Sanjeev Sanyal: Invest more in infra, not in city master plans

04 Mar 2021 CW Staff

In the last 50 or 60 years, rigid master plans have been the way to plan India鈥檚 cities. And what has this resulted in? 鈥淭he urban dysfunction,鈥� according to Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Government of India. Delivering the keynote address at the InfraNirbhar webinar, organised by Construction World and Swarajya magazines on March 3 on 鈥楤uilding Smart and Sustainable Urban Infrastructure鈥�, Sanyal added, 鈥淲e have a long tradition of urban design, and much of our philosophical dysfunction comes from a complete misunderstanding of that history.鈥�

In an exclusive interaction during a webinar on Wednesday on smart and sustainable urban infrastructure, Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor to the Government of India, points out why inflexible master plans are a mistaken form of urban design, and why continuously evolving urban systems are key to efficient, effective urban development.

Sanyal鈥檚 virtual conversation with Pratap Padode, Editor-in-Chief, Construction World and Founder,, circled around the shortcomings of a rigid master plan approach towards city development versus an adaptive system. Sanyal explains that some of the surviving Indian cities are better built and managed than some that history recognises as the best-planned but could not survive. Urban management is key, Sanyal reiterates.

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