Public sentiment towards urban infrastructure development in India is predominantly negative, marked by skepticism about the government's capacity to drive meaningful change due to widespread corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and inadequate civic responsibility. While a minority expresses cautious optimism regarding ongoing projects and their potential benefits, the general tone reflects frustration and hopelessness for a successful transformation of urban environments, often drawing unfavorable comparisons with more developed nations.

Indian Government

Urban Planners

Public Transport Services

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S_liiide

The unique ability to not maintain such infrastructure.

[deleted]

Bhai infrastructure banane me Paisa aur patience lagta hai, aur hume itne tejaswi log mile hai na, har baat pe protest karna raste pe utar aate hai.

What do even mean?

In the last 10 years We have built infrastructure like never before !!

Dalbus_Umbledore

poor city planning, i live in a well developed city of NCR and the roads here are straight up terribly planned(better than most of india but still) U-turns near cuts creating chaos

corporate-slave225

It dystopian chahiye bhi nahi, Ped vagera bhi hone chahiye

Brhamachaari

Lack of education, wealth-poverty gap, anti-India element, anti-social element, and religious luddites

Right-Ad-3834

Top_Detective_7448

Infrastructure is expensive, both to build and maintain. Go see how much people were moaning about the cost of building metro in Delhi, or our first bullet train line currently under construction.

That being said, India is building a ton of new infrastructure. This is one of the places where the Modi government shines.

Second, do you see that width of all that infrastructure? Where do you think all that land came from? Chinese cities were just as badly designed as our cities. The difference lies in land acquisition. Just to add a new lane, you need to buy and demolish properties on either side, cut down any trees etc.

Everyone wants cycle lanes, good footpaths, bus lanes, wide roads and so on. But, anytime there is talk of any expansion you have residents, farmers, environmentalists, opposition politicians and activists protesting, dragging out land acquisition and raising construction costs for years. Just look at what happened in Maharashtra when Uddav came to power. They delayed the metro project and bullet train project for years. All of this adds to the cost of the project.

Finally we barely have any powerful bodies to enforce urban planning. City planners should be planning new expansions and areas even before the demand arises. This is where we could have started with a clean slate and have made nice planned localities. This sort of thing barely happens. The growth of our cities outpaces our government babus. By the time the city corporation reaches an area, there is already an unplanned mess of a locality there.

__DraGooN_

plbhattad7

i would say a add up would be people should not make the envoirment dirty by throwing random things and pollute the envoirment which would make india definetly look better 

if indian people can bring that mentality i would say india will look significantly better

SwimmingBig3166

prdpb3

Odd-Routine5561

bharatkabaccha

Deep-Airport-1365

Late_Bloomer_1291

To get this level of infra, the govt needs to buy back property to expand the road and allot SEZ, the people take advantage. They protest, they seek more than the market price and basically it comes down to the narrative that govt is removing the poor.

India is a flawed democracy, where you do one protest the govt has to back out. It doesn’t matter if it’s good for the people in long run they just want immediate benefits. 
This level of infrastructure development is very difficult and unlikely

khayalipulao

Economy_Biscotti9921

nonsensical protest every 5 second for political gain, ngo funded protest to stop industrial &amp; infrastructure development, 


AAI &amp; it's reta*** archaic height restrictions

Lots of public land in urban areas are encroached upon by pvt property ( buildings or walls of the buildings ) + illegally buildings themselves, to demolish them is not easy as the courts get involved  + vote bank politics.

General_Riju

GL4389

Constant-Decision-32

Lot of things in picture, not one thing ,for e.g. if you start by population -&gt; civic manners -&gt; proper law guidance -&gt; law and rights mentioned in constitution.


 
The system is designed in such a way, if you make 1 wrong move it'll hit you behind 10 right steps. 
I don't know whom to address and call out, but the more you learn and read about this, you'll understand it's all waste of time just make money and have a nice sleep at end of day.

pridude

Relative_Cod_7723

Disciplined and educated people and less number of loyal and corruption free ministers and officials in government.

antrax-kd

gutka_dinesh

Advanced-Director-92

Ig some of us dont deserve because hum kachra karna nhi chodte , aur big infrastructure with unhygienic surroundings wont match ,  first we need maturity to keep our surroundings clean before the improvement in infrastructure

accidental_mistake69

As an Indian I can tell with confidence, it is Indians themselves.  
Not all of them, but the majority of them. They have no sense of cleanliness in public places, no sense of responsibility in public places.  
Why such thing? Because it's not theirs, at home they are very careful, but in buses, trains, etc. they will litter around.

Infrastructures are built, people break them, perform acts of vandalism hiding  behind the face of protest, steal the public property because they think it is free stuff and so much more.

They clog the public toilets. I wonder how the hell they poop or pee.  
They make those places so frigging dirty that even if you pass near those public toilets, you are going through hell for those few seconds.

People here fail to understand the need of hygiene and clean public places.  
Such infrastructure is definitely being built slowly, but it is still far in the future.

All in all, it is mostly the partially uneducated people of India who don't let the nation develop.  


Talking about skyscrapers in the background I don't think they are required in large quantities in India in the first places because people here think they need to buy their own land and need to build their own house and not live in some apartment or flat after buying, some do because they either don't care about such trivial stuff or they don't have choice and time.  
Most of the skyscrapers here in India are often used for office purposes (excluding some big cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru and some others, no offense to any other cities I am just familiar with these two cities), for example any startup, take an apartment in a big ass building and make it as an office and so on... basically developing nation where some/many Indians act like idiots and thwart it, and we have to start again from the little back steps that we took because of their actions.  
Politics is yet another reason, but I don't want to delve into that topic.

another_rich_dev

Speaking as a transportation engineer, we will get there in probably 50 years more. But traffic management will be a huge problem. Our roads are full even at 7.5% car ownership. Imagine the condition when we have 40-50% as compared to US which has 91% vehicle ownership.

MessNo9895

Bliss_Acadamey

This is bad infrastructure, overly dependent on cars, motorways and highways. We need better public transport centred infrastructure. Which in sense a lot of metro cities are working towards.

Silver15987

BaseballAny5716

I mean we can build them sure, but the sense in people will leave the buildings looking like shit, and in a barely working state within a year or two max. Desh badalna hai toh soch badalna zaroori hai. 

(Personal opinion, such cities look very ugly, full of skyscrapers and glass, I'd rather live in a more natural traditional citiy sorts))

Duke_Salty_

Because India has a lot a space and we can expand on land rather then making sky scraper also if you look at any big devloped country which such infrastructure they don't have beggars around the cars that's one of the things that make India look poor on international levels

People stole solar panels the next day from the express highway the very next day of the inauguration.

Stone pelting on Vande Bharat.

The list is endless :( What's the point of complaining that the government isn't doing enough?

desisnape

PastaSalad1247

hwedg

Our 80 ft roads have become narrow gullies.... cannot compare the roads with China. Even 100 ft roads would not be good.

In Bangalore, 80 ft or even 100 ft roads have been split into 3 lanes.. for bicycles, autos, and bus/ car lane. WTF!

Such a fuckin traffic mess. 

No amount of planning seems to be good. Every city is going to dogs when people want to only travel in cars and nothing else.. maybe a metro. 

Concrete cacophony... roads, service roads, flyovers, metros... cough cough 🤧 so much dust all around.. TTYL

maxrobinson1

this picture is from Dubai where Indians alone constitute about 35-40% of total expat population. What's stopping India from being like Dubai IMO would be "regularisation on not following govt rules". Our rules and regulations are very lenient whereas the fines and penalties of not adhering to govt rules in UAE are way too huge. But in a larger scheme of things it actually builds a strong civic sense among the residents of UAE. 

Dubai is known for it's hefty fines and penalties but because of these hefty fines people usually tend to abide by the rules and regulations, in turn leading to less corruption and more transparent growth across the nation. I remember back in 2020 govt tried to impose heavy traffic regulations to which different states by-passed saying at a state level we won't consider those rules and then 2 months after that Congress led marches and "Delhi-band" also caused the whole initiative to die at a very early stage. So you see that's why...

ilovechickenpizza

1. Vote for Freebies/Caste.

2. Protest against all kinds of Infra incl Metro, Highways, Power plants.

3. Zero Civic Sense when using any public infrastructure. 

*But What's stopping India to build such infrastructure????* 🤷🏻‍♂️

Existing_Program_256

Tej Pratap Yadav not becoming Prime Minister of India.

Much-Branch1839

I saw a video where indians were stealing wet cement on a drying road. That should answer your question.

IgnisDa

corrupt politicians. They want to keep India poor so that they can easily swindle the votes by throwing a little bundle of money out of the pile they looted from the people. (you can't think of doing costly projects if your consumer cannot afford them).

ashis010

What's stopping Indian infrastructure development?

The answer is deceptively simple. Honest, reliable, competent government.

In fact, it's stopping every development in India.

Indian government doesn't have good people at the top. It's either India doesn't have good, capable people, or good, capable people become extremely corrupted when they join public service.

Critical-Copy-7218

Is India still pretty fragmented between economic, social, regional, and religious lines? Plus corruption? I read that there are still large 'power blocs' held by regional politicians who have no interest in social progression beyond their own families' success and region votes? Not to mention the amount of moder  slavery ( forced labour, debt bondage, human trafficking, child labour, and forced marriage still). 

It just seems a very big and fragmented country without consistency.

Serialver

You want to live in a jungle of concrete?? And as far as i know, india has built good roads, metros etc. only exception is those tall high rise buildings. My concept of development is to develop the infrastructure that will ease up human life but at the same time preserving the environment, trees and nature.

cghal12

Nah it will only promote toxicity in the air and most importantly there is no green belt among the road. The government will have to incur heavy expenses just to increase the pollution level.
Solution
It would be more suitable if among the skyscrapers there is a lavish green belt and a suitable pathway for hoarders and cyclists to ride their bike. 
This should be appropriate according to me sir ☺️

Aryan8706

Money. Plain and simple. 

India is still very poor despite all the chest beating. This is visible in every corner of India. It’s just a $3.2 trillion dollar economy with 1.5 billion people to feed. Compare this with China : $18 Trillion with 1.4 billion people. Japan: $4 trillion with just 140 million people. France: $3 trillion with only 68 million people and the biggest is USA: $24 trillion with just 335 million people. A lot of gyani Indians will give stupid explanations on how we are better, superior, etc but the numbers speak for themselves. The other reasons are extremely poor civic sense, insane corruption and regressive pre-historic mentality which is capitalized by politicians to line their pockets. Unlike the other countries, India never really had a sustained Industrial Revolution, and Indian products/technology are not in much demand globally. It’s changing, but very slowly.

TribalSoul899

Mostly corruption, and incompetence. 

There is a great book called “Why nations Fail”, which explores why some nation grew faster than others since the very beginning, and what factors could have contributed to that growth. 

One conclusion was, that an open society with competent institutions, equality of opportunity, and a singular goal would be a healthy environment for innovation, businesses and explosive growth. It then explored how nations with corrupt institutions, or even the consequences of colonisation, either never developed or failed to develop competent institutions and societal values for optimal growth. It also explored the nature of people with power and how they consolidated resources of a nation to their favour, robbing nations of their true potential. 

India doesn’t look like this because for one, we started late. A lot of our growth continues to be hindered by corruption, religion, casteism, etc. Almost every individual in our country has artificial limitations placed on them which hinders their creativity or risk taking capacity and therefore slows the pace of innovation and growth. There are roadblocks in our nation for everything, from opening and business to producing thought provoking creative media, everything is hindered by red-tape and incompetence because that’s how are institutions are designed. 

And that’s why, outside of 4-5 cities, most of our nation continues to remain in the 1970s. And while there are bubbles of great growth, for example the ease of doing business in Bangalore or the the hub of entertainment that is Mumbai, other parts of our nation are rife with corruption, incompetence, discrimination etc. Directly corroding India’s potential for growth.

outlaw_king10

People of India, they only want temples and death of Muslims

This looks good but it's what is wrong with western urban design concepts. And noobs like it cause ''shiny'' is always better. This will excaberate the car situation and lead to traffic jams near choke points. High rises with no parking provision lead to parking issues in the area. Also as office timings are similar, people will overwhelm the road carrier capacity during rush hour. Also glass building in hot climate like India is just bonkers. The only saving grace here is a rapid transit system but look at all the road lying unsed and no provision to cross it via footover...

Please for the love of God, don't ever give us this kind of development!

dukemall

This should be a pinned post for this subreddit

rushan3103

What can we as citizens do to pressure the govt to take better steps. How do we really hold the authorities accountable?

phtm-V

Unfortunately there's no realistic solution for this.  Efficient development goes against the established incentive structures that have essentially made this country work.

th3eternalch4mpion

Thanks for writing this. I always wondered. I am architect but don’t practice and in public service outside India. This provides a good perspective and rationale. I wish ppl understood this and push for this shift. Instead are in a never ending loop that doesn’t go anywhere. Governance plays a huge role in the betterment of the society and the country at large

brownstock

A Land Value Tax will fix it. In China almost 50% of the tax revenue goes to local governments. In USA it is more than 30%.
However in India it is less than 3%. That is because we don't collect property taxes in India.
We need Land Value Tax, the better version of property tax to empower our local bodies.

PorekiJones

My uncle’s been in urban planning for years, and everything you’ve written mirrors what he deals with daily. The bureaucracy, lack of real autonomy for cities, and how good design gets steamrolled by engineering shortcuts, it’s all spot on. He says unless local bodies actually get empowered (beyond paperwork) it’s just cosmetic fixes over structural issues. Glad someone’s saying it out loud.

Over_Celebration_129

While I agree with you on almost everything, the public participation thing imo is a very very slippery slope. I wouldn't trust the public as far as I could throw them, and given the obesity rates in India that would not be very far at all.

Mysterious_Ad2326

In this context, please read this article, also from an insider. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/devolution-powers-local-governments-dipali-rastogi-4cekf?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_android&amp;utm_campaign=share_via

Low_Apricot756

I think that paint was for the bump but they could've used another colour lol

zeusjuice0801

It does in a few handful places, and, on paper everywhere.

pungentcunt

I hate how pavements are never continuous anywhere... Buildings just carve out a slope on to the road wherever they please.

great_raisin

I have yet to see a functional zebra crossing in india where cars actually stop and wait for you to cross

Smooth_Ad8077

Urban planner here, they can be justified.

1. Looks like GK2/CR Park. Earlier it could have been a u-turn which was removed when the road got updated in hierarchy. It's to let through traffic pass. (I've lived in South Delhi &amp; seen that happen.)
2. Can't really complain here. Local roads are almost always empty. They're not supposed to have pedestrian sidewalks anyway. You're supposed to walk on the road.

harkaran619

Mostly roads and infrastructure are made only when the elections are close,whether it be a local or state.

JulianFoxFire

Reminds of that song (दिल्ली से है b******d) where the guy is dancing in front of his bride ..

Minute-Egg8197

They are most corrupted people in the government! Urban planning is a myth in India

ganext

bladewidth

260+ upvotes and 60+ comments..thanks everyone atleast the *genius* urban planners gave us a topic to talk about😂

manikraina

OP lives in a third world poor country, probably doesnt pay taxes if in business and expects services akin to first world countries.

inherent_sad

recognise degree payment worthless nutty foolish existence sand uppity cable

 *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

I_Watch_Turtle_Porn

I agree with other answers which mention factors like lack of planning, ineptitude of governments/parties, population,etc. I think another factor might be a lack of fascination with or significance given to aesthetics, both at a collective and an individual level. In a lot of European countries, while there are laws and planning that try to maintain or uplift aesthetic standards, people themselves contribute to it (for example, by not making their house standout and breaking the aesthetic of the street). I also think the prime example of this lack of appreciation with atleast external aesthetics is the Ambani house. I mean wtf is that.

thisneedsphilosophy

Almost all of our major cities were built by the Brits nearly 100-200 years ago. They weren't built to handle the kind of population they have. They are bursting at the seams now because we have had some serious rural-urban migration over the past 70 years. This is because of the utter failure in reforming the primary sector and making it sustainable. So farmers and rural folk are literally fleeing the villages. The solution to this would have been building more cities. But our political class had no interest to actually to do any work like that. For a country like India, we need hundreds of new cities. 

Also another reason none of our major cities resemble world class cities is because they dont have political authority. Cities are controlled by state governments. They leech of the citiy's money but dont even give autonomy in return.Cities have their own needs and different from rural areas. But state appointed commissioners have no interest to transform cities. They just hold the line.

Additional_Pilot

Our revenue system is extremely top heavy. Local Government spending is low compared to Central Government spending. This is not conducive to city planning. When the West was urbanizing, they had (and still have) powerful local governments.  Cities and counties and states had far more legal powers than the Central Government and far more bottom up revenue. For example, for more than a hundred years combined local Government spending in the USA was more than twice that of the Federal Government spending.

The mayor of New York is one of the most powerful person in the world. Do we know who the mayor of Bangalore is? Does it even matter? Our city commissioners are weak, our town municipality is powerless and utterly dependent on the top Government for whatever revenue they can beg for. 


There was a push for stronger local government with the panchayat system but we messed it up completely. Perhaps because we Indians are scared of local people governing themselves and are more comfortable with a centralized powerful bureaucracy.

kolikaal

Because of politics in India is different from those countries. To develop big cities you need to clear many areas, break down many old constructions and houses and it would make a lot of people angry. Due to our fractured vote share between multiple political parties these votes are very important.

Also, urban infrastructure was neglected because political parties don't want to lose their pro-poor image. Countries like Thailand, China or Malaysia are more urban than India.

bikbar

Two things: Population and Bureaucracy. The latter doesn't need any explanation. 

For the former though, Indian cities (I'm sticking to metros currently) tend to be way more dense than European or American cities, on top of supporting a larger population. As a result more money is required to provide for the basics, and even then they sometimes fail to do so, or are terribly mismanaged.

And it also has something to do with the "Aswaccha Bharat Abhiyan" of us Indians (and nope I didn't spell that wrong.)

undercutkid

Corruption and lack of education.  
There isn't any proper planning (maybe it exists on paper) and people bribe their way to get anything approved.

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Freebies Dene se development nahi hota kya?

GreyBeard_9

--Create a footpath.


---Stalls takeover the footpath


---No footpath left now

ROC_K4LP

Once a wise man said

" L@wda ki sarkaar"

Logical_Grocery942

These must be done by Local governments or sometimes state governments. 

U can see this in various perspective:

1. State govt doesnt transfer enough funds to local govts. And most local govts are filled with people who have political backing or people who give money to politicians and get posted.

2. Doing these during the election year gives them advantage so they postponed

3. Our State govts in India knows giving 1000 / any freebies gives them votes than doing these. After so many years living in filth, it becomes okish for us. So they dont worry.

4. Local governments are mostly vacant or filled with lazy people.

5. There is no coordination between departments, 1st they lay road then they dig for internet cables, water pipes etc.

Oh the Government spends but it almost always goes into the wrong pockets

kos1111

rage-wedieyoung

Nobody will vote for development but reservation and freebies

flyingSavage2

If you observe closely they are. One contractor to build it and another to destroy it for another department. The secondary benefit is employment generation. The third is, the public always know work is going on. Don't ask constructive or destructive.

mech_money

Pahele 2 vakt ki roti ka jugaad hojay aur mantri ji ka pet bhar Jaye fir karyakarm aage badhe 😂

fractured-butt-hole

Government plans for urban infrastructure development have been announced, aiming to tackle issues like congestion and inadequate public transport in major cities.

Infrastructure Development in Urban India

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