The major issue is that building liveable cities is primarily the responsibility of state and local governments. When even the bureaucrats at central level are unimaginative, corrupt and non-efficient, you can very well think their level at local and state levels.
This thing should have been tackled and streamlined in the 1990s when we had started to grow. Zoning should have been implemented, roads should have been broadened with future capacity in mind, intensively laying sewage and electricity infrastructure in planned way, construction of footpaths etc. We just don't have visionary and forward thinking bureaucracy.
For god knows why, we still don't encourage vertical growth in cities, even in areas not earthquake prone. Most cities have unnecessary limit on vertical building heights. This led to horizontal expansion of cities, engulfing agricultural areas in itself. These farmlands were sold by owners and used to build houses, which created another haphazard mess. These plots don't even have road access and if they do, it is usually 6-10 feet broad.
Let me show you about Patna through images :
This is the part built by British, now the power centre of the state :
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You can see the grid like structure and planning.
Now this is the recent expansion of the city in last 30 years :
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No grids, no plans and nothing. No provision for parks or any public space. Just houses built haphazardly along roads carved out from no where.
Now the city is still expanding horizontally, and this is one of such areas :
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You see? The future is same as the 2nd image.
I think this problem is beyond our hand in a democratic system though. I mean what options do we have? Are we going to rebuild these areas? If so, with what money? Moreover, it is impossible to destroy people's homes for such rebuild in first place. That is impossible to do politically and judicially in our system. Heck, we can't even demolish encroachments easily.
In an ideal world, every urban planning bureaucrat in India since 1990s should face charges for gross negligence of duties and their pension / benefits stopped.
As for solutions, I think our focus should be on beautifying such areas and cleaning them. But alas, we all know the civic sense of people. They are the first ones to make places dirty. Anyway, this should be our vision for them :
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Encroachments should be razed, lay proper sewage, build good quality roads, proper laying of electric wires, clean the areas etc etc. But we know, nothing is going to change.