Eco-City or Environmentally Sustainable Villages

Abstract

Urban population in India stands at 31.16 \% as per the 2011 census. Today India has the world's second largest urban population after China. The urban population is expected to grow by another 400 million by 2050 (United Nations 2014). This would manifest majorly in two ways: organic growth of megacities and emergence of new urban areas. These megacities demand huge infrastructural investment on basic services. On the contrary the new growth centers emerge due to various economic, political, and institutional incentives. Infrastructure development around these new growth centers remains largely neglected to a point in time where proper planning is very difficult. This paper tries to highlight the initiative of the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) to address the issue of disorganized development in potential growth centers and preset the vision, process, outcomes, and limitations of the initiative over the last 5 years. The ``sustainable village{''} initiative by the GoM focused on the development of a comprehensive ``environmental development plan{''} based on predetermined parameters. The selected villages were categorized as nodal villages or potential urban centers with population ranging from 5000 to 35,000 (GoM, GR Dated 24 August 2011, Preparation of EDP for villages with population greater than 5000 people. Rural Development and Watershed Management Department, Mumbai, 2011) per village. The primary objective of the project was to address development-related issues at microlevel, at the stage when it is still manageable (terms of reference for preparation of environmental development plan. Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Mumbai, 2011).