Sustainable Renewal in Urban Areas: Looking Beyond the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission

Abstract

Urbanisation is a continuous process of growth by which the cities accommodate the shifting populations. A city must continually address concerns related to housing, employment and the balance of demand and supply of basic infrastructure services. The act of planning for urban growth and transformation is termed Urban Renewal. While urban renewal started after World War 2 in Europe, it was not until the 1980s that issues of sustainability were addressed through urban renewal. Sustainable urban renewal enables a balance of physical, social, economic, and ecological improvements in cities. This paper presents case studies of some exemplary urban renewal projects implemented around the world focussing on physical, social, cultural, economic or ecological development of an area. It traces the evolution of the concept of urban renewal in the Indian context with a focus on the biggest scheme launched by the Indian government under the aegis of JNNURM. It further analyses the performance of JNNURM on the sustainability platform. The paper concludes by proposing that the learnings from JNNURM should be used to devise the next phase of urban renewal programs in India and that all future schemes should be based on sustainable urban regeneration principles. It also proposes that effective implementation of any UR scheme requires the strengthening and empowering of the urban local bodies as well as contextualising the issues while engaging the community in the process of planning and implementation.