Building for growth and beyond

In response to the global financial crisis, governments across the world launched massive infrastructural programs to revive their economies and get growth back on track. Notable among such programs has been China's $586 billion stimulus plan, spread out over two years, that the government has put in place to build roads, highways, power plants and airports. Yet with the global recession now in retreat, governments need to think about the costs, if any, to our built, natural and social environments amid the rush to build and start planning for smarter and ecologically friendlier development. After the crisis, what should be the way forward for governments in their infrastructural planning and design?

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