Urban Development

Urban Development is one of my interest. I have been a Real Estate Analyst and have tracked real estate across EM and select developed markets.

City Transportation

Transportation is critical for development of cities. It is, however, not always profitable. Most policy advisors have resigned to the fact that city transportation must be subsidized. I disagree. I think it is possible to run city transportation profitably. (City may CHOOSE to subsidize the transportation but that is different aspect).

I wrote an extensive policy/strategy report for Mumbai's bus transport service BEST. It was summarized in series of 7 articles. The links are here -

  1. Improving BEST: Making City Transportation Profitable - Part1,
  2. Improving BEST: Revenue Generation of Mumbai’s public transporter –Part2
  3. Improving BEST: How to cut running cost of Mumbai’s public transporter? Part 3
  4. Improving BEST: How better coordination helps increase usability and relevance –Part4
  5. Improving BEST: Why none of the routes of Mumbai’s public transporter is profitable–Part5
  6. Improving BEST: Fleet Re-Configuration to improve efficiency –Part 6
  7. Improving BEST: Strategy for making the public transporter ‘Best for Mumbai’ –Part 7

City Development - How Cities Develop

This paper lays out how development spreads across the city. We understand two central concepts. First, how a town evolves and second how evolution happens within a town. I propose a seven phase model explaining how a population surrounding a business or factory transforms into a town. Through the transformation we point to some important developments in terms of people and their work.

The idea book postulates a growth model called “Affinity Factor Model” to explain how localities develop within a town. “Affinity factors” are those that drive the citizens towards them – e.g. business district and schools are key affinity factor. The models help us understand why airports, usually built outside city limits, attract residential populations. Or, on a lighter note, we can guess where a company will locate its office! We also derive a method to understand relative pricing between different areas. Further, we look at fundamental ideas for knowing if house prices are higher.

I also propose a structure of township centered around a workplace, based on first principles.

Download the e-book "How Cities Develop?" here