India must build new Chicago every year till 2030 to meet its urban demand: Union Min

India will have to build a new Chicago every year to meet its massive urban demand as 40 per cent of the country's population is projected to reside in urban areas by 2030, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said.

Addressing the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development here on Wednesday, the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs asserted that India's development goals will be met in an inclusive manner anchored in the human rights.

Puri, who served as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013, said nearly 600 million Indians will reside in urban areas by 2030, the target year for achieving UN's ambitious development agenda.

"To lay further emphasis on India's urban prospects - from now till 2030, India has to build 700 to 900 million square metres of urban space every year. In other words, India will have to build a new Chicago every year from now till 2030 to meet its urban demand," Puri told the UN forum attended by diplomats, top UN officials, civil society member, urban planners and national stakeholders.

Chicago is the third most populous city in the US after New York and Los Angeles with over 2.7 million residents and has an area of 606.4 square kilometres. He stressed that India still had to build 70 per cent of the new urban infrastructure required by 2030 and this has to be green and resilient.

Puri linked the success of the 2030 Development Agenda to India's national success in achieving the Sustainable Development goals, saying that "if India succeeds, the 2030 Agenda will succeed."The Millennium Development Goals succeeded because China was able to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and I say with equal conviction," that India is well on its way to achieve its 2030 Agenda.

"India's national development goals...policy initiatives for inclusive development converge well with the SDGs, and India will play a leading role in determining the success of the SDGs, globally," Puri said. He asserted that India will achieve its development goals, including the SDG Goal 11 of sustainable cities and communities, in an inclusive manner anchored in human rights.

"We will resettle people in slums on an as-is-where-is basis, that is they will be resettled where they are living," he said. At present, over 30 per cent of India's population, on a base of 1.2 billion, lives in urban centres, as compared to 17 per cent of the population living in urban areas at the time of India's independence in 1947.