Introduction to Smart Cities

Imagine this: Living in a city connected to the internet all day and night, having no water supply issues, no power cuts, less traffic, improved infrastructure, safety of individuals being the top priority and 24×7 surveillance, improving the quality of life for citizens by using smart technologies and data analysis. this is the typical basic idea of a sustainable city.

Vision behind the Smart City Mission

The vision behind the sustainable city is to increase living conditions in rural areas, giving growth to many more job opportunities, providing public with the utmost safety measures, reducing crime rate, giving people a healthy lifestyle by promoting the use of renewable sources of energy and no carbon emission vehicles, providing with unlimited internet connectivity, no shortage of power and water supply.

Through the sustainable city mission, india aspires to purchase power parity and to become a ₹ 377 arab (5 trillion dollars) economy by 2024 and a ₹ 754 arab (10 trillion dollars) economy by 2030

Objectives placed for Smart Cities

The aim is to promote cities that provide the core infrastructure and offer citizens more by improving the quality of life in 100 cities (in some cases, existing cities will be retrofitted with modern technology). They have a committed vision to establish examples that can be presented as models that can be replicated inside and outside of the sustainable city, leading to the creation of different smart cities in the future.

Investment placed in the Smart City Mission

A total funding of ₹ 7,20,000 crores is provided for the project by the govt. of India (on an average, ₹ 100 crore is provided for each city in the last 5 years’ time span). The state government and the urban local bodies contribute half of the amount required; on a 50:50 basis. ₹ 50 Crores is contributed by the Central Govt. And the remaining ₹ 50 Crores are contributed by the state govt and the urban local bodies. The rest of the funding will be done by other host of sources public private partnerships, loans and resource monetization.

Aspects of the upcoming Smart Cities

Let us discuss in detail how the aspects are planned and how they are about to be executed.

• It promotes the use of mixed lands as per the usage. Different states will have more flexibility to use lands for various purposes and make fit as per their requirements.
• The aim over here is to expand housing opportunities for everyone which is an essential requirement for the growth of a Sustainable City.
• The Vision is to create a friendly, healthy and a safe environment. The focus as of now is to create walkable localities, reduce congestion, ensure security, reduce air pollution and boost the local economy. An all-way pedestrian crosswalk is being built and a network traffic system is being created and designed to avoid congestion and minimize accidents.
• Promoting the development of parks, playgrounds and recreational spaces to enhance the quality of life for citizens and promote eco-balance.
• Providing with a variety of transportation options like Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Para – Transport Connectivity.
• To bring forth transparency and accountability in the Governance and making them citizen friendly and cost effective, where more online services are launched.
• Ex: A citizen can use an online website and get his documentation work done in seconds instead of waiting in long queues in a municipal office.
• Creating E-Groups where feedback and complaints are taken, and constant Online Monitoring is done with the help of Cyber Tour of Worksites.
• Identity to a City is provided based on different factors like Education, Health, Sports, Art Sector, Local Cuisines etc.
• Application of smart solutions to infrastructure and services to make them better.

Proposals put forth for the Smart Cities

Under the smart city mission, smart solutions are being used for basic infrastructure like;

• Public Information and Grievance Redressal

• Delivery via Electronic Services

• Monitoring crime via Videographic Cameras

• Smart Parking

• Skill Development Centers

• Smart Meters and Management of Water and Electricity

• Recycling of C&D Waste

• Tele Health/ Tele Medicine

• Trade Facilitation

• Integrated Multi Modal Transport

• Smart Traffic Management and Integrated Multi Modal Transport

Cities nominated by different States for the Smart City Mission

Based on an analysis, a total of 100 cities have been selected. In the First Slot, West Bengal, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai submitted their proposals to become one of the first Smart Cities but later withdrew their applications.

Most of the cities that volunteered for the sustainable city mission are mainly from Chennai and Uttar Pradesh. Chennai has been designated as a smart city. The Govt. claims that the aim is to make Chennai safe for sustainable living with enhanced mobility, and smart urban infrastructure.

Current Position of Smart City

As of Feb 28, 2022; the status of the Smart City Mission are as follows:

• A total of 100 cities were selected for the mission.
• The selected cities had proposed a total of 5151 projects.
• The estimate placed was of ₹ 2,05,018 crores for the completion of the project.
• In which 6809 projects were put forth and ₹1,89,737 Crores were tendered.
• A grand total of 6222 projects and ₹1,62,888 crores work order were issued.
• And 3480 projects were completed, and ₹ 59,077 Crores was invested in.

Present status on smart cities can be found on https://smartcities.gov.in/.

Image Source: https://smartcities.gov.in/

Other missions related to Smart Cities

A great benefit that can be achieved by the conjunction of sectoral schemes is given below:

• Atal Mission of Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT)

• Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY)

• Make in India

• Digital India

• Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana