While report on India's small towns released by housing minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday depicts grim picture of inadequate infrastructure in these mushrooming urban settlements, particularly those with population of 5,000 to 20,000, the other report on Habitat management has recommended to take measures to reduce water and power use and promote regional planning.

These recommendations gain importance considering the fact that over 37 crore people live in urban areas and another 18 crore people live in rural areas close to nearly 70 largest urban centres.

Highlighting this trend as a major challenge to make urban areas sustainable and engines of rapid economic development, the 'India Habitat III-National Report' has set the agenda including to ensure high travel speed of 30 kmph during peak hours. On the other hand, the report titled "Towns of India" shows how the number of towns with less than one lakh population has increased from 3,984 in 2001 to 5,705 in 2011.