India’s Urban Renewal: Major Development Projects and Their Impact

India’s cities are growing at an unprecedented pace. According to demographic estimates, India’s urban population is expected to reach nearly 40% by 2030 and 50% by 2050, compared to around 34% today. This rapid shift is not just a statistic – it translates into millions of people migrating to cities every year in search of work, education, and a better life. Cities, however, are often unprepared for this influx, straining housing, sanitation, water supply, and public infrastructure to their limits. To address these challenges head-on, the Indian government has rolled out a series of flagship urban development missions – each targeting a specific pressure point in the urban ecosystem. From making cities “smart” and water-secure to ensuring every family has a roof over their head and a clean toilet nearby, these schemes represent the most ambitious overhaul of urban India in decades.

The Smart Cities Mission: technology as a tool for urban transformation 🔗

Launched on June 25, 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) set out to improve the quality of life in 100 selected cities by deploying efficient services, robust infrastructure, and data-driven governance. The mission was not about making cities high-tech for its own sake – it was about using technology to solve real, everyday problems: traffic congestion, inefficient water supply, poor public safety, and inadequate civic services.

The mission worked through two main approaches. First, each city identified a specific area for intensive, area-based development (ABD) – turning a defined zone into a replicable model for the rest of the city. Second, cities implemented pan-city projects that used technology to improve infrastructure across the board. For example, Chandigarh launched India’s largest public bicycle sharing system with 310 docking stations and over 2,500 bicycles, reducing traffic congestion while promoting sustainable commuting.

A signature achievement of the SCM has been the establishment of Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs). All 100 smart cities now have fully operational ICCCs that use real-time data – integrating AI, IoT, and data analytics – to manage transport, water supply, and solid waste. These centres even served as COVID-19 war rooms during the pandemic. By the time the mission formally concluded in March 2025, 7,479 out of 8,058 tendered projects had been completed, utilizing over ₹1.5 lakh crore of the total allocated amount.

Achievements and criticisms 🔗

Beyond ICCCs, the SCM delivered over 1,300 parks and public spaces, 7,654 smart classrooms, and 172 e-health centres across participating cities. However, the mission also drew significant criticism. By 2025, only 18 out of 100 cities had completed all planned projects. A CAG report cited deficient financial administration, diversion of funds, and submission of incorrect utilization certificates. Rights groups pointed out that low-income communities were often left out of the planning process, with documented cases of displacement linked to development activities. While the mission drove a culture of innovation and accountability, its efficacy was not always as planned, particularly in cities with weaker governance capacity. These lessons are important – they show that technology alone cannot fix urban problems unless it is paired with inclusive planning and strong local governance.

AMRUT: ensuring every urban household gets water and sanitation 🔗

Launched the same day as the Smart Cities Mission, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) addressed a more fundamental urban crisis – the lack of reliable water supply and sewerage systems in Indian cities. AMRUT was launched on June 25, 2015, targeting 500 cities and towns across the country, focusing on water supply, sewerage and septage management, stormwater drainage, green spaces, and non-motorized urban transport.

The scale of the problem it was designed to tackle is stark. Nearly 31% of urban Indian households lack piped water, while 67.3% are not connected to a piped sewerage system. AMRUT’s first phase focused on the 500 largest cities. Under it, 134 lakh water tap connections and 102 lakh sewer connections were provided, transforming access to basic services for millions of urban residents.

AMRUT 2.0: scaling up to water-secure cities 🔗

Building on AMRUT 1.0, the government launched AMRUT 2.0 on October 1, 2021, with a significantly more ambitious scope. The mission aims to provide water tap connections to all households in statutory towns through 2.68 crore new household tap connections, and universal sewerage coverage in 500 AMRUT cities through 2.64 crore new sewer connections. The mission’s total indicative outlay stands at ₹2,99,000 crore – a massive increase over the first phase.

AMRUT 2.0 also introduced a new concept: the City Water Balance Plan (CWBP). This plan focuses on the circular economy of water – recycling and reusing treated sewage, rejuvenating water bodies, and promoting water conservation – moving cities towards genuine water security rather than just expanding supply. As of November 2024, contracts have been awarded for 4,916 projects worth ₹85,114 crore, and works worth ₹23,016 crore have already been physically completed. Critics, however, note that the scheme has often adopted a project-centric rather than holistic approach, and local elected bodies have had limited involvement in planning – issues that need to be corrected for long-term effectiveness.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana: a roof over every head 🔗

Housing is one of the most pressing challenges of urban India. Slums, informal settlements, and overcrowded tenements are a visible reality in almost every Indian city. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U), launched on June 25, 2015, was designed to address the housing shortage among economically weaker sections (EWS), low-income groups (LIG), and middle-income groups (MIG), including slum dwellers, with the vision of ensuring a pucca (permanent) house for every eligible urban household.

The scheme operates through four verticals: beneficiary-led individual construction (BLC), affordable housing in partnership (AHP), in-situ slum redevelopment (ISSR), and a credit-linked subsidy scheme (CLSS). One notable equity provision is that the scheme mandates that houses be owned by the female head of the family or jointly with males – directly advancing women’s property rights in urban areas.

PMAY-U 2.0: the next phase 🔗

Recognizing that the housing challenge persists, the government launched PMAY-U 2.0 in August 2024, running from 2024 to 2029. This phase aims to assist 1 crore urban poor and middle-class families in constructing, purchasing, or renting a house, with central assistance of up to ₹2.50 lakh crore. PMAY-U 2.0 also explicitly addresses the needs of widows, single women, persons with disabilities, senior citizens, and transgender individuals. An Angikaar 2025 campaign was launched in September 2025 to fast-track verification, sanction, and completion of housing through door-to-door drives across over 5,000 urban local bodies. Housing for all is not merely a welfare measure – it is a foundational element of urban dignity and social security.

HRIDAY: preserving India’s heritage in the age of modernization 🔗

Urban development does not have to come at the cost of a city’s cultural identity. This was the core premise behind HRIDAY – the National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana – launched on January 21, 2015, with the aim of bringing together urban planning, economic growth, and heritage conservation in an inclusive manner.

With a total outlay of ₹500 crore and a duration of four years, HRIDAY was implemented in 12 cities – Ajmer, Amaravati, Amritsar, Badami, Dwarka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi, Velankanni, and Warangal – each chosen for their historical, religious, or cultural significance. The scheme was 100% centrally funded, and focused on upgrading the infrastructure immediately surrounding heritage zones: roads leading to monuments, drainage, sanitation, street lighting, water supply, waste management, and tourist conveniences.

What HRIDAY actually did on the ground 🔗

The scheme’s approach was practical: rather than only restoring the monuments themselves (which falls under the Archaeological Survey of India), HRIDAY improved the experience of visiting and living near them. In Varanasi, HRIDAY facilitated the restoration of ghats along the Ganges River, improving sanitation and lighting systems. In Amritsar, the area around the Golden Temple was made pedestrian-friendly, improving access for millions of pilgrims annually.

According to a 2019 Ministry of Tourism report, cities under HRIDAY recorded an average annual increase of 15% in tourist footfall during the scheme’s implementation. HRIDAY concluded in March 2019. Policy researchers have since called for a HRIDAY 2.0 that integrates climate resilience, digital tools like GIS-based heritage mapping, and dedicated Heritage Management Boards to address the growing pressures of modernization on India’s ancient cities.

Swachh Bharat Mission: sanitation as a social movement 🔗

When Prime Minister Modi publicly swept a road with a broom on October 2, 2014, at Rajghat in New Delhi, it was a symbolic – and deliberately visible – statement: sanitation is not just an infrastructure problem, it is a matter of national priority and individual behavior. Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U), launched that day, became one of India’s largest ever public campaigns.

The first phase (2014-2019) had two primary goals: achieving Open Defecation Free (ODF) status across all urban areas, and establishing 100% scientific solid waste management. Under SBM-Urban, over 70 lakh household, community, and public toilets were built, providing safe and dignified sanitation for all. Urban India was declared ODF in 2019, with over 3,300 cities and over 960 cities subsequently certified as ODF+ and ODF++ respectively. A 2025 WHO/UNICEF JMP update confirmed that urban open defecation in India has reached 0% – a remarkable turnaround from a situation where hundreds of millions lacked access to toilets.

SBM-U 2.0: from ODF to garbage-free cities 🔗

The second phase, SBM-U 2.0, launched in October 2021 and running through 2025-26, shifts focus from building toilets to managing what happens after. SBM-U 2.0 has a financial outlay of ₹1,41,600 crore – over 2.5 times the outlay of the previous phase – with targets including 100% scientific processing of municipal solid waste, phased elimination of single-use plastics, and remediation of approximately 2,400 legacy landfill sites. Cities are now encouraged to achieve Garbage Free City (GFC) star ratings, which assess performance on waste segregation, collection, and processing.

The Swachh Survekshan, described as the world’s largest urban cleanliness survey, covering over 4,000 urban local bodies, has become a powerful accountability tool – cities compete intensely for high rankings, which has driven real improvements in waste management. Indore has ranked as India’s cleanest city for seven consecutive years, now placed in a special “Super Swachh League” category to give other cities a fairer chance to compete. Solid waste processing, however, remains a challenge: as of recent data, only 38% of legacy landfill waste has been remedied, with large cities yet to clear landfill sites in many areas.

How these missions connect 🔗

It is easy to view each of these missions in isolation, but they are designed to reinforce one another. AMRUT provides the water and sewer networks that new PMAY housing complexes need to function. The Swachh Bharat Mission ensures those same neighborhoods have systems for managing their waste. The Smart Cities Mission builds the digital layer – the ICCCs, the GIS platforms, the mobile apps – that helps city administrators monitor all of this in real time. And HRIDAY ensures that the cultural soul of India’s ancient cities is not bulldozed in the rush to modernize.

Together, they represent a comprehensive urban development framework – one that tries to balance growth with inclusivity, infrastructure with sustainability, and modernity with heritage. The challenges of implementation are real: delays, inequitable distribution of benefits, inadequate local body capacity, and the exclusion of the urban poor from planning processes are recurring criticisms across all these schemes. But the scale and ambition of these missions also signal a clear recognition: that the future of India will be largely urban, and that getting urbanization right is not optional – it is essential.

What do you think? With India’s cities continuing to grow rapidly, do you believe the current urban missions are doing enough to ensure that growth is truly inclusive – particularly for the urban poor and informal workers? And as heritage cities like Varanasi and Amritsar modernize their infrastructure, how do we ensure that development enhances rather than erodes their distinct cultural identity?

References

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