ISSUE NO. 325 JULY 2021 - Observer Research Foundation
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Occasional Paper
ISSUE NO. 325 JULY 2021
© 2021 Observer Research Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, copied, archived, retained or transmitted through print, speech
or electronic media without prior written approval from ORF.The Enduring Problem of Illegal Constructions in India’s Cities Ramanath Jha Abstract India’s rising urbanisation in recent years has triggered unbridled construction activities to meet the needs of the growing populations in these cities. Not all of these constructions abide by existing laws, however, leading to adverse consequences on governance systems, the environment, people’s health, transportation services, and overall citizen well-being. In extreme cases, illegal constructions have resulted in loss of lives and property. This paper calls for the rectification of policies, improved planning, stricter implementation of laws, and improvement of technology for governance. Attribution: Ramanath Jha, “The Enduring Problem of Illegal Constructions in India’s Cities,” ORF Occasional Paper No. 325, July 2021, Observer Research Foundation.
T
he process of urbanisation entails expansion of existing
urban settlements as well as the classification of rural areas
as towns. Defining what is ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ is based on
various parameters: rise in population and population
density, larger revenue generation, attainment of greater
economic significance in terms of GDP share, and a larger percentage
of employment in non-agricultural activities.1 Between 1901 and
2011, the number of India’s towns increased from 1,8272 to 7,935.3
The demographics of an urban settlement changes4 primarily through
multiplication of existing population, the merger of villages on its
periphery, and migration from other settlements.5
As more people reside in towns and cities, either temporarily or
permanently, the demand for enabling economic, physical, social,
educational, health and recreational infrastructure also rises.6 These
include housing, employment and office space, markets, commercial
centres, educational institutions, hospitals and healthcare centres,
restaurants, cinemas, gardens, and playgrounds. Most of such services
and infrastructure require multiple new constructions.7
All such activities in a city that involve construction are governed
by zoning regulations and building by-laws, also called Development
Control Regulations (DCRs). These are embedded in the city’s
Introduction
Development Plan (DP) or Master Plan—a dynamic long-term
document whose reach is generally for 20 years and provides a
conceptual layout for future development.8 Among the DCRs’
prescriptions, zoning is a planning control tool for regulating the built
environment.9 The rules of zoning mandate the kinds of construction
that could take place in that zone.
Single-use zoning would divide a town into areas in which only one
kind of land use would be permitted.10 For instance, a residential
zone would permit housing to be built and a commercial zone
would allow building for commercial activities, but not vice versa.
Mixed-use zoning, on the other hand, would permit more than one
use. For example, a certain percentage of land area in a mixed-use
zone could be residential and some could be commercial. Modern
urban planning principles promote mixed land use for its multiple
advantages:11 primarily, it reduces travel time, and makes essentials
3and other services more easily available. However, mixed-use zoning
disallows non-compatible uses in the same zone as the very basis of
zoning is to “segregate non-conforming users from one another.”12
The DCRs also regulate how much construction could be done on
a plot of land.13 Such stipulations are outlined to manage concerns
for the environment, as well as the health and safety of citizens. For
example, there should be sufficient ventilation and lighting, and
structures must be built in a manner that can allow easy access to fire
services during emergencies. The DCRs thus place restrictions on the
volume of construction on a plot of land, using the concept of FSI
(floor space index) or FAR (floor area ratio).a,14 Building regulations
are concerned about, among others, a balance between built and
non-built environment, distance between buildings, and ease of
movement.15
The DCRs also prescribe the manner in which a building would be
constructed: they ensure that buildings are structurally sound, and
that they have the basic services and facilities necessary to support
the purpose for which they are erected. The regulations provide that
these buildings be designed to safeguard the environment and natural
resources so that they can be used by present and future generations.
Development control is the most visible part of the land use planning
Introduction
process.16
DCRs further stipulate that no building can be occupied without
the issuance of a completion certificate by the competent authority.b,17
Before the issuance of such a certificate, authorities seek a large
number of documents and no objection certificates (NOCs), including
a structural engineer’s letter and NOCs from the departments of fire,
and garden and sewerage. The completion certificate would then lead
to the issuance of an occupancy certificate.18
a FSI (Floor Space Index) or FAR (Floor Area Ratio) is a measure of how much one can build
on a plot of land. The idea is to use this tool to control building density in an area rather
than population density, and can be expressed as the “ratio of total built area on all floors
to total plot area”.
b A completion certificate is a legal document that is awarded, after the inspection of a
building, certifying that it has been constructed according to the approved building plan
and that it meets all the prescribed safety standards set by the local development
authority or municipal corporation.
4While the Master Plan and DCRs that regulate construction are city-
specific or state-specific,c the Government of India has also put in
place the National Building Code of India (NBC)19 and the Urban
and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation
(URDPFI) Guidelines.20 The Code primarily consists of administrative
regulations, development control rules and general building
requirements; fire safety essentials; stipulations regarding materials,
structural design and construction; building and plumbing services;
approach to sustainability; and asset and facility management.21
The URDPFI guidelines, meanwhile, are urban-centric and provide
a framework for the preparation of development plans and an
implementation process.22
All construction activities in
Introduction
a city are governed by zoning
regulations and building by-laws;
key is‘development control’ .
c Urban development is a state subject under the Constitution of India.
5Cities: Scope and Consequences
Illegal Construction in Indian
T
here is no dearth of rules, by-laws, and statutory
provisions that govern the conduct of construction
activities in Indian cities. However, illegal construction
continues to thrive. While such activities are nearly
universal across all Indian cities, they are most rampant
in megacities and metropolitan cities.d A primary reason is that in
these large cities, the cost of land is steep,23 and the huge demands
for housing, office and commercial space far outstrip planning speed,
product supply, and spatial availability at affordable rates.
Some of the violations are marginal—for example, making a few
changes during actual construction and veering away from what was
drawn in the building plan submitted to the local authority. The more
extreme ones make substantial structural changes, introduce short-
cuts, and economise on critical components of a sound structure. It
is not unheard of that such activities have led to tragic consequences
such as fires and the collapse of a building, leading to loss of human
lives and property. For instance, in 2019, Delhi recorded 150 deaths
due to fires—the city’s highest toll in five years.24
Consequences of illegal constructions
Across different cities, there have been extraordinary examples of
how regulations on construction are flouted in a brazen manner. In
Kochi’s Maradu municipality in the state of Kerala, four residential
houses were pulled down in August 2020 for gross violation of
construction laws.25 In a subsequent inspection, over 4,000 CRZ
(Coastal Regulation Zone) violations were identified in the district.26
In December 2019, in Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, the Madras
High Court ordered that a sprawling bungalow on East Coast Road be
pulled down for violating CRZ norms and building regulations.27 In
Maharashtra’s Alibaug, in 2019, the Collector, on instructions of the
Bombay High Court, demolished 24 bungalows illegally built along
the coast.28 All these cases involved wealthy families.
d ‘Megacities’ are defined by the UN as cities with population above 10 million. Examples
are Tokyo, Delhi, and Mumbai. The Indian Constitution defines ‘Metropolitan Area’ as an
area having a population of 10 lakhs. Examples are Surat, Jaipur and Patna.
6Cities: Scope and Consequences
Illegal Construction in Indian
More tragic are incidents where structures collapsed or caught fire,
and led to deaths and displacement. In April 2013, a building under
construction collapsed in Mumbra, a suburb of Thane, Maharashtra
and killed 74 people,29 all of them construction workers and their
families. Investigators found that poor-quality material was being used
for the building; the developer had not submitted any building plans
nor sought approval. Officials complicit in the case were suspended
and several arrests were made.30
On 21 September 2020, a 35-year-old, three-storey residential
building in Bhiwandi, also in Thane, collapsed; more than a dozen
people died and another two dozen were injured.31 Investigators
found that building regulations were compromised. The Bhiwandi-
Nizampur Municipal Corporation, the urban local body (ULB) in
charge of city governance, was aware of the building’s problems that
had surfaced during the course of periodic municipal inspections
and had served repeated notices to the owner. These went unheeded
and the authorities went no further than serving written warnings.
Following an enquiry, two civic officials responsible for the area were
suspended and an offence was registered against the building owner.32
In Delhi the Supreme Court, taking cognisance of the thousands
of illegal structures being built across the capital, constituted a
monitoring committee in March 2006.33 The committee was tasked
to identify unauthorised structures, look into the causes of the
massive illegal building activities, and check in particular the misuse
of residential properties in Delhi.34 The municipal corporations of
the capital sealed the illegal premises, and the Government of India
followed up by appointing a Special Task Force with powers to direct
local bodies and police to provide appropriate infrastructure to the
residents of Delhi and curb illegal construction in the city.35 Soon the
committee and the task force came to loggerheads, each accusing the
other of inaction.36
The Parliament took a different stand. In February 2021, it passed
the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions)
Second (Amendment) Bill,37 providing protection to entities accused
7Cities: Scope and Consequences
Illegal Construction in Indian
of conducting unlawful constructions, shielding them from penal
action for three years. The Housing and Urban Affairs Minister,
Hardeep Singh Puri, while introducing the Bill, stated that the
intention was “to protect certain forms of encroachment and
unauthorised development from punitive action, namely, demolition,
sealing, displacement, etc.”38
Even government buildings and public infrastructure have been
found to be violating construction guidelines. In January 2021, a fire
erupted in the neonatal intensive care unit of the Bhandara district
hospital in Maharashtra; 10 infants died. The probe panel reported
the cause of accident to be a short-circuit.39 They found that an
amount of INR 1 crore had been sanctioned to construct an extension
to the special newborn care units. The construction happened but no
fire clearance was obtained, and the installation of electrical fittings
was not supervised by an electrical engineer.40
On 31 March 2016, part of a flyover in Kolkata in West Bengal that
was under construction collapsed, killing more than 50 people and
injuring 85 others.41 Another flyover collapsed in the same city in
September 2018.42 A report by the Indian Institute of Technology,
tasked to investigate the incident, revealed the reasons – faulty
design and wrong project execution. 43 In March 2019, a pedestrian
overbridge connecting the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
(CSMT) in Mumbai collapsed; 44 six people were killed and 30
others were injured. Less than a year earlier, in July 2018 another
pedestrian overbridge in Andheri, a suburb of Mumbai, had also
collapsed following heavy rains, killing two.45
Illegal constructions benefit the builders and other complicit
individuals. A Delhi High Court Committee tasked to investigate
unlawful constructions in the capital city concluded: “Illegal
constructions cannot happen without connivance. Builder-official
nexus ... thrives in our cities by buying protection and insurance
from the law enforcers. The builder, architect and the owner have
a vested interest. Often, the purchaser is the most vulnerable.”46 It
was also observed that there was “no law that considers violation of
8Cities: Scope and Consequences
Illegal Construction in Indian
building norms as a criminal offence. So, fixing criminal liability on
the builder-architect-owner-official nexus is likely to have a deterrent
effect on the construction of unauthorised buildings.”47
On a larger scale, such corrupt practices have a cascading effect
on governance ecosystems and weaken the fabric of good societal
behaviour.48
Environmental impacts
Illegal constructions have adverse environmental impacts. First,
they lead to larger volumes of construction than the developmental
regulations permit for healthy and safe living. More construction
also contributes to the ‘heat island effect’—a phenomenon observed
in cities, where high building density creates ‘islands’ of higher
temperatures in comparison to outlying areas.49 Some illegal
constructions have also encroached on transportation networks,
creating traffic bottlenecks.50
These unlawful constructions have proliferated on fragile lands such
as unbuildable slopes and hills, in flood zones,51 or lands encroached
from water bodies such as creeks, river embankments, mangroves,52
salt pan lands, public open spaces, and green spaces. Rivers, lakes,
and ponds have either disappeared or have dried up in the process
of being readied for residential or commercial construction. There
are consequences for the families that occupy such lands as their lives
are under constant threat of floods and landslides. The city, overall,
is compromised in terms of water egress in case of heavy rains and
floods. As global warming and climate change are posing a huge
challenge in Indian cities, witnessed in the form of more frequent and
severe urban floodings and rising heat events, illegal constructions
only worsen the impacts of such events.
This is best illustrated in Mumbai. Large tracts of water bodies
such as lakes and ponds, river banks and parts of mangroves, and
natural nallas (drains) have been taken over either for construction of
buildings or dumping debris.53 Clogged culverts, encroached rivers,
9Cities: Scope and Consequences
Illegal Construction in Indian
heavily silted drains and a non-functional storm water system have
choked the normal city outlets for rainwater. This has resulted in
virtually an annual deluge that leaves the city at a standstill for a few
days at a time.54 This is true, however, of a large number of Indian
cities: mega cities, state capitals, metropolitan cities and smaller cities
have all been hit by extremely heavy downpours. Invariably, they
have exceeded the capacity of cities and towns to drain this water out,
resulting in massive waterlogging.
Patna in Bihar, and Hyderabad in Telangana, are two cities that
are particularly worth mentioning. In 2019, Patna was flooded by a
combination of torrential rains and outdated sewage-and-storm water
drainage system.55 In 2020, two dozen people in Hyderabad died in
floods that was a result of indiscriminate construction in water bodies,
lakes and drains.56
Overall, as India’s cities are heightening in their density, rampant
unlawful constructions are emerging as a significant factor in
worsening the state of these urban spaces. Developers and individual
owners have engaged in illegal practices, and city administrations
have failed to implement regulations. The municipal authorities are
partly to blame for not using their powers to stop and demolish such
constructions.
At the same time, officials who have worked to implement the rules
have faced threats of violence. For instance, in November 2018 in
Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra, residents complained about the illegal
construction of commercial shops. When the Joint Commissioner
of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation took cognisance of the
complaint and attempted to demolish the constructions, he was
assaulted by a big group of locals.57
10I
n Delhi, there are two laws under which action could be taken
against illegal construction activities: the Delhi Development
(DDA) Act 195758 and the Delhi Municipal Corporation
(DMC) Act 1957.59 Sanction under Section 12 of the DDA
Act is required for any construction work. The DDA has the
power to stop any unauthorised development and, under Section 31A
of the Act, to seal such premises. Similarly, the DMC Act prohibits
construction without prior sanction of the competent authority. If
such a construction has taken place without sanction, the DMC can
stop work after due notice and hearing, and the building can be
The Failure of Laws
sealed. The DMC is empowered to demolish the structure after due
process has been followed.
In Maharashtra, there are three key laws: the Maharashtra Regional
and Town Planning Act, 1966 (MRTP);60 the Mumbai Municipal
Corporation Act, 188861 for Mumbai; and the Mumbai Provincial
and Regulations
Municipal Corporation Act 194962 for the rest of the state. As in
the case of Delhi laws, these Acts prohibit construction without
prior permission from the authorities. Any person intending to
erect a structure must give notice to the commissioner and submit
building plans and details of construction. The authorities can
stop unauthorised construction after following the processes laid
down under these laws, which also specify penalties that include
imprisonment and/or fine.63 Their provisions are replicated to a
large degree across urban local bodies in the country. However, these
laws have either not been fully used or are unable to stop the spate of
illegal constructions in cities.
The problems are compounded by developments that fall outside
the purview of current laws and which have an enormous bearing on
planned cities. These include the growth of slums, the proliferation of
small shops, street vending, and small housing constructions that do
not fit within the four walls of zoning laws and development control
rules. They have proved most difficult to tackle: their numbers are
large; they involve the poor populations, and no political party in the
country has been able to apply existing laws on these constructions.
Above all, such constructions reveal the serious inadequacies in India’s
urban policy. These, therefore, need innovative solutions.
11The urban poor form a large group in cities, expanded by migrants
who come to find livelihood. There are people in the city who see a
business opportunity and take advantage of the situation arising out
of the lack of rental housing and affordable housing for the urban
poor and the migrating poor. In order to provide some kind of
housing to them, “slum lords” surreptitiously promote the erection
of shanties, or slums, to shelter the poor migrants.64 These are built
wholly illegally and without permission from the authorities, many
times on unbuildable or hazardous land, such as near high-tension
electrical lines, marshy lands, hill tops, or flood-prone areas. These
The Failure of Laws
are generally in violation of all zonal regulations. However, the mass
of such structures is large and given their political significance as well
as for humanitarian considerations, states have had to legislate the
Slum Act and regularise these structures over a period of time. The
proliferation of such slums is on account of the neglect of affordable
housing in cities.
and Regulations
Crucial deficits in addressing illegal
construction
Illegal constructions can be categorised under several groups. The
most marginal of these is any construction that is not authorised by
the competent authority but is otherwise fully compliant with the
prevailing building by-laws.65 This means that if permission had been
sought and granted, the construction would have been valid and legal.
Any ULB should not have a problem with such structures as long
as municipal taxes and fees and charges are paid. In such cases, the
statute book is outdated and ought to be amended to allow legal
activity to proceed with as much speed as possible. It is a common
experience that proper building plans submitted to ULBs meet
with bureaucratic red-tape before being granted a clear permission
to construct. Delaying any such activity mainly for administrative
approval is counter-productive. The policy correction would be
that the municipal laws should state that an individual lodge their
building plans with the municipality in accordance with the prevailing
DCRs, duly certified as such by an architect, and then proceed
12with construction. These buildings will be inspected by municipal
engineers, at stipulated stages of construction, and appropriate action
would be taken based on the results of the inspection. If construction
is in order, no penal action is required.
A second class of construction falls in the category of those buildings
that were authorised but had marginal additionalities that fall outside
the ambit of civic regulations. Such minor deviations are quite common
as the need for them is noticed only during construction, sometimes
on account of the peculiar shape of land plots. There was clearly no
The Failure of Laws
intent to stretch the regulations for demonstrable gain. These minor
deviations could be regularised by the competent authority, generally
through payment of an additional fee. The process is recognised in
urban regulatory parlance as “compounding”.66 Any ULB should find
such structures acceptable as long as a compounding fee, municipal
taxes and any other prescribed fees and charges are paid.
and Regulations
A third class of construction is of those buildings where authorisation
was given by a competent authority, but was wrongly authorised in
violation of the DCRs that govern construction.67 Some minor errors
could happen and could be taken care of through some penal charge
or compounding. But if the violation is substantial and goes against
the core benchmarks of construction and development regulations,
resulting in unacceptable structural compromises, then the structure
is a problem structure that will have to be dealt with. This may entail
asking the owner to reinforce a section of the construction or to
pull down part of the building and reconstruct as per stipulations,
or else completely demolish the structure. In each case, a heavy fine
ought to be levied for willful default. Additionally, the ULB officials
who gave permission would have to be dealt with under disciplinary
provisions and removed from the building permission department.
If the permitted construction has components that are structurally
dangerous and have been knowingly approved, then the authorities
complicit in such construction would have to be criminally prosecuted
and upon conviction will be dismissed from service. The building
itself will have to be pulled down.
13Another category is of buildings that were neither authorised nor
have abided by the laws and regulations governing construction.
These, for instance, could be built in violation of the zonal regulations,68
including being located in an environmentally fragile zone such as
mangroves or salt pan lands. Similarly, an industrial structure in a
residential zone would be impermissible, and so is construction on
a plot of land reserved for a different purpose such as for a public
open space. These fit the category of structures that will have to be
pulled down. Additionally, the builder of the property would have to
be visited with heavy penalties and criminal prosecution.
The Failure of Laws
A significant category of illegal construction is where building plans
were submitted to the local authority. On scrutiny, they were found
in order and satisfied all stipulations of the development control
regulations. However, during construction, compromises were made
with the quality of material; structural requirements were overlooked
and Regulations
and other shortcuts were adopted with a view to cut costs or gain
undue space advantages. These practices have consequences on
proper ventilation, hygiene and health, or go even further and put
lives of those who would live in the buildings at risk. These fit the
category of structures that are dangerous and deserve to be dealt with
in proportion to the seriousness of the offence. In extreme cases, the
buildings would have to be demolished and the developers criminally
prosecuted.
It is clear that in the present state of affairs, the building inspection
departments in the ULBs, and the police, are unable to keep watch
over unlawful construction activities. There may be complaints within
ULBs and the police about shortage of personnel. However, it can
be safely presumed that additional personnel will serve little purpose
in terms of having stricter watch over unlawful construction and will
only result in additional burden for the states and the financially
fragile ULBs. A better recourse would be to allow citizens to lodge
complaints online, through a web portal that will be transparent.
The ULB would have to consider these complaints and declare,
after inspection, which one of them were false and what action is
contemplated on others. They will have to update the website with a
periodic action taken report (ATR).
14Moreover, the method of field visits to detect unlawful construction
has become archaic and inefficient in terms of time, cost, and
workforce. Using image-processing techniques for automatic detection
is one of the optimum methods which can be used in monitoring
illegal construction.69 Some state governments are already moving in
that direction. In 2015, for instance, the Delhi government “decided
to use remote sensing for tracking and mapping illegal constructions
and encroachments in the Capital.” 70
On the other side, to promote ease of business and ease of living,
The Failure of Laws
more freedom to undertake work will have to be given to developers.
A developer who wishes to undertake a construction knows what they
are supposed to do. The city has a development plan and building
control regulations that spell out what can be constructed, where it
can be constructed, and what kind of construction can be undertaken.
The Fire Code prescribes the provisions to be made for fire safety. The
and Regulations
excise and police laws state how and where a bar can be established.
The owner could hire the services of an architect, employ a contractor,
and fire personnel and other service providers. Each department,
therefore, needs to have only a small team to follow up on inspection.
They could also play an advisory role in assisting owners to clear
doubts about their plans, if they so desire. The civic web site should
enable the owner, as mentioned earlier, to notify the authorities of
their intention to put up a construction, lodge their building plan with
an architect’s certification, and notify the beginning of construction.
The entire system of submissions and approvals needs to move
towards e-approvals in a time-bound fashion.
In the event of an incident or a disaster, the trail of accountability
is clear: it rests with the owner and architect, who should face
punishment unless they can establish that they were not at fault.
The onus would rest on them. This will bring multiple benefits:
red-tape would be hurdled; doing business would pick up speed
since several years taken in the permission cycle need not be wasted;
corruption would cease; and business could be done honestly. In the
process, ULBs would save money spent on a large body of heavily
underperforming inspection personnel.
15The municipal laws that regulate construction also need to be
reviewed. The entire process of serving notice, awaiting reply, and
finally taking action needs to be hastened in view of the delinquent
owner’s penchant to get their unlawful construction completed
with speed. Additionally, the punishment should match the degree
of violation, including heavy costs, criminal prosecution, and the
harshest penalty on the statute book in case of the construction
collapsing or catching fire, and causing death or bodily harm. For
instance, in the case of Delhi, the Committee formed by the Delhi
High Court observed that local laws provided no criminal liability on
The Failure of Laws
the perpetrators of such constructions. As a consequence, the law has
had little deterrent effect.71
The types of unlawful construction mentioned above are primarily
done out of greed. However, another class, as indicated above, is out
of livelihood necessities.
and Regulations
Building inspectors in the local
governments are unable to keep
a tight watch over all unlawful
construction activities—some of
which are out of greed, while
others are borne of necessity.
16T
he immediate step is to set the policy right. Two areas
need urgent attention: rental housing, and affordable
housing for the urban poor. In Indian cities, rental
housing is a vital need for many sections of people, but
particularly for the poor. For low-income groups such
as daily wage earners, rental housing is the first option that they seek.
The lack of affordable rental housing has left no option for a large
migrating poor population but to find refuge in slums. Governments
have to begin by scrapping the rent laws as they stand. In 2015, the
Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India drafted a
National Urban Rental Housing Policy (NURHP).72 In 2019 a Model
Affordable Housing
Tenancy Act was passed.73 Both recommend a legal framework that
seeks to balance the interests of the landlord and the tenant. The
proposed model laws can be adopted by the states.
Furthermore, both central and state governments are required to
play a role in the provision of affordable housing. Their primary
role is in the area of overall planning, regulation, incentivising and
provision of land for affordable housing. Appropriate incentives and
as a Response
subsidies would have to be crafted to promote universal housing.
In view of the high cost of urban land, affordability for the weaker
sections may mean that the cost of land is taken out of the urban
housing equation. Since Government and parastatals have large tracts
of land in their possession, suitable public land out of these parcels
should be held for the purpose of housing the poor as a first priority.
A statement to this effect has already been postulated in the Housing
Policy documents of the Government of India,74 recommending the
use of public land as a priority for affordable housing. This ought to
get translated on the ground.
Both central and state
governments are required to
play a role in the provision of
affordable housing.
17It should be possible to improve housing availability through
land use zoning and zoning through a varied FSI regime for cost
regulation, as higher FSI reduces the cost per unit. Additionally,
sufficient supply of serviced land is a precondition to availability.
Zoning of land in a manner that exacerbates scarcity would have to be
avoided. The first step is to demarcate sufficient land as “residential”
in the Master Plan.75 Second, lands in cities zoned as agricultural
or No Development Zone (other than Natural Area) when there is
housing scarcity is not acceptable. Such zoning could only be favoured
from the point of view of development that moves from the centre to
the periphery to allow planned infrastructure to reach areas thrown
Affordable Housing
open to development. Third, excessive reservation of private land for
public purposes that the ULB/parastatal is not in a position to acquire
on account of high land costs should be scrupulously avoided,76 as
it ends up freezing development on those lands and encourages the
owner to engage in illegal development.
As India urbanises, housing would continue to be in great demand
in cities. One would have to use all available instruments – public
as a Response
land, capital subsidies, infrastructure facilitation, FSI incentives—to
achieve steep targets. While the largest possible pool of land within
city limits is forced into the housing market, peri-urban lands need
to be similarly planned and held for release as populations expand
or prices rise. Institutional mechanisms need to be in place for such
planning. Low-cost housing technologies77 can substantially bring
costs down and must be encouraged.78 These steps will marginalise
rather than centralise illegal constructions which the ULB can then
prevent through proper policing. Given the scale of the problem, any
policing effort without policy reform will stand defeated.
The other side of informal housing structures in cities are those
erected for informal enterprise. These are small shops that we see
invariably in all cities, along roads or footpaths.79 These are generally
on spaces that are either designed to be left open or are meant for
pedestrians, for loading and unloading goods, and for picking up
and dropping off commuters. A further class of informal enterprise
comprises street-hawking. These fall within the Street Vending
18Act, 2014,80 which made hawking a legal activity. It enjoins upon
cities to provide proper hawking spaces, factoring in a maximum
of 2.5 percent of a city’s population as street vendors.81 Beyond the
stipulated numbers allowed by the Vending Committee, hawkers and
the space they occupy are unauthorised.
At present, however, most informal enterprises are pushed into
violating land-use restrictions. As a consequence, they get treated as
unlawful construction. It is axiomatic that street vending must become
a planned activity written into the urban planning and operational
statutes.82 The gargantuan struggle in cities to balance vending,
Affordable Housing
pedestrian and vehicular mobility, and hygiene will be alleviated once
the status of vending is raised to a planned activity. That would leave
a small number of cases that could be dealt with through application
of laws on construction activities.
A further planning issue that needs to be highlighted is the overload
of human density beyond the carrying capacity of cities.83 Population
addition demands space for every incoming individual, and many of
as a Response
these demands require construction. These comprise, as cited earlier,
housing, work place, road space, schools, hospitals, and recreation
venues. Furthermore, the city must make arrangements for more
water, more sanitation, disposal of more waste and such other
activities that each individual generates. However, the environment
also demands the provision of open lands. These adversarial demands
can be satisfied only if the two are balanced—this requires a cap on
the human footprint.84 Urban literature in the Western countries have
been arguing for greater density in cities. This is on account of very
low densities that the western cities face, raising issues of economic
sustainability.85 Indian cities are at the other end of the spectrum,
where such arguments get reversed: India’s six biggest cities figure
among the 25 densest cities in the world.86
19India needs to articulate a policy that would disincentivise
demographic density beyond a limit based on the tripod of economic,
environmental, and social sustainability. A sizeable programme
at the same time would have to be initiated that incentivises the
growth of other cities that possess the potential of standing up
as countermagnets to the larger and denser cities for sustainable
urbanisation. Unlawful construction becomes more manageable as the
load of rural to urban migration and the internal urban growth get
absorbed into many more cities. The question of livelihood, largely
answered by mainstreaming them in the planning process, would
only leave unlawful constructions that are the outcome of greed
Affordable Housing
rather than necessity. Together, plugging the policy gaps, tightening
laws, and imparting robustness to governance would enable cities to
address unlawful constructions with greater success.
as a Response
Given the scale of illegal
constructions, any policing effort
without policy reform will only
stand defeated; India should
disincentivise demographic
density beyond a certain limit of
sustainability.
20T
his paper has demonstrated the complexities of the
problem of unlawful constructions that take place in
Indian cities, aided by relentless urbanisation. While
some categories of constructions are on account of
greed and profiteering, there are others that are driven
by human need and survival. The former categories have to be
dealt with utilising deterrent laws and heavy enforcement; the latter
require changes in national, state and city policies that would allow
the poor to affordably access space for housing and enterprise. In
this, governments may seek partnership with the private sector.
The pivotal role, however, is for the governments themselves to
play, in terms of policy, land provision, and financial resources. ULBs
need to look into their developmental permission processes that are
convoluted and time-consuming, and move these to prompt online
Ramanath Jha is Distinguished Fellow at ORF, Mumbai.
approvals. The inspection methodology must embrace the latest
technologies such as remote sensing and artificial intelligence. At
Conclusion
the same time, densification of cities beyond a point will have to be
stopped by steps to decentralise the process of urbanisation.
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Images used in this paper are from Getty Images/Busà Photography (cover and page 2) and
Getty Images/Otto Stadler (back page).
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