Development Without Planning Is Not Progress

Development Without Planning Is Not Progress

India does not have a shortage of engineers, architects, environmental experts or urban planners. What we lack is a system that consistently puts competence, scientific planning, environmental responsibility and public interest above corruption, political influence and short-term commercial gain.

Look at Chandigarh—one of India’s most systematically planned cities. While its planning model cannot simply be copied everywhere, it raises an important question: Why have we failed to apply the basic principles of organised urban planning while expanding and developing so many of our cities?

Take Gurugram.

On one side stand skyscrapers, luxury apartments, multinational corporate offices and massive real-estate developments. On the other are waterlogged roads, unbearable traffic congestion, inadequate drainage, stressed groundwater resources, waste-management problems and disappearing green spaces.

Who is actually planning our cities for the human beings who have to live in them?

Town planning cannot simply mean dividing land, approving construction and allowing buildings to rise endlessly. Before permitting thousands of new homes and offices, authorities must ask basic questions: Can the roads handle additional traffic? Can the drainage system survive heavy rainfall? Is there enough water? Where will the sewage and waste go? How will groundwater be recharged? Are there sufficient green spaces? Can emergency services reach people quickly?

When these questions are ignored, poor planning becomes a threat to human life, public health and the environment.

The deeper issue is accountability. Institutions responsible for urban development must recruit competent professionals through transparent, merit-based systems. Decision-makers must be held accountable for the long-term consequences of their approvals. Allegations of corruption, recruitment irregularities or political interference must be independently investigated rather than accepted as part of the system.

A piece of land cannot become a licence to build anything, anywhere.

Every major development should undergo transparent infrastructure-capacity, environmental and human-safety assessments before approval—not after the damage has already been done.

Gurugram does not need unlimited construction disguised as development. India does not need cities measured only by the height of their skyscrapers or the price of their real estate.

We need cities where a child can breathe clean air, a pedestrian can walk safely, rainwater has somewhere to go, groundwater can recharge, waste is responsibly managed and emergency services can reach people on time.

Development without knowledge is negligence. Development without environmental responsibility is destruction. Development without accountability creates space for corruption.

And development without planning is not progress—it is a crisis we are building for the next generation.