A ‘smart city’ is an urban space that boasts of highly advanced infrastructure, sustainable real estate, communications and market viability. It is a city where information technology is the principal infrastructure and the basis for providing essential services to residents. Among various technological platforms involved in this region are automated sensor networks and data centres.
When the world was reeling under economic crisis in 2008, the idea of smart cities was coined by IBM when it started working on a ‘smarter cities’ concept under its Smarter Planet initiative. The idea caught the eyeballs of many nations worldwide by the start of 2009.
Soon, nations like South Korea, UAE and China started investing largely into their research and formation. Today, India can keep on motivating itself by a large numbers of examples from such as those in Vienna, Aarhus, Amsterdam, Cairo, Lyon, Málaga, Malta, the Songdo International Business District near Seoul, Verona, etc.
Almost every state has stake its claim for being named among the 100 smart cities ever since the Prime Minister’s ambitious 100 smart cities initiative was announced by the Ministry for Urban Development. Recently, the government has announced a list of 98 cities that will be developed as smart cities in the next 5 years. The strategic components of development include city improvement (retrofitting), city renewal (redevelopment) and city extension (Greenfield development) with a pan-city initiative in which smart solutions are applied covering larger parts of the city.
The way to the future of the smart cities initiative is a difficult task, and time will play a key role in deciding the success of the mission. The process will start with the formation the legislative and governing authorities for developing smart cities that are Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), which will monitor planning, appraisal, approval, releasing funds, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the development projects. The foundation of public–private partnerships, joint ventures and subsidiaries will be an important task in guaranteeing an adequate revenue stream as well as providing technology support that is required.
Being a centrally sponsored scheme, the central government will inject a funding to the amount of `48,000 crore over a span of 5 years. Approximately, same amount will be pumped in by the state/ULB, which means funds worth nearly `1,00,000 crore will be available for smart cities development. Models and capacity will decide the project cost for smart city proposals. It is also necessary to create attractive investment opportunities and scope for economic expansion so that government can receive returns on the expense.
Multiple stakeholders also pose a great challenge to the project. More than eight ministries are involved to monitor the process of making smart city. Because in many cities different civil systems and operations are managed by different private companies, it is necessary for the government to work harmoniously with private companies to constitute a consortium to manage the smart city.
Security and privacy will play a critical role in building smart cities. Because providing internet access to all may pose a threat to safety of the city, intelligent safety and security solutions will be needed to aid in protecting cities against crime, terrorism and civil unrest. These solutions are thought to allow law enforcement monitor public areas, analyse patterns, and track incidents and suspects, permitting quicker response. By integrating statistics from video surveillance cameras, social media, citizen reports and other sensors, the solutions make it a point to tackle the issue of safety on priority
As India has taken the first step by announcing the names of smart cities, the government is required to make a developmental plan and prioritise the needs of individual cities. To carve out a niche for itself, India needs to shape its own unique smart cities while keeping strengths and weaknesses in mind. The template is there, but the model will be unique. In future, as more people in India gear to move to urban areas, our cities will be the defining units of human habitation. The future of generations to come will depend on how smartly we build, manage and operate our cities