The earlier chapters talked about TOD and Airport Developments in India and the similarities and differences between these two asset classes. This article talks about what we can and should do in India to mitigate urban development challenges.

To build efficient Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) systems, India does not primarily need better metro lines. It needs better urban governance.

TODs fail not because of engineering limits, but because they sit at the intersection of land, politics, property rights, municipal finance, and behaviour. If airports are infrastructure projects, TODs are governance projects.

Here is what India realistically needs to do promoter TODs:

1.  Create Unified TOD Authorities (But Keep Them Accountable)

TODs cannot be governed by fragmented agencies. India needs statutorily empowered TOD zones within a defined radius (say 800–1000m around major transit nodes), governed by a single coordinating authority with:

•       Land-use power

•       Infrastructure coordination authority

•       Utility integration control

•       Revenue capture mechanisms

•       Integrate multiple transport modes across center, state, local and private modes

 This does not require new constitutional reform. States can legislate this. Without unified command, TODs become permission mazes.

2.  Treat TOD as Infrastructure Eco-System, Not Real Estate Projects

The biggest distortion in India is that TOD is seen as simply increasing FAR and selling development rights. That is incomplete. TOD must first ensure:

•       Walkability (continuous pavements ideally not at grade)

•       Last-mile integration

•       Drainage and sewer capacity

•       Parking discipline

•       Encourage and Mandate Mixed Used Asset and Provide Incentives to attract them:  The space might not be economically most attractive, but help create passenger traffic, make them 24x7 space and integrate and grow the local economy

- Mixed-income housing

- Innovation Centers

- Retail

- Office

- Hospitality

- Innovation Centers

- Training Facilities / Conferencing Space

- Government Offices (government gives upfront contract to lease space either as upfront amount, or yearly lease)

- Educational facilities including post-graduate and training programs

- Hospitals /Healthcare

- Public space for performances

- Museums

All this does not need to be developed at once.  Can be done over time with mandated timeline and incentives to achieve this.

Mixed-use and generators of economic activity can make density work. Non-diversified density without service capacity creates congestion-oriented development.

3.  Reform Municipal Finance

TOD requires sustained management, not one-time approvals. Urban local bodies must:

•       Retain a larger share of property tax from TOD zones and provide upfront incentives for creating mix-use assets.    Incentives can include stamp duty incentives, grants to create non-lucrative institutions, lease contracts, grants for public space, frameworks to provide increasing value to Concessioning Authority over time

•       Use land value capture transparently

•       Ring-fence TOD revenue for local reinvestment

Without fiscal empowerment, municipalities cannot maintain higher-density nodes. India underfunds its cities structurally.

4.  Legally Protect Pedestrian Priority

TOD collapses when cars dominate. India must:

•       Cap parking supply near transit nodes

•       Enforce no-parking corridors

•       Mandate ground-floor activation

•       Protect footpaths from encroachment — consistently

•       Provide non-grade atmosphere controlled walkways to connect nearby areas and transport options

This is politically difficult but essential. TOD is fundamentally about reducing car dependence.

5.  Introduce Inclusionary Housing Mandates

If TOD becomes purely premium housing, lower-income households move further out, transit ridership weakens, and social equity erodes. Efficient TOD requires:

•       A percentage of affordable housing in the service area.   While the core needs to have commercial assets, and public space and institutions, adjacent to the core needs to have housing options or incentives to make them denser.

•       Rental housing incentives

•       Worker housing within walking radius

Without inclusion, TOD becomes speculative luxury verticality.

6.  Build Political Buy-In Early

Unlike airports, TOD reshapes neighbourhoods. Before re-zoning:

•       Conduct public consultations

•       Offer redevelopment incentives

•       Align with resident welfare associations

•       Clarify compensation and benefit-sharing

Ignoring politics leads to court cases and paralysis.

7.  Sequence Infrastructure Before Density

India often announces high FAR, approves towers, and then scrambles to upgrade sewage and roads. The order must reverse. Roads and utilities first. Density next.

8.  Institutionalise Continuous Management

Airports operate with real-time operations control, performance monitoring, and service-level agreements. TODs require similar:

•       Maintenance agencies with clear performance metrics for concessionaires

•       Cleanliness standards

•       Enforcement units

•       Data on footfall and ridership

TODs are living systems. They decay if unmanaged.

9.  Clarify Land Titling and Property Records

Urban land disputes cripple TOD. India must:

•       Digitise land records in TOD zones

•       Fast-track title resolution

•       Reduce litigation timelines

Investors avoid complexity. So do planners.

10.  Align Center State and Municipal Incentives and Financing

States often want metro ridership growth and land monetisation, while municipalities fear infrastructure strain and voter backlash. Incentives must align — share revenue, share accountability, share planning authority. Fragmented incentives create stalled TOD.

Long term patient capital is required for TOD – more in line with infrastructure than real estate financing.   The Indian equity and project finance debt does not have the depth, capacity, or funding sources for private participants to utilize.   It can take 7-12 years for TODs to develop and stabilize, and financing sources need to reflect that reality.   The increase in economic growth, rents, passenger growth occur over time and cannot be monetized upfront.   

11.  The Deeper Requirement

Efficient TOD demands institutional coordination, fiscal autonomy, behavioural enforcement, political negotiation, and long-term management and private participation.   Creating mix-use TODs is fundamentally an economic growth initiative.   Incentivizing the private sector and understanding their limitations is critically important.  

12.  The Hard Truth

India has built airports efficiently because they are bounded, centrally governed, financially bankable, and behaviourally controlled. TODs are embedded in messy cities, politically contested, behaviourally unpredictable, and municipally underpowered.

Until urban governance strengthens, TOD will remain aspirational.

India will get efficient TOD systems not when it builds more metro lines, but when it reforms how cities are governed and built.