SMART CITIES – A BIG CHALLENGE

Government of India has decided to develop 100 smart cities in India with the concept that cities are engines of economic growth and would create large employment opportunities in the country. Peoples of India welcomed and appreciated this step of Government of India.  Developing of smart cities is not an easy task in our country, therefore, the time has come to support to Government mission of smart cities.

Indian cities are highly polluted cities in the world. India is a developing country; per capita income is very much less in comparison developed countries. On the other hand India accounts about 2.4% of world’s geographical area and 4% water resources, but has to support about 17% of world’s human population and 15% of livestock. One of the biggest barriers in development of smart cities is lack of smart city culture in our country. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has vital role in development of smart cities but limited access in the cities of our country. The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have been facing problems in collecting data since Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is not the part of our routine life.

Development of smart city is associated with the economic development of the country. Therefore, it has become imperative to develop facilities in the cities to make city more attractive for investors and for job seekers. All these facilities cannot be developed in overnight; it would take ten to fifteen years and, therefore, has to be developed in phased manner. In the first phase main emphasis should be given to clean and pollution free city, availability of clean water and electricity, affordable houses, intra-city transportation facilities, employment opportunities and security of peoples.

Conclusion

As discussed above development of smart cities is not an easy task in our country, implementing the first phase would be very difficult and challenging. The courses related to the smart cities should be included in school and college education. The advantages and importance of smart cities should be advertised through various channels. Government should concentrate for fast development of information and communication technology to make it part of routine life of the peoples and develop information sharing centers.

SCAN YOUR SMART CITIES

Living in big cities is becoming difficult day by day. Citizens are facing the problems of water, electricity, accommodation and health. The boundaries of cities are expanding in haphazard manner; accordingly transportation has become difficult and costly.  The roads are crowded, heavy and uncontrollable traffic exists for longer hours. Sometimes, traffic police fails to control the traffic and causes jam on the road. No, suitable parking place are available in cities and people park the vehicles as per their desire. Heavy pollution and dirt in cities is adversely affecting the human health.

Accommodations in the cities are not available at a reasonable and affordable cost. Purchase of house in the cities is away from ordinary people. The youth coming for employment and student coming for education in cities get the accommodation in remote areas where infrastructure facilities are not available. Both of them have to travel long distances, transportation vehicles are not available timely and transportation vehicles are too much crowded.

Big cities are too much dirty, no proper sewage and sanitation system exist in so many colonies in city. Sewage and sanitation system is under capacity in many cities in our country and both the systems are not maintained properly. All these factors cause the drainage of dirty water on roads and heaps of garbage at many places. Sewage systems are available without treatment plant; therefore, sewage mixes with natural and good quality of water. There are no toilets and urinals for the peoples in cities, the peoples use open spaces or streets in place of toilets and urinals.

Health problems are drastically increasing in cities in our country with increasing in pollution and dirt in the cities. Sufficient hospitals, dispensaries and doctors are not available in cities. The hospital are overcrowded, patients have to wait for long time for treatment. Everyone cannot afford cost of medicines prescribed by the doctors, since the cost of medicines are very high. Required levels of doctors and medical facilities are not available even in big cities. Patients have to go to other cities for treatment; therefore, it further increases medical expenses.

Overall the condition of big cities is not good in our country, in addition to it the unemployment is also major problem. The Government has initiated action for development of smart cities for resolving above problems of cities. Basically, smart city is a concept of developed countries and they implemented as per their needs. Our circumstances are different from developed countries and we are struggling for basic needs (bread and butter), where as peoples of developed countries are leading good quality and healthy life style. Now, the question arises that implementing the smart city (the bought out concept from developed countries) would prove to be viable option for India.

Dream Your Smart City

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been rapidly developing through the world. Technology development has brain ware the peoples, therefore, peoples are leading to improved quality way of life with social and economic changes. Peoples are going smarter and smarter and prefer everything smart such as smart phones, smart kitchens, smart house, smart cities and smart culture. The things are getting smarter and smarter with technical innovations and it is endless process.

World has been shifting from agrarian economics to industrial and service sector, thus the urban world is developing at a faster rate with economic and population growth. The growth of urban population is due growth of own population and rural public migrating to cities at regular intervals for employment. In previous years the rapid urbanization was observed in developed countries. Local government of developed countries could not create the required infrastructure facilities with the rapid urbanization.  As a result urban public had to suffer a lot due to non availability of facilities in urban areas, the services became costly and inaccessible to everyone.  This rapid urbanization had given birth to concept of smart cities to meet the future challenges. The aim of developing of smart cities is to create facilities to enable public to lead a quality way of life along with employment opportunities. Basically smart cities are capitalizing on new technologies and insights to transform their systems, operation and service delivery.  So many smart cities have been developed in the world (almost in developed countries) and their attributes decides the ranking. The top ten ranking Smart Cities of the World are Vienna, Toronto, Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hong Kong and Barcelona.

Now, the speed of urbanization has gained in developing countries. This growth of urbanization is expected to continue at a faster rate for next 10 to 15 years. Growth of urban population has also been observed in India, it was 27.8% in 2001, 30% in 2011. Presently, urban population is 31%, expected to be 32.3% in 2021, 38.2% in 2026, and 41% in 2030 and if the same trend follows the urban population would be 50% by 2050.

 Projection of Urban Population in India

UN Projections-2006

Several cities in India are facing the problem of facilities due to rapid urbanization and if such conditions prevail for longer periods the cities will be unlivable in future. Now, the time has come to learn the lesson from developed countries to avoid the problem faced by them during the transition period.

    Some peoples raised issues and advocating against the development of smart cities in India. Their opinion is that our country is an agrarian country and majority of peoples are engaged in farming practices. The government is caring for 31% urban population and leaving aside unprivileged 69% rural population. More than 300 million peoples have no access to the electricity; around 20 million ton of grain is wasted every year for want of preservation, availability of doctors per capita is very much less in comparison to even other developing countries and 500 millions are without secondary education.

       

         Finally, Government has decided to develop 100 smart cities in India with the concept that cities are engines of economic growth and would create large employment opportunities in the country. On 21^st June 2015, prime minster Shri Narendra Modi declared 100 smart cities will be developed in. our country. Guidelines have also been issued by the Government of India for selection of 100 smart cities and finally selected 98 cities.