Rajat K Sharma
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working really hard to achieve his most ambitious project of ‘100smartcities’. The real idea behind this project is to change basic fabric of urban cities, making them more liveable. Recently centre has outlined the roadmap to achieve this gigantic task, by initial backing of Rs 48,000 crore for 100 cities. It is envisaged that in upcoming decade around 400 million rural-urban migrations is going to occur, which will be largest in the world. Therefore looking at such astonishing figures, it is need of the hour to plan our cities in smarter and efficient way, so that they are capable of absorbing such large migrations. People migrate primarily for employment, and deserve a comfortable and happy life in new cities. But most of our cities do not have quality housing, cost effective infrastructure, security, and adequate basic facilities like clean drinking water and sanitation.
Roadmap for smart cities
Let me start by defining ‘smart city’. In real terms smart city is not just about developing the physical world with chaotic life, sky touching skyscraper must not be presumed as mascot for smart cities. In a way there cannot be a clear definition of smartness, benchmarks would be different for both brownfields and greenfields. But in general terms, smart cities are based on four basic pillars of infrastructures, i.e. Physical, Institutional, Social and Economic infrastructure.
Physical infrastructure includes better roads, smart road connectivity, well planned BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), low cost housing, fibre optics enabled internet facility, standard health care and more efficient Public Transport System (PTS). Physical infrastructure is very much needed for faster delivering system of goods and service and is backbone of economic establishment. Better road connectivity saves time as well as fuel cost resulting in increased working efficiency of work force.
Institutional infrastructure means better governance. Prime focus must be on e-governance. In past many e-governance strategies were experimented at different regions of nation, but all of them failed due to poor cyber security and significant privacy and data protection risk. A strong ICT (information and communication technology) is fundamental for such plans. San Francisco’s DATASF.org is successful e-governance model from where India can learn. This web portal displays transportation arrival and departure time, nearest recycle zones, crime pattern with timeline and online complaint through a tweet. The existing Government setup in the Urban Local Bodies (ULB’s) is fragmented in nature where different departments are working for similar cause without coordination. These departments working in silos require institutional reforms. And other aspect of governance is citizen involvement in decision making, so that there is more transparency and accountability of Government.
Social infrastructure is essential for happy and comfortable life. Medical facility within 400 meters of residential colonies, ancillary infrastructure (e.g.:- office spaces, car parks, training facilities etc.), schools and other educational institutes within city limits, community and sport facilities, all are very essential for social wellbeing. Safety is another social issue which needs better accountability by the public administration.
Economic infrastructure primarily depends on physical, social and institutional atmosphere. Cities must attract investment so that young work force could be absorbed. Smart cities include factors such as innovation, entrepreneurship, trademark, productivity and flexibility of labour market as well as integrated national market. Simplified tax regime, more transparency on government policies, and simplified grievance-redressal is of prime importance.
Challenges ahead
The real challenge is to produce integrated and inclusive smart cities rather than fragmented infrastructure. These cities must be well equipped to treat poor as well as rich population in similar ways. Better disaster mitigation plan is very important for cities in seismic zone-3, 4 and 5. Concept of smart city must be people centric in India. It must not be seen as a retrofit for previous paralysed cities, rather it should be looked as a new dimension in Indian urbanisation. Smart cities must work for people; it must be an all-around development not just growth figures shown by number of fly-ways and under passes made. Challenge is big but not impossible. With opportunities talent is nourished, and such talent has immense importance for nation building. These smart cities can be breeding ground for India’s growth story. If Indian government aims for a double digit sustainable growth rate for next decades, such cities are needed in much more number. Smart city is gateway to smarter life and we must contribute in making our cities better place to live.
(The author is a Civil Engineer)
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