Restoring the Urban Ecosystem

While India marches ahead to record the world's highest urbanization rate of 60% by 2050, the Government of India is relentlessly trying to commensurate this transition. The ambitious Smart Cities Mission intends to transform 100 cities into smart cities by retrofitting and redeveloping infrastructure to upgrade living conditions with application of technologically smart solutions to manage the basic urban services. The paper studies the extant of inclusion of restoration and conservation of urban ecosystems into the mission and suggests scope of integration of several urban development schemes, their resources, collective expertise, and engagement of various stakeholders to achieve a common goal.