Mitigating the shortage of urban housing, which is projected to reach 48 million by 2022, and will adversely affect the urban poor and lower income groups, India is focusing upon reversing this effect, with schemes such as the ‘PMAY – Housing for All’ Mission. About 200,000 hectares of land will be needed to provide the housing deficit until 2022, notwithstanding the other requirements needed such as water, energy, building materials, solid waste management services, etc. Building this new city infrastructure will not come cheap, and will require special financing, FDI, and other ways of raising investments.

It is imperative to ensure building infrastructure that is resource-efficient, climate-responsive, resilient, safe, healthy, comfortable and most importantly affordable to the rapidly growing urban masses, especially urban poor. Smart Cities in India, through its focus on PAN city development, and building greenfields cities is pushing for affordable and comfortable living situations for all citizens. Through the ‘Building Affordable Cities’ panel, our expert speakers will get the opportunity to discuss some of these shortcomings and challenges of building affordable cities, as well as offer their expert solutions to the problems we face.