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VISION 2020 -- Rurbanisation: Removing the roadblocks

The rurban habitat is visualised as coming up on either side of a ring road that links a number of villages and consolidates their markets. When fast and frequent transport services are run on the ring road, the group of villages is transformed into a vi rtual town. This will empower the loop of villages to support a variety of services that were earlier viable only in cities, says P. V. Indiresan.

IN THIS series of articles, a scheme of `rurbanisation', providing urban amenities in rural areas, has been advocated repeatedly. There are indications that this persistence has started to make an impact.

In recent weeks, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam has been promoting this concept. He is working towards implementing the idea near Kanchipuram under the patronage of Swami Jayendra Saraswati of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. Mr. R. Kumaramangalam, Union Minister f or Power, has persuaded the Tamil Nadu Government to prepare a feasibility study for the environs of Trichy. And the idea has also been included in the strategy for the development of Uttaranchal. Apparently, the ice has been broken, but hurdles still re main.

The rurban habitat lies on either side of a ring road, which links a number of villages and consolidates their markets. So, when fast and frequent transport services are run along the ring road, the group of villages gets transformed immediately into a v irtual town. The ring road, together with a good transport system, will empower the loop of villages to support a variety of services that were earlier viable only in cities.

The first step then is to identify a location where a ring road with a circumference of 30-40 km can be constructed, and 500 metres to 1 km of land on either side secured for the development of a modern habitat. Leasing that land is the real hurdle.

To overcome this problem, it is proposed that farmers be given, not lump-sum compensation, but an attractive annuity in perpetuity equal to, say, twice the current price of the grain they grow. In that case, the farmers retain legal ownership of their la nds, but let project authorities use that space more profitably. At the same time, it is important to create an alternative occupation for all lessors of the land. For that purpose, they may be given a shop to run. Farmers generally welcome these ideas.

This procedure also benefits developers. They do not have to find large chunks of capital upfront, but pay rents as they earn. Typically, the charge on the developers will be Rs. 5 per sq m per year, which is a fraction of what land costs in cities. At t he same time, farmers will get Rs. 50,000 per year per hectare plus the profits from the shop they own. Both together will provide an income several times what they make at present. This win-win approach is likely to avoid suspicion, litigation and agita tion by motivated objectors.

The construction of the ring road is the next step. Roads usually shape development for years to come. In the future, the ring road can become the lifeline for people. So, roads should be planned with foresight, with enough space to handle large populati ons in the future. Or else, future generations will suffer the way we are suffering from congestion on narrow roads in our cities.

At the start, the cost of the ring road may be pared down to Rs. 50 lakhs per km. However, the project will get to a flying start if the road is built to highway standards, though the cost will be three-four times more. As these are urban roads, and, the refore, a permanent asset, banks will be ready to grant commercial loans to meet most of their cost. The road may be built on a BOT basis too. All this is for the State authorities to decide. Getting them to decide promptly and put the road into operatio n quickly is the next hurdle.

The ring road is of little use without a dependable transport service. In our country, investment on local transport is either scanty or grandiose -- as in the case of the Calcutta Metro. Fortunately, in the rurban plan, most employees will resid e within walking distance from their place of work. That will cut down substantially the load on local transport.

An investment of one bus per thousand employees (at current prices, no more than Rs. 200-300 per year per employee) should be ample. As governments and local bodies have not been up to the task, it is best to get employers make this investment co-operati vely, in whatever manner that may be. Putting local transport into operation is the next hurdle.

Once resources are assured for the ring road and the transport service, the emphasis will shift to social services. Planned satellite towns like Hosur and Maraimalainagar took decades to take off only because they made insufficient provision for reputed educators and doctors to build schools and hospitals. That delays growth and piles up interest. That is why most satellite towns have failed. New habitats need such specialists right from the beginning; specialists have no such urgency to move out of cit ies.

Enticing these experts is the fourth hurdle.

In this connection, land is the only asset the rurban area has. So, the best it can do is to give away land free (or almost free) both for building schools and hospitals and for housing their staff. About 5 per cent of the total space should be adequate for the purpose. So, with no more than a five per cent load on land development costs, experts may be attracted and yet another critical hurdle may be overcome.

All these steps are preliminary. The actual exercise of getting entrepreneurs to invest is the ultimate hurdle. That will require astute marketing. For an investor, rurban settlements offer three major advantages. One, a readymade and still a virtually u nexploited market. Two, cheap land that also permits low-cost construction. Typically, construction costs amount to 40 per cent of project costs. At least half of that can be saved.

The third benefit accrues from the peculiarity of the ring-shaped town plan. That halves all infrastructural lengths, roads, power, water and telecommunication lines and drains. That, too, offers substantial cost savings.

Municipal services suffer from the `last mile' problem that makes handling and delivering the services at the doorstep complex and expensive. The State is too centralised to handle the problem effectively. So, it is best to get local service providers ma nage the supply. It is in the self-interest of employers to support such a reform.

To empower them to do so, they may be allocated space not only for business but also for the dwellings of their employees. The residential zone may be parcelled into relatively large blocks covering a hectare or more. This would be large enough to intere st private local service providers in the commercial supply of such services as water and waste disposal.

According to the Economist (August 5-11, 2000), micro-power generation is the technology of the future. So, power generation up to, say, 100-300 KW, may be delicensed. Employers could then ensure for their employees water, waste disposal, energy and tel ecom services from local service providers. Competition among service providers is not the least of the advantages of this arrangement. Incidentally, the residences of employees would now be located close to the place of work. That would reduce the time and effort of commuting daily to work -- the greatest bane of cities.

Employers will be advised to earmark around 5 per cent of the space they develop for employees for schools and hospitals. That is a relatively small burden, but the returns will be immense -- they may attract good teachers and doctors, that is a pr e-requisite for rapid growth. By these means, employers can acquire better control over their own destiny. In brief, this policy will decentralise seven of the eight basic municipal services (water, space, waste disposal, energy, telec ommunications, education and health delivery). Public transport will be the sole exception.

The least of these five hurdles is convincing the farmers to lease land. The most uncertain one is to get businessmen to cooperate. By all accounts, State officials are willing to suspend their scepticism and experiment. It will be best for the State to let this scheme flower the way the software industry has, or in the manner cable TV has proliferated. This requires very little interference from the State and full freedom for the private initiative.

The IITs are a good model to emulate. Though they are government institutions, there is no politician or government official in any part of their management. The government appoints the Chairman of the Board, Director of the Institute and pulls the purse strings. For 50 years, that model has proved its worth. It has enabled the government to keep IITs on an even keel, to empower them to become an enviable international brand. In the same way, autonomous boards can empower local people to make rurbanisat ion an international model for habitat development.

That is the dream. As the poet Robert Frost said:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep;

But I have promises to keep;

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

(The author is former director,

IIT Madras.)

This is the 25th article in the Vision 2020 series. The previous one was published on July 31.