Kochi, Jan 8 (IANS): India faces a huge gap in infrastructure but the country hopes to catch up in the next five years, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath said Tuesday.

The minister was addressing the 11th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here.

"The common psyche in India is that if something is not booming, then it is gloomy," he said.

The minister pointed out that while the automobile sector in the US grew by five percent, "in our country it grew by 18 percent. Is it not good?" he asked.

Addressing a session on "India's Growth: Greater Opportunties", he admitted to the challenges on the infrastructure front.

He said India had the largest population with an aspiration to forge ahead.

"In the next one decade, the urban population is going to go up from 430 million to 600 million. The number of cities in the country with more than one million population is going to go up from 53 to 72," he said.

This, he said, means that some of the Indian cities "will be bigger than European countries".

At eight percent growth, 25 million people in the country have progressed from one meal a day to two meals a day, he said.