, with appropriate islanding and back-up generation using natural gas with carbon capture or hydrogen.

The key is detailed planning and zoning at the state level, realistic project reports and costing, and political consensus, so that elections and a change of guard do not stall projects, as happened with Amaravati.

T.K. Arun, ex-Economic Times editor, is a columnist known for incisive analysis of economic and policy matters.

The article was first published in The Economic Times and under The Sanjaya Report as How to build desperately needed new cities in India on 10th December, 2025.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.