IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

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.

The Smart City Proposal (SCP) for Panjim under the Smart City Development Mission would be ready by November 30, with major focus on solid waste management, smart mobility, e-governance and retrofitting of heritage sites.

Under the smart city project, the Corporation of the City of Panaji, the nodal agency for implementation of the project, intends to replace all the 4500 street lights in Panjim with LED lights covering 40 percent of energy saving.

When Panaji was shortlisted among the 100 smart cities to be developed across India, many were ecstatic and hoped that the erstwhile Portuguese capital would regain its glorious planned days. But as the consultation process for the Smart City proposal reaches its logical end, the initial joy is giving way to skepticism and indications are that the final Smart City proposal may be nothing more than old wine in new wine skin.

"In terms of searching for ideas per se, it is a fabulous attempt. But I am very skeptical of the government being able to deliver," architect Raya Shankwalker said. "A smart city is a city that responds to the needs of the citizens."

The Central Government in India has recently released the third list of smart cities that will receive funding from the Government in order to facilitate urban reforms. Currently, 60 Indian citiesare selected under this initiative.

PM Narendra Modi had announced his vision to set up 100 smart cities across the country in 2014. The mission intends to promote adoption of smart solutions for efficient use of available assets, resources and infrastructure. From providing a decent quality of life, a clean and sustainable environment, to robust IT connectivity, or egovernance, a smart city will be equipped with these amenities provided through smart solutions.

The smart city project of Ahmedabad has again being rated the best smart city project in implementation. The special purpose vehicle, Smart City Ahmedabad Development Limited, maintained it first position in terms of execution.

According to AMC officials, the SPV secured 81.37 marks out of 100 and was the first among all the cities in the county. The officials said that the SPV, even during the lockdown, ensured that the implementation was going on without any hindrance.

Though Surat is considered as fourth fastest developing city of the world and is the eighth most populated city of the country, it takes any citizen an hour to gain an entry in the city from NH8. Though Surat has highest GDP in terms of cities of Gujarat since last five years, when it comes to mass transport it has just 100 buses to cater to the need of nearly 50 lakh people.

"To be smart, with the help of experts like Darshaw & Company private limited, we have set up 21 parameters that covers and provides smart solutions to basic infrastructure issues like e-governance and citizen services, waste management, water supply system, energy system, urban transportation and others." Said Milind Torwane, Municipal Commissioner after presenting the vision of local body for future of Surat city on Thursday.

Surat Smart City Development Limited (SSCDL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by Surat Municipal Corporation for implementation of developmental projects, has completed 53 works worth Rs1,204. 22 crore in two years of the total 76 schemes worth Rs2,988.55 crores envisioned.

Furthermore, 21 projects worth Rs,1704 crore are under different stages of implementation, placing Surat in top place with regard to smart city development projects in the country.

Kamal Kishore YadavBased on a strong e-governance foundation and various initiatives under the Smart Cities Mission, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation seeks to bridge the existing digital divide in government service delivery to its citizens, Kamal Kishore Yadav, Commissioner, Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, in conversation with Priya Yadav of Elets News Network (ENN) discusses various schemes and plans on the anvil to achieve this goal.

500 startups to be set up in the coming years that will create more than one lakh jobs Even though there were no grand investment announcements, Haryana government in its budget explored various new avenues towards making Gurugram a global smart city. Among the major factors focussed by the government towards achieving this objective were developing infrastructure for startups and skill development, digital, road and metro connectivity, renewable energy and organic farming and sanitation systems.

369 cameras to be operational in July, rest by Sept

The CCTV coverage in the city is going to get better and wider. As many as 369 CCTVs will come up by July 15 under the ongoing Smart City project. A total of 1,690 CCTVs are expected to be made functional by September-end.

Disclosing this here today, NK Katara, senior consultant with the Faridabad Smart City Limited (FSCL), the body carrying out the project, said the CCTV coverage had been an integral part of the project and the work on it was nearing the final stages. The first lot of 369 cameras would be made operational in July, while the rest of the 1,321 cameras would be made functional by September-end.

Almost four years after the announcement, projects under the Smart City Mission are yet to see the light of day

First Dharamsala and then Shimla — both cities were brought under the National Smart City Mission. The prior selection of Dharamshala had triggered a row among the then ruling Congress, Opposition BJP and the CPM.

Almost four years down the line, neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur talk much about the much-hyped Smart City projects.

The sleepy touristic town and the virtual capital of the exile Tibetans, Dharamshala, has been officially chosen by the central government to be the first ‘smart city’ in the state of Himachal Pradesh beating the favorite Shimla in the overall assessment.

Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday made public the list of 98 cities across India designated for the Smart City project.

The state capital of Himachal Pradesh also known as the ‘Summer Capital of the British Raj’ — Shimla is one of the most famous tourist destinations in the country. The ‘Smart City’ status that has been recently bestowed upon Shimla has given this Himalayan city another reason to cherish. The Centre recently announced a list of 30 cities to be developed as smart cities. The Smart City Mission was launched in the year 2015 and till now 90 cities have made it to the list.

Dharamshala was brought under the Centre’s Urban Development Project last year and now Shimla has become the second city in Himachal Pradesh to have made it to the list of the smart cities in the country. The news spread in the state like forest fire after an announcement was made in the third and final list of the Smart City Mission at the National Workshop on Urban Transformation in New Delhi yesterday.

The Union government sanctioned the Smart City Project for Dharamsala in 2015. More than three years have passed, but it is yet to get off the ground.

However, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur laid the foundation stones of various developmental projects worth Rs 145.43 crore under the Dharamsala Smart City Project. Though the foundation stones have been laid, the tender process for many projects including major investment projects such as construction of smart roads worth Rs 84 crore and construction of integrated command centre worth Rs 24 crore is yet to be initiated. Though the tender process has been initiated for other projects, it is yet to be finalised.

Our daily experience tells us that Indian cities are not well-planned. They are designed for failure. We can see a real life failure happening in slow motion right now.

In 2016, Maharashtra State Road Development Corp Ltd (MSRDC) declared their intent to develop 71 villages along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway into a special planning area (SPA). Accordingly, MSRDC was designated as the planning authority and it created a development plan for this SPA. It is a classic case of a plan designed for failure. You may download it from the MRSRDC website.

The Digital India mission is a missing link that could help connect the Smart Cities mission to these high-level Sustainable Development Goals outcomes

In September 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed India’s pledge to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN General Assembly in New York. He made a commitment to “make our cities smart, sustainable and engines of progress” by 2030. This builds on earlier promises of ending poverty, providing housing and basic services to all by the early 2020s.

As the year 2018 is drawing to a close in a week, now it is time to assess how the Smart City Mission, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government's ambitious scheme to develop 100 Smart Cities launched on June 25, 2016, has progressed over the year.

Since the launch of the mission, 5,151 projects identified by the cities worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore are in various stages of implementation in 100 cities and 534 projects worth Rs 10,116 crore have been completed, according to a Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation statement.

It has been noted that to make a city smart, there’s first a need to understand the behaviour of a city’s assets: its citizens, economy and its environment, with the intent to make the ecosystem predictive and self sustainable.

That India’s urban infrastructure is over stressed and over stretched is no secret. Our metros and other cities struggle to provide the basic civic amenities: from round-the-clock availability of drinking water and electricity, efficient management of solid waste and wastewater, to efficient transport and traffic management. Throw the lack of adequate housing in the mix, and we begin realise the extent of the India’s urban infrastructure problems. In cities across India, these amenities are scarce largely due to unprecedented pace of migration of population from rural to urban areas.