Most Indian towns and cities have statutory urban plans in place. Thes plans, elaborately prepared by state or local planning authorities, are meant to direct their growth and to guide infrastructure investments. In an overwhelming majority of cases, however, these plans are neither effective in ensuring planned growth nor in guiding infrastructure investments. As a consequence of this, most Indian towns and cities are growing haphazardly. Their infrastructure systems are severely stressed and they are not being systematically augmented.

Planners give many reasons to explain the ineffectiveness of urban planning in India. They blame, for example, the lack of resources, the lack of strict enforcement or, political interference. But are these reasons valid? This talk will argue that urban planning does not work in India because it is misguided and based on faulty assumptions. It is still mired in the thinking and approach of the License-Permit Raj. For it to work, Indian urban planning needs a paradigm shift. Drawing on insights gained from the liberalization of urban planning in Gujarat during the late 1990s, and on an understanding of why planning works where it does, the talk will propose specific ways in which urban planning needs to change if it is to work.