Half the population of country to reside in urban settlements by 2051: Dr. Ramachandran

New Delhi, August 8 : Secretary, Urban Development Dr. M. Ramachandran said on Friday that by 2051, half the population of the country would reside in urban settlements and the number of million plus cities would be 75.

He said this while signing the joint statement of cooperation between the Ministry of Urban Development and GTZ in New Delhi today.

Bischoff, the Director, represented the GTZ, Germany.

The Secretary further added, "I am delighted to note that we have reached a significant milestone in Indo-German technical cooperation in the field of Urban Development. The Indian economy, as is well known has enjoyed a high growth rate during the last few years and it is widely believed that this trend is likely to continue for some time to come. Urban India is likely to be the engine of this growth."

He further added that the contribution of urban India to the GDP is likely to be around 75-80 per cent. It is thus essential for cities to be able to support this kind of growth. The effort required to achieve this cannot be overestimated.

A wide gamut of significant areas will be covered under the bilateral ties. These include sustainable urban management, strengthening of municipal institutions, green buildings, energy efficient measures, capacity building and training, urban sanitation issues, financial sustainability, private sector participation, good governance, city to city cooperation, exposure to best western practices in Germany and Europe through training and capacity building programmes and technical support for implementation of infrastructure development of satellite towns, counter magnets of million plus cities.

ANI