Smart Cities: Final Chapter

Posted on: March 7, 2017 at 5:27 pm, in

After discussing the concept of Smart Cities from different perspectives we will move on to exploring the scope of smart cities in India and the proposed governmental plan for it, in this final chapter.

Smart Cities in India

Since the time our honorable Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi has raised pitch for the development of 100 smart cities in India, it has become talk of the town. In today’s topic we will go through what has already been done, and what is to be expected in the near future.

What will need to be seen is if it would be a complete makeover of the existing infrastructure and processes or if this would primarily comprise of retrofitting work to upgrade it a notch up on a few parameters.

It must be a collaboration of local and central government, businesses, non-profit organizations working in the field of environment, social upliftment and awareness etc, academia and the citizens willing to offer their insights into their idea of sustainability.

Either way, it would present with a great opportunity to step into the future. Employment opportunities would arise too and many will get opportunity to flex their creative sense.

Smart Cities in India

In 2015, 98 cities competed in the first round, and till date 27 cities have been selected under smart city mission which will get Rs 200 Cr for improving their infrastructure.

Strategies to be adopted:

The strategic components identified for area-based development in the Smart Cities Mission are:

  • City Improvement (retrofitting) – will cover areas with more than 500 acres to make the existing area more efficient and livable by adding infrastructure and smart applications while keeping the existing structures intact.
  • City Renewal (redevelopment) – will envisage areas of more than 50 acres to be redeveloped with a new layout plan with mixed land use, higher FSI and high ground coverage.
  • City Extension (Greenfield development) – development will be done in a previously vacant area to address the need of expanding population via Land Pooling / land reconstitution.
  • Pan-city initiative in which Smart Solutions are applied to the existing city wide infrastructure.

Of the 98 cities and towns that will upgrade into smart cities, 24 are capital cities, another 24 are business and industrial centres, 18 are culture and tourism influenced areas, five are port cities and three are education and health care hubs.

(Source: http://smartcities.gov.in/)

Below are the links to the earlier parts of this series:

 

http://www.koncreteplanet.com/article/smart-cities-exploring-future-part-1/

http://www.koncreteplanet.com/article/smart-cities-exploring-future-part-2/

http://www.koncreteplanet.com/article/smart-cities-core-infrastructure-part-3/