Introduction

Urban infrastructure consists of drinking water, sanitation, sewage systems, electricity and gas distribution, urban transport, primary health services and environmental regulation. Rapid economic growth will inevitably lead to an increase in urbanization as cities provide large economies of agglomeration for individual activity. Unfortunately, the state of urban infrastructure in India has deteriorated to an extent that we are not able to benefit from these economies. Poor urban infrastructure inflicts a severe hardship on people. Congested roads, poor public transport, inadequate availability of water, improper treatment of sewage, uncollected solid waste, and above all grossly inadequate housing that forces more than 50 percent of population in some metropolis to live in slums. Unless we deal with these problems now, the situation will deteriorate further as urban population may rise from present 28 percent to 40-50 percent by 2025.

Feedback is working on a large number of government, multilateral and private sector projects across all the elements of urban infrastructure to speed up the momentum of urban reforms.