‘Smart city’ is a buzzword of just six months old. Our Netas are inspired by smart cities and smart villages overtime bureaucrats are indulged in formulating guidelines for the same. In several occasions, we have learnt that Ministry Of Urban Development will release the draft on Smart Cities by this month end. Do you know Beijing invests several lakh crores for its smart city projects? But, the same concept of Smart City means something different to India. Govt. has allotted 7000 Crores for Smart Cities in its maiden budget.
All Indian cities/city capitals have two faces: One with urban infrastructure and the other, slums. Recent NSSO survey revealed that there are over 33,500 slums in India. Maharashtra tops the list followed by Andhra Pradesh. It is time now to restructure these slums rather than evacuating them. Nobody can deny that 24 hours power, safe drinking water, hygienic environment should add to proposed features. Sanitation is another obvious focus. Later focus is smart features like adaptive traffic monitoring systems, e-governance initiatives, e-access to education, healthcare, transportation, Wi-Fi hotspots, GPS and other satellite tracking systems etc. With growing appetite for smart apps, Bengaluru Police has already installed Kiosk machines to file FIRs on the go and an app to locate the same.
Some key points that really matter to the Govt. Of India:
- Co-ordination among various ministries and to streamline administration machinery in formulating the project.
- This project is to be marketed as big-ticket initiative to promote “Make In India”.
- Unskilled Labour employed in construction projects must be a part of restructured Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
- To realise the very big scope for Power Sector in India and to integrate it with Smart Cities.
- Design and Develop cities so as to focus on long-term economic growth.
- India has already partnered with USA in developing smart cities and is partnering with other nations too. Therefore, this project is sensitive in promoting diplomatic relations.
- A smart system in place to make habitats safe and secure is a key consideration.
- More flexible cities to always allow migrants to settle.
- Cyber security to stabilise e-governance systems.
- Recent floods in Jammu & Kashmir and the cyclone Hudhud proved that smart cities are nothing if they are not disaster proof.
One major hurdle faced by all nations to build smart cities in common is “Funding”. India must use the newly formed BRICS Bank to the fullest and promote investments in infra sector at a time industrial sentiments are on the rise.
It is with the people of India to watch keenness of our lawmakers in proving their mettle to overcome these hurdles.
As always discussion is welcome.
My views on current happenings 
agree , govt shall.also.consider that these type of smart buildings were built In India
from last few years , due to their higher costs they are still not able to get required number of customers , example lavasya , lanco hills,many Emmar properties, so the govt should keep the prices less to get
more customers , without giving subsidy . and keep the profits target low ( expecting that they make profits).
… generally private people will not fix low profit targets .. so to make this smart cities projects a reality , govt should invest in it , like the case of GIFTCITY , but even this project is hovering .. so this is a minus point for us , so the only way this project can start is , if foreign governments invest in these new Indian smart cities , without expecting any profits …. so only hope can be JAPAN .
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India must be cautious in engaging with world nations.
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