Climate Resilient Affordable Housing in Indian Cities- Cases of Bhubaneswar amd Ahmedabad
India is on the forefront of rapid urbanization and transition with about 7900+ census towns and cities and about 400 million+ urban residents which is expected to become 600 million plus by 2036. Indian cities also face higher vulnerabilities due to the higher level of unmet basic services, share of urban poverty and rapidly changing climatic trends. The challenges of urbanization often manifest in the form of overcrowding, congestion, insufficient infrastructure, inadequate service prioritization, mainly in terms of drinking water, sanitation, energy, transport, solid waste management, environmental degradation, and pollution etc. One of the significant challenges that has emerged with urbanization globally and in India, specifically, is to provide affordable housing in rapidly growing cities.
According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India estimates, the housing shortage was estimated to be around 18.78 million in 2012. According to various estimates indicate that, the demand for residential floor space will potentially grow from 15.3 billion sq.mt. in 2017-18 to 22-23 billion sq.mt. by 2030. This is significant, as a substantial segment of this new floor space (45%) is expected to cater to ‘affordable housing’ segment and much of this demand would be in the self-built or Do It Yourself segments. India’s national target for GHG Reductions by 2030 and Net Zero by 2070 are majorly dependent on Indian cities, especially on the built environment, where the role of beneficiary led affordable housing would continue to be a significant segment in the future. Transformative shift is required from present “top down’ approach, India needs to develop “bottoms up” systems and processes to mainstream the aspects of Green, Affordable and Resilient housing.
