In China, the govt builds/prepares a piece of land (putting up infrastructure, roads, railways, sewerage, treatment plants, utility generators, – all that you need in a properly functioning city). Then it auctions the parcels of the land to different developers on bid basis. The developers then build the cities. Naturally when the city/satellite townships are populated they are properly functioning already.

In India it is the other way round. There is a road – the govt sells the land to private developers- the developers take care of the rest on private initiative. Does private initiative work – In 10 years time Gurgaon and all those clone cities will come to a standstill – there will be no place to process the raw waste that is fast accumulating. People who have originally bought the apartments will have sold them off by then and made a tidy profit.

Firstly, high rises are not environmentally good. High rises need huge massive foundations and large amounts of concrete to fixate it to the ground. Such vast spreads of concrete trap a lot of heat within the city and they also prevent rainwater from getting naturally absorbed into the ground. You can see a living example in the city of bombay.

Secondly, freeing up a large amount of space outside the city doesnt really lead to the development of parks and green belts. Free space would immediately be targeted by land sharks who will only use it for more real estate development. Remember that any DeCi is bound to attract a lot of people who have hopes of settling down there and the influx is not likely to slow down after all high rises are occupied. And in the end, housing is more money-yielding than parks.

Thirdly and most importantly, one can never predict how a city develops. Fifteen years ago, few people believed that a software spurt would fuel India’s economy upwards and Bangalore’s infrastructure downwards. And yet it happened. And it wasnt just the government who was caught on the wrong foot. A large part of the public and the media were unable to predict just how strained Bangalore’s infrastructure would become.

Its a wonderful concept no doubt but I think a far better plan would be to develop rural infrastructure and cut down the trend to migrate to cities. Not only that, governments should should stop encouraging excessive investments from getting concentrated in certain areas and strive for an equal distribution of wealth. This would not only cut down migration to major cities but also encourage many people to move out of these cities to rural and semi-urban areas thus reducing burdens even more.

Why do you think that people should be forced to live in high-rises? Do you think that coersion is a good thing? Do you believe in people having the freedom to choose where they wish to live, of course subject to the condition that they can afford it?

Moreover, living in high-rises is environmentally detrimental because of higher per-capita overall energy consumption.

Sorry to tell, but this concept seems very naive.

The execution can be, or should be, from the private sector but planning for such a city will have to come from an entity that has no vested interests other than public good, is responsive to all factions of society, caring equally for the rich and poor, the residential and commercial, and so on. And that entity in any country is – you guessed it – the government.

Here in the US, all urban development is private, but the heavy hand of “central planning” is evident everywhere. American municipalities and cities control planning with a tight fist. To give you an example, if a tree dies on a commercial property such as a shopping center or an office, it must be replaced by an equal size tree within 30 days or there is a fine in most cities. As a private citizen, you cannot even build a 10′ x 10′ shed on your property without running afoul of 3 laws prohibiting you to do so.

My point is that planning cannot become a free for all. The trick is to forge a three-way partnership among the government, citizens and private enterprise through codes and statutes as well as incentives. But the best laid plans will go awry without a properly functioning government. I am told that India is not short of good planning, but the infractions are too numerous. So good government is the key. Here we go again with the “responsible government” theme!

A private real estate development firm could build it for a few tens of billions of dollars.

And if it was a private development, the company could build a wall around it and put private security guards at the entrances to keep the lower classes out, which seems to be a selling point to some.