Challenges Faced by Indian Cities

In the presentations we heard this morning, it was clear that the number one challenge faced by Indian city managers is infrastructure: water, sewer, refuse and transportation. Too many people, not enough infrastructure. Financing for infrastructure largely comes from their property tax base. The amount and structure for collecting funds isn't sufficient to cover costs and then there is the matter of so many people living on property that generates no property tax since there are no taxable structures on the property.

The national government is only now beginning to give money to cities for infrastructure.

Another major challenge for cities is that they are not responsible for land use decisions. These are made by the state government. Police and fire also provided by other levels of government.

It was clear hearing from the city managers that political pressure is huge for change since the impact of these issues is crushing these communities. There is talk of having strong Mayor form of government replace city managers. All of these are old cities (Ahmedabad was founded in 1411) and have survived a long time. The rush of change here and the explosive growth of cities has severely chalenged the ability of cities to provide municipal services here. We will hear more about all of this tomorrow.