9.36 ndian onom
scale infrastructure. The failures of the society which checks negative externalities
city are also well known: of the urban expansion. The township
It suffered from lack of cohesive was rated the second best in the country
urban plan and its explosive growth by ORG Marg Nielsen (the worldwide
has outpaced the planning efforts market research firm) on its “quality-of-
(like in any other Indian cities). life index” in 2008, and in 2010 the city
Multiple layers of local and higher was ranked 7th of 441 cities and towns in
authorities, having greater power India on “sanitation” and “cleanliness” by
to extract rents, have increased the the Ministry of Urban Development.
transaction costs for the private India needs to take few important
builders. Different private builders lessons from the experience the above-
have to seek different political cited examples—so that the privately
patronage as otherwise none would developed townships are ideal ones:
manage to function. (i) Private sector can develop quite a
Competition among private suppliers competitive urban centres.
has produced two failures: (ii) Private sector will have to bear the
(i) Prices of water, electricity, sewage, burden of higher transaction costs,
and so forth are close to marginal if the city is managed by multiple
cost but average cost is far too high authorities. Such costs would also be
(because of the failure to exploit higher if initial cohesive development
economies of scale). plan for the city is not put in
place. Post-growth infrastructure
(ii) Competitive suppliers have produced
development costs are much higher
negative externalities such as excess
and at times prohibitive.
pollution with diesel fumes, over
used common resources by dumping (iii) The active role of civil society can
sewage waste and, groundwater prevent excessive exploitation of
dissipation leading to unsustainable resources and reduce the impact of
level of water table. A vibrant civil negative externalities associated with
rapid urbanisation. We see this being
society could have been able to put
present in the latter but absent in the
checks on such issues (but city being
former.
quite young this is almost absent by
now).
PPP models
2. Jamshedpur: This is a private township
and one of the best-governed cities in Managing adequate amount of fund for
India. Jamshedpur Utilities and Services infrastructure development has been always a
Company Ltd. (JUSCO), a wholly-owned challenge for India. In reform era, the government
subsidiary of Tata Steel, is responsible for evolved the idea of public private partnership (PPP)
provisioning of the basic services here. for the sector aimed at attracting investments from
The township is widely regarded as having the private sector (domestic as well as foreign). We
some of the best urban infrastructure in see an encouraging contributions coming from the
the country and JUSCO is considered private sector in this regard also. But by 2013-14,
a model provider. It has a grown up civil the PPPs started getting unattractive for the