Evolution of SMART CITIES PART 2

Based on the gap analysis of the present situation and the ideal city as visualized, steps should be drawn to achieve the improvement. These steps must be specified from the following well known “5W” principle:

Once these questions are answered, themes must be prioritized to work upon following the proven PDCA cycle.

The above steps can be summarized as below:

“SMART CITIES” & India: With burgeoning pollution, India hosts 16% of the world’s population with only 2.45% of the global surface area and 4% of the water resources and is expected to surpass China, currently the most populous country, in the next few years. However, it is worth mentioning that in the last few decades the shift has been increasing in urban population and over the years the rural population has been decreasing.

With such a dramatic shift from a rural area to an urban area in India, the planned & systematic growth of cities will become very critical as cities are the only engines of growth for the economy of any nation. Nearly 31% of India’s current population lives in urban areas and contributes 63% of India’s GDP (Census 2011). With increasing urbanization, urban areas are expected to house more than 40% of India’s population and contribute 75% of India’s GDP by 2050. This requires comprehensive development of physical, institutional, social, and economic infrastructure. The development of “SMART CITIES” is a timely step in that direction.

Understanding of ‘SMART CITY’ In Context to India: As stated in the beginning, since there is no universally accepted definition of a SMART CITY, it has a very different connotation in India with different levels of programs, depending upon particular city’s challenges and opened in participation by its people,

The “SMART CITIES” Mission – An ambitious urban development program was launched in India by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in 2015, in which 110 cities undertook a path-breaking journey to transform themselves into “INDIAN SMART CITIES” to provide better & improved core infrastructure and services, a clean environment, and better quality of life to their citizens. In the last six years, the Mission has grown from strength to strength, implementing over 5,100 projects worth around Rs. 2,05,000 crores, with positive impacts on the lives of close to 100 million citizens.

The SMART CITY Mission (SCM) of India tries to address the problems that urban India faces today e.g. water scarcity, poor air quality, poor sanitation, chaotic transportation system, increasing wealth inequality, inequitable distribution, and difficulty in accessing the public services by focusing on constructing capital intensive privatized infrastructure projects and enormous pressures from constant rural to urban migration- factors that are all putting stress on cities which get overstressed due to large scale population migration.

This Indian “SMART CITIES” Mission is guided by the following core principles:

• Citizens At The Core: Citizens Are Involved In Every Stage Of SMART CITY Development.
• More From Less: “SMART CITIES” Strive To Generate More Impact And Outcomes From Use Of Fewer Resources- Energy, Finance And Others.
• Cooperative and Competitive Federalism: Cooperative Collaboration And Healthy Competition Between States And Cities.
• Convergence: “SMART CITIES” Are Focused On Creation Of Integrated Infrastructure And Services, Promotion Of Circular Economy And Sustainable Habitats Through Convergence Of Financial Resources And Programs.
• Technology as A Means, And Not the Goal: Technology Enables And Provides Speed And Scale But Is Not The End Result Of SMART CITY Development.
• Inclusiveness: Cities Are For All People Irrespective Of Age, Gender, Background And Ability And Hence They Have To Be Inclusive To Be Smart.

Under the “SMART CITIES” Mission, the current objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and provides a decent quality of life to their citizens, a clean and sustainable environment with ‘Smart’ Solutions of their requirements. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model, which will act as a lighthouse to other aspiring cities. The “SMART CITIES” Mission of the Government is a bold, new initiative and is meant to set examples that can be replicated, catalyzing the creation of similar “SMART CITIES” in various regions and parts of the country.

Under Indian SMART CITY Mission, the core infrastructure elements have Smart Solutions for many of their operations:

These minimum definitional boundaries set by GoI, are also known as a wish list of infrastructure and services as well as the aspiration levels of its residents, for improving the city planning for the city to become Smart. The achievable targets must be set for short-term, mid-term & long-term time frames and everyone in these cities must be working towards achieving the same, adding on the layers of “SMARTNESS”, or climbing step by step of the ladder of smartness.

Challenges for India While Upgrading Existing Cities to “SMART CITIES”:

• Leadership and its vision with an ability to act decisively will be important factors determining the success of the Mission.
• Competitive And Cooperative Federalism: The SMART CITY mission of GoI (Government of India) encourages & promotes the spirit of ‘competitive and cooperative federalism for the first time, which is a new concept in Indian bureaucracy and thus poses a challenge within the system.
• Understanding the concepts of retrofitting, redevelopment, and Greenfield development by the policymakers, implementers and other stakeholders at different levels will be another challenge.
• Major Investments in Planning Stage: Major investment in time and resources will have to be made during the planning phase before participation in the Challenge. This approach will be different from the conventional DPR-driven approach in Indian bureaucracy.
• Smart Manpower: The “SMART CITIES” Mission requires smart people who actively participate in governance and reforms utilizing the SPV through with increasing use of ICT, especially mobile-based tools.
• Complexity & Scale of SMART CITY Project: Also, it must be understood that the aggregated at the national level, the 110 “SMART CITIES” have proposed to execute 5,151 projects worth Rs. 2,05,018 crores in 5 years. Financial innovation has been built into the capital investment plans. The distribution of funding envisaged from different sources is approximate as shown in the charts below. As of November 2020, almost 90% of all the approved Mission projects had been tendered, and around 70% had either been completed or were under advanced stages of implementation.

Apart from the above, there are many other challenges because of the lethargic bureaucracy of India, which leads to issues such as:

• Lack of Centre-State Co-ordination: There is a need for proper regulation when it comes to planning for the development of “SMART CITIES”. Both horizontal and vertical.
• Non Availability of Master Plan: Most cities in India do not have their master plans and development plans in place. This is a tragic situation that most cities in India lack these records. However, if we talk about developing “SMART CITIES”, these master plans need to be made, computerized, and need to be made accessible to the city planners.
• No Time Figure Attached To The Plan: Any plan needs a time limit and must be completed in that time frame. The entire SMART CITY plan is one big plan, which should also be executed in a set time frame as all the clearances do not come on time. Such bureaucratic approvals should be made online and in time preferably through a single regulatory body that should monitor all the requisite approvals for the project.
• Non Availability of Facilities & Skill: This is a huge problem in our country as it is an area, which has not been focused upon as of now. Such large-scale programs & projects required trained & skilled manpower. Knowing this GoI has put its focus on human resources under Skill India momentum to develop people with different skill sets.
• Corruption: Corruption in India is a challenge that has always been a reason for the non-execution or ineffective execution of most big projects in the country.

Epilogue

While GoI is making the identified 110 cities, SMART by upgrading their infrastructures which, alone in my view, would never convert them to smart cities as ideally because what our country needs are “Sustainable Cities” & “Sustainable Villages” rather than “Smart cities” as being visualized by Western countries. We must focus on our local problems like employment, corruption, basic educational needs, food, etc., first to make the people, residing in those cities, aware of their SMARTness who only, in turn, can make the cities “Self Sustaining, Self-improvising & Smart” while improving their lifestyles. Also, since with time any city which is understood to be “Smart” today, may not remain “Smart” in the future but if people are Smart, they can keep upgrading their cities taking them to next level of Smartness. Finally, only a “Smart Society” that adopts & utilizes the available technologies to enhance their living standards and improves the performance in key areas like transport, health, hygiene, water, and sanitation, can create and sustain a “SMART CITY”. With this understanding, shouldn’t we ponder & think that many of the old settlements like the Indus Valley and Machu Pichu with their advanced urban culture, city planning systems, which included excellent water flow system as well as sanitation system as well as covered drains along the streets, and which had impressive dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms & protective walls for cities from floods & attackers were sterling examples of “SMART CITIES” of their times.

Lastly, in the context of India, though the concept of “smart cities” is novel and is yet to get in the minds of residents. However with time, it is catching up but it will still take many years before it is clearly understood in totality with a hard fact that it is not the infrastructure that would make the cities smart but it is the residents of the city, who can make the city smart. We cannot & should not try to copy western cities, considering the socio-political as & socio-economic conditions of our country.
...concluded

References:

http://www.builtconstructions.in/OnlineMagazine/BuiltConstructions/Pages/Ancient-Smart-Cities-0203.aspx

https://dharmatoday.com/2017/10/05/chanakyas-view-city-planning-model-future/

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/smart-cities-mission-deadline-extended-to-june-2023-for-all-100-cities/article37810496.ece

https://smartnet.niua.org/sites/default/files/resources/making_a_city_smart_mar2021.pdf

https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/tr/Documents/public-sector/deloitte-nl-ps-smart-cities-report.pdf

Books

• “Smart Cities of Today and Tomorrow – Better Technology, Infrastructure and Security” by Joseph N Pelton & Indu B Singh
• “Smart Cities” Edited by Zaigham Mahmood
• “Inside Smart Cities-Place, Politics and Urban Innovation” Edited by Andrew Karvonen, Federic0 Cugurullo and Federico Caprotti

Prabhat Khare possesses a BE (Electrical) degree from IIT Roorkee (Gold Medalist). Now, he is the Director of KK Consultants. He is also a BEE Certified Energy Manager and a Lead Assessor for ISO 9K, 14K, 45K & 50K.