Contemporary accounts about metropolitan cities in India alternate on the one hand betweenhigh dreams such as Mumbai as second Shanghai, Bangalore world’s Knowledge City, thenew Detroit in Chennai, IT capital in Hyderabad and the Gateway to the East in Kolkata,and on the other, grim accounts about the crumbling infrastructure, poor connectivity andrising costs of urban land and shelter in these cities. While generalised accounts about India’surbanisation are many, the mega cities of India have not been a frequent subject of study. Forthe first time the CPR, as an independent and leading policy think-tank in the country, hadbeen engaged in a study of these five cities over the past one year.
The workshop on Governance of Megacity Regions was organised in collaboration withthe Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mumbai First and Rockefeller Foundation in Mumbai’s historic Taj Mahal hotel on the 4th and 5th February 2013. With the CPR report onthe Megacity Region providing the befitting background, the conference brought together key government officials and scholars from these five cities, selected Members of Parliament,elected municipal leaders, representatives of business and industry as well as internationallyrenowned experts from other metropolitan cities.
The report titled “Governance of India’s Megacities: Needed Transformation’, is fundedby the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, and aims at identifying themetropolitan level problems faced by five megacity regions (Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai,Bangaluru and Hyderabad) in India. The study has tried to identify the critical issues whichneed to be addressed at the metropolitan or city regional level which will go by defaultotherwise. Its purpose is to suggest an organisational framework for the governance ofthese big city regions underlining the fact that they require the participation of multiplestakeholders like the national and provincial governments, city governments, business andindustry, the expanding numbers of elected political representatives, civil society and others
The details of the workshop can be accessed by clicking HERE.
