Eminent economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia on Tuesday said Maharashtra had the potential to become a premier urban state and a role model for others provided the state government and urban local bodies expedited the implementation of urban sector reforms.
Ahluwalia, who led a committee on urban infrastructure that presented its report to the Centre in March, was invited by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan here to discuss state-specific issues and their solutions based on the report.
During an hour-long presentation, Ahluwalia, who is the chairperson of the board of governors of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, warned that the state faced the challenge of a large number of slum-dwellers and an abysmal delivery of public services. She said not all who live in slums were poor but the challenge was of low-income housing.
She said the current state of the delivery system of public services was low compared to what was needed to realise the economic potential of urban areas. According to her, the challenge is not only to create urban infrastructure but also its maintenance, which would be possible with proper coordination between the state government and urban local bodies.
On the contentious issue of migration, Ahluwalia said it had played a minor role in urbanisation but would change. “Many cities will experience peripheral expansion, with smaller municipalities and large villages surrounding the core city becoming part of the metropolitan area (Pune and Nashik). Maharashtra will have to create employment opportunities in industry and services sectors by improving investment climate in cities other than Mumbai and Pune,” she said.
According to Ahluwalia, a synergy between the rural and urban sectors would have to be created by encouraging agro-based industries. Besides, cities and towns would have to be developed to provide agglomeration economies for innovation, especially knowledge-based industries, she added. Ahluwalia asked the state government to develop more cities as engines of growth by providing economies of agglomeration.
She praised the state government for some of its initiatives like uninterrupted water supply in Nagpur, a sanitary landfill at Gorai on Mumbai’s suburbs, a bus rapid transport system in Pimpri-Chinchwad and e-governance in Greater Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivli.