Urbon Development Minister Shri Kamal Nath
Singapore: Highlighting the strong growth in its urban population, India, one of the densest nations in the world, today said that it is working on ways to use its land more efficiently.
India's 12th Five-Year Plan outlines the need to increase efficiency in land use, as urbanisation increases and the number of Indian cities rises to 70 in the next decade from 55 at present with the flow of population shift from rural areas, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath told the World Cities Summit here.
"We are working to formulate land use plans with town and city planners," Nath said at a session on "In Focus: India", pointing out that land was inefficiently used in India at present.
"If you take the population, and divide with the available land area, it is one of the dense countries in the world," he said.
Elaborating, Nath said "If you take away the mountains, the forests, the deserts,