IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Over 1,000 cameras to keep an eye at 180 locations in city

In contrast to several stalled Smart City projects, Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) is set to become operational soon.

Initially laid in 2018 by former MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh and inaugurated on August 14, 2022, by the then Local Bodies Minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar, the ICCC is set to go live in the next few days.

No major change visible in Ludhiana | Many infrastructural works yet to begin

When it was announced that Ludhiana will be developed as a ‘smart city’ in January 2016, many residents had expected to see major changes in the city’s outlook. However, more than three years have passed but the Smart City Mission is moving at a snail’s pace.

Though 125 days have passed since the previous review of Smart City projects conducted at MC office in the presence of cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Congress MP Ravneet Bittu, there is hardly any difference in the status of Smart City projects. The civic authorities could not complete even a single project, and many of their projects are still caught in a mesh of tenders. Civic officials, however, blamed the consultancy firm Aecom for delay in execution of the projects.

Congress MP Bittu has warned officials to expedite the pace of Smart City projects, otherwise he would complain to the Prime Minister’s office against the company for its failures. Apart from this, even the central government has made it clear that no new proposals will be accepted after September 10 under the Smart City Mission. Instead, officials should complete the already proposed works.

Vying for the smart city tag, Mohali has emerged as the top contender among various cities of Punjab.

After conducting an intercity competition between six cities, the local bodies department of the Punjab government has adjudged Mohali at the top spot with 93 percentile or 75 marks out of 80 on 13-point criteria.

Mohali beat Bathinda, Patiala, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana in the contest.

The concept of ‘Smart Cities’ shouldn’t be allowed to die. Our cities are currently cesspools of slums and garbage; the poor are being crushed in long commutes and forced to live in hovels

In the high voltage, scalding Lok Sabha campaign we just witnessed, the one big casualty was ‘Smart Cities’. It was not there in the BJP’s election manifesto. It was absent from the oratorial deliveries of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Even Rahul Gandhi and the Congress forgot to pull up the government on missing the ‘Smart Cities’ bus. NDA 1’s big-ticket project to transform the urban landscape was given a quiet burial.

“Smart Citizen” is the pre-requisite for execution of a successful Smart City concept at any place in the nation.

This was said by Amit Sharma, Regional Director, Survey & Land Records (S&LR), Udhampur/Reasi, while shared his perspective on how Smart City concept can be taken forward, during a two-day Kota Smart City Summit, where being a specialist of e-Governance he led a crucial session on ‘Best Practices on Major Urban Schemes: Smart City, AMRUT & Swachh Bharat’ which also included technical presentations.

Expressing happiness about Centre's decision to pick up Amaravati as smart city, municipal administration minister Dr P Narayana has said that the state government is readying plans to make all the cities in the state as smart cities.

He said that they are readying a blue-print to develop all the cities in the state as smart cities with state, central and private funds. Speaking to reporters here on Friday, Narayana said that chief minister Chandrababu Naidu had directed them to ready the plans to transform all the cities into smart cities. "Centre is extending funds for development of Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Tirupati and Amaravati as smart cities under its quota. We have already spared funds to develop another six cities with state funds. Now, we are contemplating to develop all the cities as smart cities," said Narayana.

Reforms are needed in the areas of land acquisition, dispute resolution, permitting processes, information availability and procurement processes to accelerate the development of smart cities, a new report has said.

According to ‘Reforms to Accelerate the Development of India’s Smart Cities’, a joint report by World Economic Forum and PwC, there are challenges limiting private sector participation in urban development projects, and institutional, business-environment and sector-specific reforms are required to enhance private participation.

The ministry of defence (MoD) has chosen Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) to implement `Smart City' solutions in the cantonment as the local body has launched five schemes which could make it 'smart'. It also chose five other cantonments Pune, Meerut, Deolali, Roorkee and Ferozpur for rolling out the project.

A presentation on the Secunderabad Cantonment's initiatives were made before top officials of the MoD in Delhi recently and Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar was impressed with it and chose Secunderabad Cantonment to implement 'Smart City' project on a pilot basis, the CEO added.

Security and interoperability of Smart Cities in India are the key components of the success of Government of India's agenda of 100 Smart Cities.

Security and interoperability of Smart Cities in India are the key components of the success of Government of India's agenda of 100 Smart Cities.

The Smart City initiative by the Government of India is under various stages of development. According to various industry reports, by 2050, there will be a considerable population in India living in cities and two factors which are crucial for a sustainable smart city would be security and inter-operatibility of various platforms.

In this era of technical advancements, the concept of Smart Cities is fast gaining importance. Smart cities start with smart systems that work for the benefit of both the public and the environment. Throughout history, cities have served as centres of innovation, advancement, civilization, and as facilitators of the social interaction necessary for the progress of mankind. Information Technology is the basis for providing vital services to the public and to ensure the development of smart cities. In 2009, International Business Machines (IBM) came up with the idea of smart cities when the world was facing an economic crisis, so this idea didn’t get the boost at that time. To provide better access to our daily necessities and to ensure proper connectivity and services like monitoring of gas and water distribution systems, online grief redressed systems, intelligent traffic monitoring, and smart parking and optimized energy consumption, the solution is the development of smart cities. US based smart city council operates in 140 countries with the aid of number of experts and agencies. Indian Government has envisaged developing 100 cities as smart cities. In the first phase 20 cities have been have chosen under the project and in coming two years 40 cities each will be identified for development as smart cities. A combination of connected hardware, software, and metering facilitates integration and collaboration between systems and networks. The challenges involved in such a project are enormous that not only requires infrastructure development but also trained manpower to build, operate and maintain intelligent systems.

The Smart Cities Mission was launched by the government in June 2015 with a goal to develop 100 smart cities by 2020 (the deadline has been revised to 2023 now). Though a “smart city” is not defined under the mission statement and guidelines, it includes certain core infrastructure elements essential for a smart city.

It focuses on e-governance, information technology connectivity and digitalization. It envisages rapid exchange of information between citizens, government bodies and third-party service providers.

First meeting of the apex body of Smart City Mission will be held on April 21 in Vishakapatnam

The Centre is unlikely to give in to Shillong’s demand for 90:10 funding pattern for its smart city plan instead of the usual 50:50. Shillong was selected in the fourth round of smart cities plan but is yet to submit its proposal.

“I am not accepting that from anyone. This is a problem I have all the time. Municipalities should be able to raise their own money, raise taxes … the Centre cannot be giving money like that,” said Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri on the sidelines of a conference on Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Housing for all by 2022 organised by FICCI on Thursday.

Introduction

The Smart Cities Mission ("Mission") aims to develop 100 smart cities by 2020. It is one of the most ambitious programmes of the Indian government. To implement its objectives, the government introduced the Smart Cities Guidelines ("Guidelines") in 2015.1 The Guidelines act as a comprehensive policy document that defines smart cities as cities that interconnect citizens, data, devices and objects to a centralised network infrastructure which will be utilised for urban planning, social and economic development of the city and its citizens. Smart cities will rely on information communication infrastructure and data (defined as information, knowledge, facts, concepts or instructions processed in a computer system or computer network) for its service delivery mechanisms. While the Guidelines provide for a clear strategy on the implementation of this Mission, both at the state and city level, it is completely silent on the legal framework required thereof. Though the government has introduced various draft policies for the smooth transition into smart cities, these are yet to be implemented into laws that can govern the Mission.

As ministry of urban development would be pursuing loans from international agencies to finance its smart city mission, the state government has been directed to firm up projects for Jaipur and Udaipur for obtaining loan assistance. In this regard, 15 days time has been given to the state for submitting the proposal of the project, especially capital extensive to seek loan.

An official informed, Jaipur and Udaipur are among the 20 smart cities selected in the first round of competition. In a recent meeting held at the Centre, it was informed that ADB had agreed to extend a loan of $1 billion to eight smart cities, which includes Jaipur and Udaipur.

There is an opportunity in solutions that involve Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Blockchain, and geospatial technologies

No one doubts that start-ups can play a critical role in India's smart cities mission. They bring in innovation, at times at a cost larger companies can't. In India's 100 Smart Cities programme, some of the start-ups are bidding directly while many others are working with bigger system integrators to deliver the work. Thus far, they are playing a role in areas such as solid waste management, digital door number, augmented reality, bill board management, and robotic cleaning of manholes among others. There is an opportunity in solutions that involve Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Blockchain, and geospatial technologies.

Under the smart city programme, 60 cities were selected between January and September 2016 and another 30 this June.

Most of the 90 cities selected for the smart city programme have not spent the money given to them by the Narendra Modi government since the signature urban overhaul project was launched in June 2015.

India plans to have 100 smart cities by 2022 and the central government has released Rs 9,824 crore since 2015-16 to the selected cities as its share to spend on projects.

Core requirements include water supply, power and sanitation.

With the Union urban development department issuing guidelines for the ‘Smart City’ initiative, Pune city will have to get its act together to be among the top 10 cities from the state that would make it to the list of 100 smart cities across the country.

“The allocation of number of cities that will make it to the list of 100 smart cities is based on the population of the state. Maharashtra will have 10 cities in the list of 100 smart cities,” said a civic officer.

The ‘smart city mission’ launched by the union government is an opportunity for all urban local governments in Odisha to ensure the criteria of the smart city mission not only to fulfill the eligibility but actually deliver services in a smart way, said speakers at a workshop here on Tuesday.

The Youth for Social Development, a NGO and other civil society bodies conducted the workshop to assess the status of Berhampur Municipal Corporation vis-a-vis the eligibility for the smart city scheme.

The Smart Cities Mission is setting new benchmarks in terms of project implementation with a focus on both time and quality. For the first time, cities have created an institutional mechanism at the city level, minister of state (independent charge) for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said, adding that 82 SPVs have been formed till now.

To improve the ease of living, the minister said, the Smart Cities Mission has a strong focus on innovative digital technologies and is dovetailed with the Digital India vision areas and digital empowerment of citizens.