IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Smart cities are for the rich — we need to change that

Chandigarh, the capital of both India’s Punjab and its neighboring state Haryana, is a very special city. It rose from the ashes of India’s bloody partition.

It was designed from scratch as part of a project to give Punjab a new capital after Lahore went to Pakistan’s Punjab during the partition of the country. The city was given its present day shape by legendary architects such as Albert Mayer and Le Corbusier. Today, Chandigarh has been designated to become a smart city.

The participants shared their views on seven parameters — mobility, utilities, economy and employment, safety, health and education, e-governance and solid waste management — to make Chandigarh a smart city.

UT adviser Vijay Kumar Dev on Monday urged residents, industrialists, councillors, officials and commercial establishments to provide ideas for making Chandigarh an ideal smart city.

Chandigarh, last month, was included in the fast track list of 13 towns that will be developed as smart cities. Estimated to cost around Rs 6,200 crore, the smart city mission aims to substantially improve “livability and sustainability of the city. Public IT (information technology) solutions are a major part of the mission,” says Baldeo Purushartha, municipal commissioner, Chandigarh municipal corporation and CEO (chief executive officer) of Chandigarh Smart City Ltd.

As the administration have failed to find bidders for two key projects under the Smart City Mission, they are now considering to relax conditions of the projects. Recently, the two projects including a bicycle sharing project and setting up of an animal carcass incineration plant at Dadumajra had hit a hurdle due to lack of bidders.

As per the information, not even a single bidder had come forward for the bicycle sharing project whereas only two bidders had submitted their bids for animal carcass incineration plant, out of which one was found to be ineligible.

The objective of the Smart Cities Mission is to improve the quality of life of people by harnessing technology for local area development. For that citizen engagement is vital

In June 2015, the ministry of urban development came out with guidelines for a smart city. These guidelines were divided into six key areas with solutions to various everyday problems in each of these categories.

Weakest link in smart cities installations may actually lie at the sensor level

Last week, this column focused on India’s ambitious Smart Cities programme. I wrote of the need for the computer systems enabling smart cities to have an open-source system infrastructure in order to make them efficient in collaborating with the various intelligent platforms that will run the smart cities via a smoothly functioning network, which will allow for cooperation among disparate civic bodies within a city.

Delhi cannot become a smart city till the fighting among multiple agencies stops, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said.

Speaking at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the NDMC Convention Centre here, he called for clarity in the national capital’s governance.

Delhi industries minister Satyendar Jain also attended the event.

The City Corporation too has jumped on the electric vehicle bandwagon by planning an electric autorickshaw (e-auto) project in the capital. A feasibility study has already been launched to convert all autos in the city into electric vehicles under the Smart City project. The aim of the project is to make public transport more environment-friendly.

Initially, 50 autos now plying on city roads will be replaced with e-autos within a year. The project will take off from Thampanoor on a trial basis. Around 10 spots in the city will be considered for implementing the first phase.

Gearing up to roll out its ‘100 smart cities’ scheme across the country, the government is likely to finalise the guidelines for the Rs 48,000 crore mega project next week.

The central government’s flagship project got Cabinet’s approval last Wednesday, paving the way for the Ministry of Urban Development to work out details for the selection of cities for the project.

“The detailed guidelines of the project, aiming at recasting the urban landscape, is likely to be notified next week after its finalisation,” a senior ministry official said.

“Otis has developed and is accelerating additional efforts across the organization to expand the use of internal service apps being developed by field teams around the world. These new tools enable our field employees to be more efficient, source information faster, develop even stronger ties with the customer and see a problem before it becomes one”, asserted Sebi Joseph, President, Otis India in conversation with Poulami Chakraborty of BW SmartCitiesWorld. Excerpts below:

Otis has a 125-year legacy in India. In 1892, it installed the first elevator in Kolkata’s Raj Bhavan. The company formally set up operations in India in 1953 (over 60 years ago). Every customer is important to us. To ensure easy access to each of our customers, Otis has over 80 service centers servicing 300 cities – the largest service network in the country today.

The French Development Agency (AFD) on Friday said that it is committed to providing over 2 billion euros in next three years for India’s “Smart Cities” project.

“AFD’s commitment is to provide 2 billion euros over the next 3years of loans to support smart cities and sustainable development in India,” its chief Pascal Pacaut told media here after it and the Indian finance ministry’s department for economic affairs held their 6th annual negotiation meeting on Thursday regarding the implementation of India’s “smart cities” project.

The CITIIS programme will be implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the National Institute for Urban Affairs

The CITIIS programme under the country's Smart Cities Mission provides a "strong platform" for both India and France to achieve their shared vision of a sustainable future and a more equal and just society through collaboration, French Ambassador to India Alexandre Ziegler has said.

The AFD funding is expected to be finalised before French President Emmanuel Macron’s expected visit to India next month

French development bank AFD has shown interest to fund €100 million (around Rs800 crore) for India’s smart cities mission, a finance ministry official has said.

Under the smart city mission, the government has so far identified 99 cities for upgradation which would require a total investment of about Rs2.03 trillion.

Indian cities are different from what a city is defined as in the West. We have a distinct social fabric which has to be kept in mind while planning our smart cities

Since the Modi government launched its ambitious Smart Cities Mission in 2015 to develop 100 smart cities, considerable progress has been made even as the pace of work is picking up.

“As a part of the Green City initiative, we have requested each and every councillors to plant a sapling in their wards, which we have mandated to construct public green spaces for citizens with eco-friendly materials. This initiative is a way forward to enhance sustainable living for the citizens. These open spaces are called ‘Neighbourhood Parks’”, asserted an enthusiastic Secretary, Port Blair Municipal Council, Suneel Anchipaka in a conversation with Poulami Chakraborty of BW SmartCitiesWorld. Excerpts as under:

Q: Port Blair is one of the first cities which has been chosen by the Government of India under its Smart City Mission mandate. Can you please give us an overview about the key projects that has been initiated so far? Also, what reason or accountability you feel is responsible for the slow rolling out of the Smart City mission in Port Blair?

The Indian government's flagship initiative for making Smart Cities is an integrated approach to upgrade a city in all its interconnected aspects. The Smart City Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting programme by the government with the aim to develop 100 smart cities across the country in order to make them both citizen-friendly and sustainable. The Union Ministry of Urban Development is entrusted with the responsibility to implement this mission in collaboration with the state governments of the respective cities.

The Panjim Holistic Master Plan, prepared by LKS Global will be used as the foundation to draft the Smart City Proposal (SCP) for the State capital under the Smart City Mission.

The Panjim Holistic Master Plan, prepared by LKS Global will be used as the foundation to draft the Smart City Proposal (SCP) for the State capital under the Smart City Mission. The SCP is likely to be submitted to the Union Ministry for Urban Development by the first week of December to ensure that Panjim is selected in the first phase of 20 cities for development as a smart city.

Panaji MLA Atanasio Monserrate on Tuesday demanded that chief minister Pramod Sawant conduct a thorough inquiry into the functioning of the Smart City Mission, especially its chief executive officer (CEO) Swayandipta Pal Chaudhuri.

Monserrate, who took offence to the public works department (PWD) granting a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the Smart City Mission to lay underground electricity cables in the state capital, said all such NOCs should be granted only through the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP). He asked PWD minister Deepak Pauskar why his department had dealt the Smart City Mission and not the CCP.

Indicating private funding for the smart city project for Panaji, Chief Secretary R K Srivastava on Tuesday said the local municipal bodies have been entrusted with the responsibility of developing smart cities, and by pulling up the resources from their kitty – even by taxing people – they can achieve this objective.

“The people have to be supportive for this cause,” Srivastava added, pointing out that the related solutions have to be sourced through public-private partnership, which is the actual concept of the Smart City Mission under the Union ministry of urban development.

The capital city waterlogging woes exposed the poor planning and misplaced priorities of civic authorities. After severe waterlogging, questions were being asked about Panaji's Smart City ambitions.

Residents said that even before heavy rains lashed the city, the capital's roads were beginning to show signs of neglect with potholes, puddles of water, jutting out fibre optic lines.