Open Forum

New Delhi, 28 July 2014

Smart Cities

CORRECTING URBAN CHAOS

By Dr S Saraswathi

(Former director, ICSSR, New Delhi)

The Union Budget has provided a sum of Rs.7,060 crore for development of 100 smart cities as promised in the election manifesto of the BJP. While presenting this, the Finance Minister stated that unless new cities are developed to accommodate the bourgeoning number of people, the existing cities would soon become unliveable. He pointed to the rapid pace of migration from rural to urban areas as a result of development.

The basic idea is to make urban infrastructure network and delivery of services more efficient to cope with the needs of increasing population.

This, in a sense, is an unfinished plan of the previous UPA government that planned two smart cities in each of the 28 States in the country in the second phase of the JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission) in 2012. The plan was to convert cities with 5 lakh to one million population like Ujjain and Jabalpur into smart cities, i.e. cities endowed with all facilities, and are “carbon neutral”, and “energy efficient”.

All over the world, the concept of smart cities has become popular and a part of sustainable development. Europe is said to be ahead of the US in creating smart cities. Urbanization on fast track, climate change, globalization, demographic changes, and migrations combine to determine and alter the future of cities and city life.

Companies working all over the world are drawn in the business of building infrastructure necessary for converting cities into smart cities. IBM, for instance, is said to be working on around 2,500 smart cities across the world. China and Brazil are said to be seriously working on hundreds of smart cities projects.

It is estimated that by 2030, about 600 million people will be residing in cities in India – nearly double the number of city population enumerated in the 2001 census. Urban population has increased from 27.80 % of the total population in 2001 to 31.10% in 2011.

However, India remains one of the countries with low level of urbanization. Still, the urban chaos grows day-by-day and cities are minute-by-minute fast turning to be “unliveable” geographical area. There is uneven growth in urbanization as Class I cities increase fast and medium and small towns experience declining population. Big cities face tremendous infrastructure, managerial, and environmental problems. Their growth naturally causes deterioration in the quality of life. Demand for better services has to be met to prevent the breakdown of city life itself.

This situation is termed “pseudo-urbanization”. It refers to formation of large cities without adequate functional infrastructure. It occurs wherever urban population grows without corresponding growth of infrastructure – housing, educational institutions, health care system, water supply, transportation, roads, waste management, etc. Several cities across the country including the mega cities suffer from over-urbanization and under utilities.

Several concepts and plans have gone into the development of cities in accordance with needs from time to time. But, they are insufficient and have faced many problems and obstructions in implementation. Town planning goes to pre-independence era, but towns have overgrown much beyond the plans.

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) launched in 2005 was to focus on planned development of identified cities. It focused on urban infrastructure, basic services for the urban poor, safe drinking water, clean surrounding, improved transport system, etc.

Construction works to replace or restore old buildings were taken up under this scheme. City modernization schemes were launched to improve urban infrastructure. E-governance has been introduced in many cities.  Municipal governance is strengthened to participate in local development. But the JNNURM has resulted in more questions than achievements.

Smart growth is a concept in urban planning that emerged after the Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 which gave to the world the concept of “sustainable development”. It became popular in the US. It advocates compact urban centres that are sustainable in the long-term. It values promotion of a sense of community and neighbourhood among the residents as well as development of the region’s natural and cultural resources. It concentrates on achieving certain realistic aims such as education, employment, housing, power and water supply, transportation, and healthcare institutions.   

A similar concept was developed in Europe also particularly in Britain. Transportation, employment, and housing choices got priority with emphasis on long-term regional considerations of sustainability. Known as “compact city” and “urban intensification”, government planning of cities in many countries in Europe rested on what is called the three pillars – human capital, natural capital, and created capital. 

The concept of smart growth stems from the idea that economic development should enhance quality of life also.  It evolved to counter uncontrolled development resulting in urban sprawl, deteriorating urban infrastructure, traffic congestion, inadequate public services and amenities, and increasing pollution level, etc. - in short, to address the mismatch between supply and demand in city life.

Smart cities are an improvement over earlier “digital cities” and “connected cities” built on the new technology. Introduced as a strategic device to cover urban production factors,  the concept of smart city is built on the growing Information and Communication Technology  (ICT) and also banks on social and environmental capital that are not properly exploited in conventional urbanization.  

In the place of emphasis on construction of roads, bridges, buildings, railway lines, etc., smart cities are developed by using broadband network, mobile towers, cameras, wireless and satellite communication, and rapid mass transport. Resources are used more efficiently for improving every aspect of urban life. From the quality of air and water to transport and communication systems, from garbage clearance strategy to safe and secure environment, smart cities will be different from the rest.

In fact, the concept of smart cities is looked upon as a “technological project” in India whereas in the West, it is considered to be a “management project”. This is due to the high level of technological progress already made by western nations. India has to face the twin task of improving our technology as well as our techniques of management. The much publicized public-private participation must become a reality within and beyond the role of local government institutions.

Smart cities are not grown, but built with human endeavour in several dimensions.  Knowledge and application must come into play as the essential capital for the smart city projects. Simultaneously, all that hampers urban development like corruption and bureaucratic lethargy must be rooted out. It is common knowledge that projects involving constructive work contain tremendous scope for corrupt practices. 

Smart cities project must include inbuilt mechanism for smart administration that is responsible, accountable, transparent, and efficient. E-governance cannot be taken as foolproof arrangement to eliminate corruption.

In India, it is expected that the proposed conversion of small and medium towns into smart cities would help arrest population movement towards mega cities. This may work as short-term solution. But cutting down uneven growth cannot be achieved without a check on population growth. 

Smart cities will help correct prevailing urban chaos in India for some time. But, the mess cannot be eradicated without nationwide promotion of basic infrastructure and delivery of services.  Our situation is such that we have to ensure that our achievements on one path are not nullified by our failings on another. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)