Srinagar City: Urbanization and Quality of urban environment

India has entered in the 21st century with an urban population of 285 million which constitute 27.8 percent of the total population of the country. Rapid urbanization, slums, quality of life and poverty are the problems faced by most of the under developed countries. It may be noted that the cause of concern is not the pace of urbanization but its spatial distribution pattern as nearly 70 percent of the total urban population is concentrated in class I cities in India. The over expansion of the metropolitan cities have given birth to slums, oppressive air pollution, wide spread unemployment, shortage of housing, and a host of problems associated with transport and communication etc. The problems of under developed cities are becoming more and more complicated with the increase in population and deterioration in existing level of services. The problems are assuming serious propositions in all aspect of urban living and are extremely critical in major sectors of sewerage, drainage, traffic and transportation, housing for urban poor, conservation of natural or cultural heritage.