Economy · Sub-pillar 4.7
Cities, towns and villages
Well-planned cities with public transport and clean public spaces, and villages with the roads, connectivity, water and services that make staying a real choice.
What is cities, towns and villages?
Cities, towns and villages is sub-pillar 4.7 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the seventh of nine sub-pillars under the Economy pillar. It asks whether cities are planned for the people who live in them, with public transport and clean public spaces, and whether villages have the roads, connectivity, water and services that make staying a real choice rather than a last resort.
Why it matters for 2047
By 2047 close to half of Indians will live in cities and towns, and the other half will live in villages that are no longer cut off from them. How those places are built, run and connected will decide more about daily life than almost any national policy: the hours spent commuting, the air breathed, the water in the tap, the distance to a school.
Indian cities grew faster than they were planned, and most people who moved to them found work before they found housing, transport or drainage. The second edition of the framework gave cities, towns and villages their own sub-pillar because liveability is a question in its own right, separate from the highways and power plants counted under Infrastructure.
Villages matter equally. A village with an all-weather road, tap water, a signal and a functioning school is a place people can choose to stay; one without them pushes its young to the cities whether or not the cities are ready.
Where India stands
- 13.3-13.8
city buses per lakh urban residents is India's current fleet, against a government benchmark of 44, a shortfall of about 70%; more than 400 cities with populations between one and ten lakh have no city bus service at all.[1]
- 7,87,520 km
of rural roads had been completed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana by December 2025, 95% of what was sanctioned since 2000; the fourth phase aims to connect 25,000 more habitations by 2029.[2]
- 82.1%
of rural households had a tap water connection in July 2026, up from 16.7% in 2019, under the Jal Jeevan Mission, now extended to December 2028.[3]
- 17.4%
of India's urban population, 6.55 crore people, lived in slums at the 2011 Census, the most recent count; the 2027 Census will be the first update in sixteen years.[4]
Villages have been connected at a pace that is easy to take for granted: nearly eight lakh kilometres of rural roads, tap water in four of five rural homes, and near-universal electricity and mobile coverage, with the remaining unconnected habitations now numbered in the tens of thousands rather than millions. [2][3]
Cities are the harder story. India runs about 65,000 organised city buses, a fleet a tenth of what planners say it needs by 2047, and hundreds of mid-sized cities have no public bus at all, which pushes people onto two-wheelers and cars and onto the roads where most traffic deaths happen. [1] The last count of slum dwellers is fifteen years old. [4]
A note on the numbers: the bus figures come from a civil-society study using government fleet data; road and water figures are programme data from the ministries concerned, which count assets built rather than services working; the slum figure is from the 2011 Census and will be superseded by Census 2027.
On the 47 BH report card
Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:
- City buses per lakh urban population, and share of urban trips by public transport (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Census).
- Rural habitations with an all-weather road and with tap water (PMGSY; Jal Jeevan Mission).
- Share of the urban population living in slums (Census).
Two lenses on cities, towns and villages
City and village
This sub-pillar is the city-and-village lens itself. 47 BH asks whether a town of two lakh people has a bus, a sewer and a park, whether a metro's growth is planned rather than endured, and whether a village has the road, water and signal that let its young people choose to stay. The measure of a developed Bharat is that the choice between village and city is a real one.
Learn, avoid, protect
- Learn
- What can India learn from cities that moved most trips onto buses and trains, that planned for the people who will arrive rather than the people already there, and from countries whose villages kept their populations because services came to them?
- Avoid
- Which mistakes should it avoid, such as building flyovers for cars while buses dwindle, letting cities expand without water and drainage, or counting a village as served because a pipe was laid?
- Protect
- What of its own should it protect, such as the dense, walkable old cores of its cities, the village commons and water bodies, and the panchayat and ward institutions that could govern these places if they were allowed to?
What this sub-pillar does not cover
Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:
- Highways, railways, power and digital networks nationally: Economy: Infrastructure
- Affordable homes and the cost of living: Economy: Housing and cost of living
- The movement of people from villages to cities and its effect on families: Family and Society: Migration and the diaspora
- Clean air, water and waste as environmental questions: Nature: Air and water
- The powers and finances of city corporations and panchayats: Governance: Institutions and citizens' rights
Questions about cities, towns and villages
How many buses do Indian cities have?
About 65,000 organised city buses, or 13.3 to 13.8 per lakh urban residents, against a government benchmark of 44 per lakh, according to a 2026 study by the Centre for Science and Environment and the CITIES Forum. Over 400 cities with populations between one and ten lakh have no city bus service. [1]
How many villages in India have roads?
7,87,520 km of rural roads had been completed under PMGSY by December 2025, 95% of the length sanctioned since 2000. PMGSY-IV aims to connect 25,000 remaining habitations by 2028-29. [2]
How many rural homes have tap water?
82.09% of rural households, about 15.89 crore, had a tap water connection on 18 July 2026, up from 16.71% when the Jal Jeevan Mission began in August 2019, according to the Ministry of Jal Shakti. [3]
How many Indians live in slums?
6.55 crore people, 17.4% of the urban population, at the 2011 Census, the most recent count. The 2027 Census will provide the first new figure. [4]
Why does 47 BH put cities and villages in one sub-pillar?
Because they are two ends of the same choice. Whether a young person stays in a village or moves to a city depends on what each offers, and a developed Bharat is one where both are places people choose to live.
Sources
- Centre for Science and Environment and CITIES Forum, "Reinventing the Urban Bus", study released 10 August 2026. https://www.cseindia.org/urban-bus-transport-systems-in-dire-straits-in-india-says-new-cse-cities-forum-study-13205
- Ministry of Rural Development, "Celebrating 25th Anniversary: Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana", Press Information Bureau, 25 December 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=2208381®=3&lang=2
- Ministry of Jal Shakti, "Extension of the Jal Jeevan Mission and Transfer of Rural Water Supply Schemes", Rajya Sabha written reply, Press Information Bureau, 27 July 2026. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2290048®=3&lang=1
- PRS Legislative Research, "Demand for Grants 2026-27 Analysis: Housing and Urban Affairs", February 2026, citing Census 2011 and the Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage. https://prsindia.org/files/budget/budget_parliament/2026/DfG_Analysis_2026-27-Housing.pdf
47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.