Urban Development

Despite developing countries generally having a higher population in the rural sector, the urban sector has caught the imagination of development professionals and agencies over the last few decades. With more than a quarter of people living in cities and economic opportunities bringing in teeming millions, cities and especially its underbelly – the slums remains, in some ways, worse than its rural counterparts. Hence, if cities are to function as engines of economic growth, they will need adequate development, the poor will need additional support and the state will need to ensure equity.

IPE’s original and core expertise is in the urban sector. For the last 12 years, we have been consistently working on urban development issues and have seen the changes in the sector, right from the days when the whole focus was on resource mobilization to the current status where with abundance of funding from JNNURM, the focus has shifted to project design, management and maintenance.Our work has ranged from developing urbanization strategies, diagnostic studies, legal drafting, identification of interventions, designing of systems, handholding and capacity building and enhancing governance systems, among many.To view a list of projects in the urban sector, click here

IPE has been working with Municipal Bodies, Urban Development Authorities, state agencies and international donors in designing, implementing, managing and evaluating various urban programmes. Besides India, IPE has also worked on international assignments in the urban sector of Bhutan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia respectively.
Some of the areas where IPE has worked/is working are:

Preparation of City Vision Statement and State / National Urban Strategy;
Development of City Development Plans for mid-term (5 years) and short term (1 year)annual plans;
Design of large scale urban programme covering areas like institutional and organizational systems, resource mobilization and financial management, social development and economic development;
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) of systems and practices to bring in transparency and efficiency
Preparing Detailed Project Report (DPRs) for various urban infrastructure projects by municipalities;
Slum upgradation, development and empowerment including rehabilitation and resettlement plans;
Social development activities including economic development, Thrift & Credit Societies, providing voice and economic opportunities to the vulnerable;
Enhancing citizens accountability through Citizen’s Charter, grievance redressal systems and use of IT in governance;
Drafting enabling legal framework including Acts, Rules and regulations which facilitate modern systems and management;
Helping municipal bodies migrate to modern efficient accounting and financial management practices (i.e. double entry, accrual accounting);
Developing Geographical Information System (GIS) to improve revenue collection, infrastructure management and spaticl planning;
Designing e-governance strategy, developing functional specifications for software, testing and implementation of software;
Designing State level Municipal Development Funds to allow leveraging of various sources of finance;
Project management services for various projects including JNNURm funded infrastructure, housing and social development projects;
Designing bond issues and helping raise funds from external sources;
Enhancing revenues from property tax and finding innovative ways of raising revenue without increasing tax levels;
Identifying land and other passive assets which can be leveraged to raise further funds for the municipality;
Designing PPP projects for commercial development and service delivery;
Capacity Building of municipal staff including training, best practice visits and handholding;