Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Urban Infrastructure Lessons from Railways

    Most cities in the country are witnessing high growth in population, vehicular density, energy consumption, sanitation, waste management and all other infrastructure areas. This has resulted in a strain on these infrastructure facilities. IT companies in Bangalore and Hyderabad highlighted the failure of local administration, and made good use of the media to canvas for their needs. Almost every major city has witnessed flooding in the recent past, with Mumbai and Bangalore standing out!! Today, we do not have funding trouble to carry out infrastructure projects, but have not been able to implement these projects effectively.

    Some time back, the Railways started a new scheme to name a few trains after corporate brands. This not only fetched the Railways some good money for the advertising provided, but also helped improve the amenities provided at the stations and the trains. Toilets were refurbished, internet access provided within trains and cleaning was done even during the journey (helpful for long routes). This scheme is really a win-win deal for all- the corporate companies, the railways and the travellers.

    You may be wondering what is the connection between the urban infrastructure and the scheme. Just like the railways used the private players to upgrade the facilities in the trains by naming the routes after their brands, city administrators could name a road/locality after a brand/individual, in return for a plenty. The corporate will then ensure that, in the area named after their brand, the quality of infrastructure built is good, and that they remain good. Before adopting a particular area, they will assess if the area has adequate drain and sewerage capacity, clean and smooth roads that can stand a few years and such physical infrastructure to estimate their cost in adopting the area. That will force the city planners to survey the areas that need attention and find out what ails the residents of the area.

    A similar system was tried in Bangalore during the erstwhile BATF days, where-in some public parks, lakes and government schools were adopted by some IT companies. That was a very successful attempt to improve these facilities. The one proposed above is just an extension of the same idea. So, shouldn't we get ready to compare Airtel-nagar with Idea-nagar or Infosys-nagar with a BigBazaar-nagar???

1 comment:

Srivatsava Vajapeyam said...

Heyy Mugunth,
Indians do not pay 30% tax. Its a wrong notion people have about the amount of taxes they pay. There are a few tax slabs. Infact, someone earning Rs500,000/- pa doesnt even have to pay 10%. Yes < 10% is right.
I didnt mean to say that these companies should start building roads, I was proposing a mechanism for them to advertise their brand. And for their ads, they dont neccessarily pay money, but rather hire people(possibly outsource) to maintain infrastructure or provide new amenities.