Noida turning into traffic bottleneck highlights failure of Smart City project

The massive traffic jam across Noida caused by the construction of a flyover in Sector 104 reminds us once again of India's dire need for alternative employment destinations. No matter what infrastructure the government builds in a city, the constantly burgeoning population will make sure that it becomes inadequate in a few years.

This is exactly what experts have been complaining about in Delhi-NCR since the mid-1990s, damning the region as a "massive construction site". From nothing beyond the Maruti-Suzuki factory at the Haryana end to nothing beyond the T Series factory at the Uttar Pradesh end, Delhi and the satellite townships of Gurugram and Gautam Budh Nagar have come a long way. But no infrastructure added to the region over the past 30 years has proved enough.

Bengaluru, which turned from a home for senior citizens to the most attractive of employment destinations in southern India, and Mumbai, which hardly saw an end to traffic bottlenecks during peak hours despite local trains, the Sea Link and Atal Setu, have the same story to tell. The less said about Kolkata since flyovers came up all over the city, the better. Reaching the airport from the central part of the city during the rush hour is as nightmarish in Hyderabad as it is in Ahmedabad.

Mind you, it's not merely a matter of inconvenience.

How much India loses economically due to traffic bottlenecks

Traffic congestion in India's urban areas imposes massive economic costs, including lost productivity, increased fuel consumption, and environmental degradation. While precise nationwide figures for the economic losses due to traffic bottlenecks in 2024-25 are not readily available, several studies and reports highlight the severity of the issue:

• Delhi's traffic jams: A recent analysis revealed that on a single day, significant traffic jams in central Delhi led to a waste of approximately 46,000 litres of fuel, translating to a financial loss of ₹44 lakh. Additionally, about 100,000 man-hours were lost due to these congestions, underscoring the substantial economic impact on commuters and the broader economy.

• City congestion rankings: According to the TomTom Traffic Index 2024, Indian cities are among the most congested globally. Kolkata topped the list with an average of 34 minutes and 33 seconds to travel 10 km, followed closely by Bengaluru and Pune. Such congestion levels indicate significant time delays and associated economic costs for commuters and businesses alike.

• Impact on GDP and emissions: Poor road conditions and traffic congestion not only affect travel times but also have broader economic implications. Studies suggest that bad roads can increase fuel consumption by 10-20%, leading to higher transportation costs and contributing to environmental degradation through increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Addressing traffic congestion is crucial for enhancing economic productivity and improving the quality of urban life in India.

Failure of Smart City: Mere 3 employment destinations not enough for India

The government may claim, as per the data from its official website on Smart Cities Mission, that 7,502 out of 8,062 projects have been completed (93%), with an investment of ₹1,64,687 crore, but citizens hardly feel their lives in cities have become better. As Delhi-NCR, Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Bengaluru-Hyderabad are the only three centres or stretches that attract people from all over the country, these three spots on the Indian map burst at the seams.

It is time to have a hard look at the Narendra Modi government's failure to make its Smart City project work. It did not work because the government tried to make existing cities 'smarter'. Initiatives like intelligent traffic management systems (ITMS) were awarded in 2015. Cities witness severe jams, nevertheless, due to construction and population growth.

Adjusting a settled population is an impossible task. The union and the states should instead identify barren, empty stretches across the country where new cities, the hubs of employment, can spring up. "Barren" is the operative word here; the infertility of the land will ensure there are no farmer-to-contractor land acquisition and transfer hassles, which the first Modi government had encountered.

The Smart City Mission's focus on area-based development benefits only a small portion of the city (less than 5% on average), exacerbating inequalities. There are also concerns about social equity, with reports noting risks to urban poor communities and inadequate integration of environmental sustainability (Eco-Business, 2017; ECFR, 2024).

Data show how and why India's urbanisation goes awry 

India's population distribution shows a significant rural-urban divide, with about 63.64% living in rural areas as of 2023, according to Trading Economics. However, urbanisation is on the rise, with the urban population increasing by over 4% in the last decade. This shift is driven by economic opportunities and better services in cities, attracting people from rural regions.

Urbanisation in India typically starts with villages near economic hubs, like industries or highways, growing due to increased population and economic activity. These villages can transform into cities when they meet Census of India criteria, such as a population of at least 5,000, a density of 400 persons per square kilometre and 75% of male workers in non-agricultural jobs. Examples like Punsari in Gujarat, with amenities like Wi-Fi and biogas plants, show how villages can evolve with planning and investment.

Government initiatives, such as the Smart Cities Mission, help by developing urban areas, but challenges like inadequate infrastructure and planning remain, especially with rapid growth in major regions like Delhi-NCR and Mumbai-Ahmedabad. India's population is increasingly concentrating in these spots, driven by economic opportunities.

These areas are expected to house 40% of India's population by 2030, contributing 75% of GDP (McKinsey: India’s urban awakening). The World Bank notes a projected urban population growth of 250 million by 2050, with most migration to these hubs (World Bank: Urbanization in India).

That said, you cannot evict people from a city. But when there are new employment destinations, many will voluntarily leave for them, decongesting the existing, crowded cities.

Solution

To make a new city smart, India needs to build bottom-up rather than top-down. As in many advanced economies, the construction of a city needs to begin with the construction of tunnels — for water pipelines, wires, cables, gas connections, drains, fibre optic cables, etc — with staircases for workers to get in and out without the need to dig after the city is fully made. On top of this network of tunnels, there will be roads. In the rectangular grids formed by the network of roads, there will be buildings.

The stairway passages in and out of tunnels will ensure there are no manholes with sewage emitting methane underneath, a health hazard for safai karmcharis. If a cable or a pipeline needs to be repaired, the government electrician or plumber just climbs down the stairs, does the fixing and emerges easily, unharmed. It will be like a city under the city, or a basement of the city, with only workers having access to the underground infrastructure.

What happens in India instead is that the country has, say, a village with haphazardly oriented huts (notice them between railway stations while travelling by train). In due course, the village turns into a city. The municipality then tries to find passages between the huts-turned-buildings. So, you have roads passing through the back lanes of some houses, under somebody's window and over somebody's roof.

Since all infrastructure in the village is above the ground, once the place becomes a city, municipal corporations start digging to shove the connections under! And every time the population thickens, a new piece of infrastructure is conceived, which again turns the whole city into an extended construction site.

Minutiae that town planners often miss: India has very few roads that are straight and perpendicular to one another — even where no river or mountain forced the engineers to work around the natural formations. The curved or angular roads make their junctions triangular, making it difficult to construct houses at the corners, and that is yet another problem. Roads must be straight, at 90° with one another at the junctions.

Feasibility of the idea