India needs $2.4 trillion urban infra investment by 2050: World Bank

India would need an investment of $2.4 trillion by 2050 to meet the urban infrastructure requirement of an estimated population of 951 million in its cities by then, with a critical role to be played by the private sector, the World Bank said. It estimates the requirement to be $10.9 trillion by 2070, when the urban population is projected to be 1.1 billion.

In a report titled ‘Towards Resilient and Prosperous Cities in India’, prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the World Bank said over 50% of the urban infrastructure required for 2050 is still to be built, giving India a critical opportunity to drive resilient urban infrastructure development.

The report, released on Tuesday, proposes setting up a task force to look into urban financing and lay out a roadmap for managing floods as well as heat impact on urban life.

According to World Bank estimates, 144 million urban dwellings will be needed between 2022 and 2070 for new urban population, which is more than double of the existing housing stock.

“The current capital expenditure in Indian cities, an overwhelming share of which is from public fiscal resources, is far below what is needed,” it said, adding that the cities’ own-source revenue is low and remained flat at 1% of GDP from 2011 to 2018. “An urban finance strategy and road map can help identify key actions to increase public and private sector financing for resilience actions,” it suggested.

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The report said Indian cities could face annual economic losses of up to $30 billion by 2070 in the absence of any urgent and strategic investments in climate-resilient urban infrastructure.



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