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Key to urbanisation is monetising land value: NITI Aayog CEO
The key to urbanisation is the ability to monetise land value, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Friday.
“If you look at the two bordering cities across Delhi – Gurgaon and Noida – they have not been able to monetise land value and plough it back to develop the cities,” Kant said at a session on ‘Cities as engines of growth’ at the India Economic Summit here.
Gurgaon was urbanised without basic infrastructure, the land value shot up but the gains were captured by developers, Kant said, adding that in Noida as well, the monetisation wasn’t ploughed back in the city and was captured by the political parties.
As India urbanises, it must learn from the Singapore and Yokohama models to create dense compact and liveable cities, he said.
“We can’t copy the American model. When America urbanised, land, gas and water were cheaply available and hence the country created the most polluting cities. India, which has just embarked on the urbanisation process, cannot make the same mistake,” Kant stated.
Moreover, India needs determined political will to drive urbanisation, he added. Dave Robinson Jersey
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