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The Chinese way to develop a city
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Last week, Kozhikode Mayor M. Bhaskaran was in China to participate in an international seminar on ‘city development with focus on public-private participation.’ He shares his experience with Biju Govind.
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– Photo: Special arrangement
Lessons from China: Kozhikode Mayor M. Bhaskaran (fourth from left, second row) during his visit to China.
In the years to come if one is to believe the thesis of economists of Goldman Sachs Investment Bank, neighbours India and China will be the most influential markets among the BRIC nations. (BRIC usually referred to as Brazil, Russia, India and China these days by economists will become the four dominant economies in the world by 2050.)
However, some strategists like to call it “Chindia” – a combination to stress that China and India will be the most powerful economies outside the G6 in 2015.
Unlike groups of nations cooperating with each other, all the BRIC nations are growing individually. Now cooperation among these nations has also gathered momentum.
Recently Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on a visit to China to boost bilateral relationships between India and China.
Many economic analysts say that in some ways China is ahead of India. Several years ago, The Economist of London came out with a cover story on China enjoying an edge over India. It had a catchy title “India V China: A Tiger, falling behind a Dragon.” But nowadays people comment “The Tiger should learn from the Dragon.”
Last week, Kozhikode Mayor M. Bhaskaran was in China to participate in an international seminar on “city development with focus on public-private participation.”
Apart from visiting the Chinese capital, Mr. Bhaskaran also visited several other cities during his stay in China. “I think we can take a leaf out of China in developing our cities,” he said sharing his experiences with The Hindu-PropertyPlus about the eight-day trip.
Chinese experiment
China has proved that private-public participation is a must for development in any sphere of activity, particularly manufacturing, service and infrastructure and housing sectors.
Many projects were completed in a time-bound manner with the active support of the private sector. Agencies enthusiastically participate by providing funds to Build-Operate and Transfer projects. The Chinese have more political willpower.
Mr. Bhaskasran said that urbanisation had not displaced anybody in that country. The Government took measures to rehabilitate any displaced citizens. It constructed apartments for 27,000 farmers when a new industrial park was set up in their region. They were provided with employment at the farms and parks in the vicinity, he said.
Chinese cities were also focussing on satellite townships. This was to ensure that the rural population who migrated to urban areas for jobs could easily take to city life.
Most of the cities had managed to set up incinerators for solid waste management. However, the authorities had also taken care to minimise carbon emission, Mr. Bhaskaran said.
KSUDP initiative
Kozhikode city, just as many two-tier cities in China, is on the threshold of expansion. Major development initiatives depend on the multi-crore Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP). The work on some of the projects will begin in January. Technical bids for two components – urban road transport and solid waste management – were opened this month. The financial bids will begin in December.
The KSUDP projects – funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) – operates on several guidelines of the international financial agency. The work will be completed within 18 months. Funds to the tune of Rs.127.06 crore will be provided for four components. Apart from that, Kozhikode city will get a share of the Rs.101 crore allotted for five municipal Corporations in the State for slum improvement.
Private participation
Development of the city and its suburbs can be attributed to the private players in the construction sector. Apartments, commercial establishments, shopping complexes can be seen in most of the junctions. The housing sector also witnessed a similar boom as in Kochi. It is still growing thanks to the flow of remittance from Non-Resident Indians.
The increase in number of flats and villas in the last few years has also brought in new problems. Some of them are irregular supply and poor quality of drinking water, lack of citywide sewerage and storm water drainage systems, inadequate solid waste treatment plant, and inadequate power supply and traffic congestions.
Corporation officials said that the loans from the ADB would enable better municipal governance and urban infrastructure. A study revealed that 52 .27 per cent of the 84 square kilometres of the city had been s utilised for housing. The commercial areas constituted 1.45 per cent, industrial area 4.50 per cent, public and semi-public area 16.95 per cent, water course 13.26 per cent and parks and open spaces, 8.60 per cent.
Only 42 per cent of all households live in individual houses. A huge population lives in rented houses. Population of joint families is also yet to be estimated. As per a census, the housing requirement in 2001 was 64,000 in Kozhikode city. This increased at least by 25 per cent in the last few years, officials said.
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