The area of Islamabad is roughly 900 square kilometres, and its population is about 1.3 million. In comparison, Singapore has an area of little more than 700sqkm and a population of 5.5m million which is more than four times that of Islamabad.

Built-up land in Singapore is not more than 40 per cent of the island’s total land. So, they have cramped 5.5m people in under 350 sq km with the best public services in the world. How did they do it?

The simple answer is they are going vertical to save precious land. More than 75pc of the population of Singapore lives in high-rise towers.

Vertical housing can be good for Pakistan for several reasons. Pakistan is a rapidly urbanising country with a large and growing urban population. As cities become more crowded, there is an increasing demand for housing that can accommodate a growing number of people in limited space.

High-rise buildings are an efficient way to provide housing for a large number of people in a smaller area, reducing the pressure on land and resources.

A normal sector in Islamabad, where hardly a hundred thousand people live, can accommodate a million people if developed as a high-rise housing cluster

In densely populated cities where land is at a premium, building vertically allows more people to live in a smaller area. This not only helps to reduce urban sprawl but also minimises the environmental impact of construction, as fewer resources are required to build and maintain a high-rise building compared to multiple low-rise structures.

Vertical housing can be a more affordable option for many people, particularly in high-cost urban areas where the cost of living can be prohibitively high. By sharing the cost of amenities and maintenance with other residents, living in a high-rise building can be more cost-effective than owning a single-family home. The same is true for Pakistan.

Vertical housing has the potential to save agricultural land by reducing urban sprawl and allowing more people to live in smaller areas. As urban populations continue to grow, there is increasing pressure on agricultural land, which is often converted into residential and commercial areas to accommodate the needs of the expanding city.

One advantage of vertical housing is that it allows more people to live in a smaller area, which can help to reduce the overall demand for public services like water and transportation. For example, a high-rise building with 100 units would require less land, water, and transportation infrastructure than 100 single-family homes spread out over a large area.

Moreover, vertical housing can be designed to incorporate sustainable technologies like rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling, which can help reduce the demand for freshwater and lower the cost of water services.

Additionally, high-rise buildings can be located in areas with good public transportation infrastructure, or new public transport can be planned to pass through high-rise housing clusters reducing the need for residents to own cars and the cost of providing transportation services. The same will be true for other essential public services like health, education, and waste management.

Moreover, vertical housing can promote sustainable living by encouraging residents to use public transportation, walk or bike to work, and reduce their carbon footprint. This can help to reduce the overall demand for land needed to make roads, leading to less pressure on forest land and other natural resources.

Pakistan is a country hard hit by climate change, and a move to sustainable living can save future generations. Vertical living clusters with all the basic amenities provided at the same place can greatly reduce people’s need to travel, thus reducing their need to have cars. This will, in turn, help minimise never-ending traffic congestion on roads, reduce fuel import bills and generate many other positive externalities.

Our civic agencies, like Capital Development Authority, Lahore Development Authority, Karachi Development Authority and many others, need to change the way they think of urban development. For 75 years, their vision for development has revolved around making underpasses, flyovers and bypass roads on one side and separating living and commercial areas on the other.

This approach has only worsened housing, traffic and public services in our major cities. It is difficult to understand why these civic agencies have made two-story houses a part of their faith which they are not willing to violate at any cost.

A normal sector in Islamabad, where hardly a hundred thousand people live, can accommodate a million people if developed as a high-rise housing cluster.

The time has come in Pakistan to go vertical to save our environment and precious agricultural land and to provide better public services to a large chunk of the population. We need to reimagine our cities as clean and hassle-free economic hubs, and for this purpose, we do not need to reinvent the wheel; we just need to fly to Singapore or some other live-able city to see the urban wheel.

It will be better to staff our urban policy-making bodies with people specialising in sustainable urban management, smart city researchers and urban economists instead of career bureaucrats.

The writer is currently serving as a faculty member at the Department of Public Administration, University of Kotli AJK Twitter: @masoodthinketh

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, May 8th, 2023