On 3 December 2005 the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh officially launched the most ambitious Urban Development program ever undertaken in India. Titled Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the program, which involves an investment of $US28 billion over seven years, will cover approximately 60 cities in India, and will focus attention on the integrated development of urban infrastructure and services, with an emphasis on the provision of basic services including housing, water supply, sanitation, slum improvement and community toilets to the urban poor.

This program is of great significance to the trenchless community, as the method of the urban renewal process has not yet been decided, and Trenchless Technology has the advantage of providing a method of completing the renewal process without displacing residents, who will be the main beneficiaries of the mission.

Significance to the trenchless fraternity

There are several areas in the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT) and NURM where Trenchless Technology could be applied. These include the redevelopment of inner (old) city areas, for example in the widening of narrow streets, shifting of industrial/commercial establishments from non-conforming (inner-city) areas to conforming (outer-city) areas to reduce congestion. Trenchless Technology could also be used to replace old and worn-out water pipes with new or higher capacity ones, and to renew sewerage, drainage or solid waste disposal systems.

Trenchless Technology could also be used in water supply and sanitation; setting up desalination plants, sewerage and solid waste management; construction and improvement of drains and storm water drains; laying, improvement and widening of arterial and sub-arterial roads and bridges to remove transport bottlenecks and construction and development of bus and truck terminals.

There is also the possibility of Trenchless Technology playing a role in environmental improvement and city beautification schemes, city buildings, street lighting, civic amenities like playgrounds or stadiums, community halls, hospital waste management and urban transport.

Opportunities for the trenchless fraternity

Cities and towns contribute over 50 per cent to India’s gross domestic product, and as such are central to the nation’s economic growth. This is even more evident at a time of major economic reform, increased competition amid globalisation and an explosion in the use of information and communication technology.

However, cities and towns also face major infrastructure and service deficiencies, marked by unresponsive delivery and regulatory systems and poorly maintained, under-invested and over-stressed service networks. Land and property markets are grossly distorted and most cities have experienced a rise in the number of households without adequate shelter and basic services. About one third of India’s urban population is estimated to be living below the poverty line.

In 1996, a comprehensive report on infrastructure in India estimated the gap between the available and required investment resources for urban infrastructure at about $A5.1 billion, and indications are that this gap has subsequently grown. Nearly 50 per cent of urban households have inadequate access to potable water and another 65 per cent have no access to sanitation services. No Indian city has a constant water supply. A legacy of imprudent management, insufficient financial controls, poor tax administration and low levels of cost recovery have weakened the fiscal capacity of most cities to address these issues, and as yet the intergovernmental fiscal system has been unable to systematically support necessary reforms. City administrations hence remain unable to effectively respond to citizens, and the intergovernmental system has been too fragmented to assist them to turn this around. Trenchless Technology can play a role in alleviating these problems, as it allows for development without disturbing an area’s population.

There is a growing consensus that widespread reform in governance and provision of services is required and that such reforms cannot be undertaken through isolated projects. More systemic reform is required. However, most cities seem unlikely to be able to carry the costs of transition on their own. This will delay reform and disadvantage the poor during the reform process. The delays are likely to cause continuing under-performance in municipal service delivery and further decline in the quality of services. It will also slow economic development in cities and towns, and given their importance to the national economy, this will jeopardise national economic growth and development.

Against this backdrop, the National Urban Renewal Mission will particularly pay attention to providing housing, water supply, sanitation, improvement of slum areas and other such facilities to the poor, potentially through Trenchless Technology. This program fulfils part of the commitments made in the National Common Minimum Program (NCMP) for initiating a comprehensive program of urban renewal and the expansion of social housing in cities and towns. The urban renewal mission will be the most ambitious urban development program ever to be undertaken in India. A combined investment by the Centre, state governments and the urban local bodies of more than $A30 billion is proposed to be spent on this program over the next seven years.

Conclusion

Trenchless techniques provide opportunities to execute several subsurface development and management assignments in an environmentally friendly manner without displacing residents. Although it is evident that most of the mission’s objectives can be successfully achieved using Trenchless Technology, the next major challenge will be to have these techniques accepted by development agencies.

However as India’s economy continues to boom, and its population continues to grow, Trenchless Technologies may prove to be the most viable, or even the only construction methods which can be used in developing cities equipped to cater to economic and population growth.