Smart Cities: A new dimension to urbanization in India “The best way to predict the future is to design it”

As population continues to grow, more citizens will move to cities. Experts predict that about 25-30 people will migrate every minute to major cities from rural areas in search of better livelihood and better lifestyles. It is estimated that by the year 2050, the number of people living in cities will touch 8430 million. To accommodate this massive urbanization, world needs smarter ways to manage complexities, reduce expenses, increase efficiency and improve the quality of life.

What is Smart City:

A developed urban area that create sustainable economic development & high quality of life by excelling in multiple key areas ; Economic , Mobility ,enviourment , people , living & Govt. excelling in these key areas can be done so through strong human capital ,social capital and/or ICT infrastructure.

Smart City concept:It is to facilitate creation of economically vibrant, inclusive, efficient and sustainable urban habitats. Its mission is to promote cities as engines of economic growth through improvement in the quality of urban life by facilitating creation of quality urban infrastructure, with assured service levels and efficient governance. A smart city demands an understanding of public purposes and public interests to define a better and planned city which supports creation of livelihoods, and enhancement of economic growth. The India’s economic growth also depends on harnessing renewable natural resources.

Main Features: Smart parking Intelligent transport system Tele-care Traffic management Smart grids Smart urban lighting Waste management Smart city maintenance Smart taxi Digital-signage

Smart City Budget:In the 2014-15 Budget Session, the Finance Minister of India Mr. Arun Jaitely is allotted the 7,060 Crores of Rupees for the 100 Smart Cities. The Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi is going to develop the 100 Smart Cities as Satellite Towns of Larger Cities by modernizing the present Cities.

Smart energy:

Electrification of all households with power available for at least 8 hours per day by 2017

Indigenous low cost smart meter by 2014 Establish smart grid test bed by 2014 and

smart grid knowledge centre by 2015 Implementation of 8 smart grid pilot projects

in india with an investment of USD 10 million

Smart environment: Ministry of New and Renewable

Energy has plans to add capacity of 30,000 MW in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17)

The Indian Ministry of Water Resources plans to invest USD 50 billion in the water sector in the coming years

The Yamuna Action Plan Phase III project for Delhi is approved at an estimated cost of USD 276 million

Smart transportation:

The Government of India has approved a USD 4.13 billion plan to spur electric and hybrid vehicle production by setting an ambitious target of 6 million vehicles by 2020

Electric vehicle charging stations in all urban areas and along all state and national highways by 2027

Metro: Ministry of Urban Development plans to invest more than USD 20 billion on the metro rail projects in coming years

High Speed Rail: The proposed 534 km Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail project will have an investment of around USD 10.5 billion

Smart buildings: India is expected to emerge as the world’s 3rd

largest construction market by 2020, by adding 11.5 million homes every year

The Intelligent Building Management Systems market is around USD 621 million and is expected to reach USD 1,891 million by 2016

Vision: Smart City should focus on:-

Retrofitting existing legacy city infra Financing smart cities Availability of master plan Financial sustainability of ULBs Technical constraints of ULBs Three-tier governance Providing clearances in a timely manner Dealing with a multivendor environment Reliability of utility services

Benefits: Saving Time & Energy. Saving Travel time by having Effective Public Transport Low cost Energy will fulfill most of the problems. On matter of Employment: When overall cities will develop, more employment

opportunities