India’s Cities Are Expanding. But Are They Being Built to Last?

India’s cities are expanding at remarkable speed. The uncomfortable question is whether they are being planned to accommodate that growth—or simply left to sprawl.

Urbanisation is usually a sign of economic transformation. But growth without planning can turn the city itself into an obstacle course. Across India, monsoon rains expose the weaknesses of roads and drainage systems; waterlogging disrupts daily life; unauthorised colonies continue to spread; air pollution has become a persistent public-health threat; and unreliable supplies of water and electricity remain a reality for millions.

Potholes and open excavations, meanwhile, are not merely inconveniences. They can become lethal.

Ranchi offers a familiar example. Roads are routinely dug up for pipelines, cables and other utilities, only to be poorly restored once the work is completed. A smooth road becomes an uneven patchwork of asphalt, forcing motorists to slow down, swerve and take risks. The obvious question is: who pays for this failure? Too often, it is neither the contractor nor the agency responsible. It is the citizen.

There is no mystery about a possible remedy. Before any utility company is permitted to excavate a public road, it should deposit a restoration bond covering the full cost of repairing the road. The money should be returned only after an independent inspection confirms that the surface has been restored to its original standard. Repeat offenders should face substantial penalties and exclusion from future contracts.

This matters because India’s urban transition is still at an early but decisive stage. World Bank data based on United Nations estimates put India’s urban population at roughly 36% in 2025—far below the levels seen in many developed economies. That means India still has an opportunity to build the infrastructure of tomorrow before today’s disorder becomes tomorrow’s permanent inheritance.

The warning signs, however, are already visible. Unauthorised construction, weak enforcement of building regulations, inadequate maintenance and fragmented responsibility create an environment in which preventable disasters can become inevitable. When an unsafe building collapses, compensation after the tragedy cannot substitute for accountability before it.

The deeper problem is governance. Where municipal officials, contractors and political interests operate within opaque systems of procurement and enforcement, regulations can become negotiable. The citizen, who has neither influence nor an alternative city to live in, carries the greatest risk.

India does not need cities that merely look modern from a distance. It needs cities that function up close.

The measure of urban progress should therefore not be the number of towers built, roads inaugurated or projects announced. It should be whether a child can walk safely to school, whether a commuter can drive without navigating dangerous excavations, whether rain brings water to reservoirs rather than streets, and whether a family can trust the building above its head.

India’s urban future will be determined not by how quickly its cities grow, but by how intelligently—and how honestly—they are governed.

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