India is urbanising at a pace that its urban planning system is structurally incapable of managing. This is not a prediction. It is an observation of what is already happening in cities across the country, where infrastructure is under historic stress and housing affordability has collapsed for everyone except the wealthiest households.

Mumbai provides the clearest illustration. The city was planned for 2 million people. It now houses 22 million. Its water supply system, drainage network, rail capacity, and road infrastructure were all designed for a city that ceased to exist before India's independence. Every monsoon season reveals the gaps in acute and expensive terms.

Delhi is planned, but the plan has been captured: master plans designate residential zones where commercial development follows, designate green buffers where construction proceeds, designate road alignments that are then monetised for other uses.

The solution requires a genuine transfer of planning authority and financial resources to city governments — entities that currently have neither the powers nor the revenues to function effectively. Urban local bodies collect approximately 1 per cent of GDP in revenues in India against the global best practice of 4-6 per cent for cities with comparable service mandates. Without fiscal empowerment, urban planning remains an aspiration expressed in documents that have no reliable mechanism of implementation.