India is poised for rapid economic growth. Such future growth will largely come from the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy, i.e., the industrial and service sectors. Since economic activities in these sectors primarily take place in urban areas, the state of our towns and cities is crucial to India's future growth.

Further, India's urban population is currently around 30% of its total population. Experience across the world has been that as economies grow, rapid urbanization takes this proportion to over 60% before it begins to stabilize. As such, it is projected that India's urban population would grow to about 473 million in 2021 and 820 million by 2051, as against only 285 million in 2001. Hence, cities must not only meet the mobility needs of the current population but also provide for the needs of those yet to join the urban population. In this context, the Government of India has launched the National Urban Renewal Mission (NURM) that inter-alia seeks to bring about comprehensive improvements in urban infrastructure, committing substantial funds for this purpose and requiring a series of reforms that would make the investments sustainable.

For urban areas to be able to support the required level of economic activity, they must provide for the easy and sustainable flow of goods and people. Unfortunately, however, such flow of goods and people has been facing several problems. Most prominent among them have been the following:

Accessing jobs, education, recreation and similar activities is becoming increasingly time consuming. Billions of man hours are lost with people "stuck in traffic". The primary reason for this has been the explosive growth in the number of motor vehicles, coupled with limitations on the amount of road space that can be provided. For example, on an average, while the population of India's six 2 major metropolises increased by about 1.9 times during 1981 to 2001, the number of motor vehicles went up by over 7.75 times during the same period.

The cost of travel, especially for the poor, has increased considerably. This is largely because the use of cheaper non-motorised modes like cycling and walking has become extremely risky, since these modes have to share the same right of way with motorized modes. Further, with population growth, cities have tended to sprawl and increased travel distances have made non-motorized modes impossible to use. This has made access to livelihoods, particularly for the poor, far more difficult.

Travel in the city has become more risky with accident rates having gone up from 1.6 lakh in 1981 to over 3.9 lakh in 2001. The number of persons killed in road accidents has also gone up from 28,400 to over 80,000 during the same period. This again has tended to impact the poor more severely as many of those killed or injured tend to be cyclists, pedestrians or pavement dwellers.

Unless the above problems are remedied, poor mobility can become a major dampener to economic growth and cause the quality of life to deteriorate. A policy is, therefore, needed on the approach to dealing with this rapidly growing problem as also offer a clear direction and a framework for future action.