The Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) is planning to deploy Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based solutions for maintaining the city-wide infrastructure for better service delivery under the Smart City Mission projects.
The impact of ICT based solutions will be seen in the short term, officials informed.
It may be recalled that Raipur Smart City ltd (RSCl) will be setting up an ‘Integrated Command and Control Centre’ as part of the ‘Smart City’ Mission project of the Union Ministry of Urban Development, officials informed.
Smart City mission was launched by the Central Government on June 25, 2015. Subsequently, Raipur was selected among 100 cities to be developed as Smart City in India due to various achievements, initiatives and all-inclusive approach, they informed.
Accordingly Raipur city had submitted “Smart City Proposal” (SCP) to Union Ministry of Urban Development with required consent of Government of Chhattisgarh and statutory authority of Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC).
The city of Raipur has been selected to be developed into a smart city under the fast track mode of first phase of the Smart Cities Mission.
The Smart City Proposal of Raipur includes the Smart City solutions which involve the use of technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services within the city of Raipur .
On the other hand, the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) is also constructing a state-of-the-art ‘Command and Control Center Building’ at Phase-1, North Block at Sector 19 of the new capital city, officials informed.
It may be recalled that a ‘Master System Integrator’ will manage the extraordinarily high-technology oriented ‘Naya Raipur Smart City System’ .
The Naya Raipur Smart City System will comprise Smart Governance, City Surveillance, Intelligent Transport management System, Electricity and Water supply and City Command and Control Centre among others.
The Naya Raipur as a Smart City will leverage the collective intelligence created by connecting physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure to deliver a quantum improvement in the quality of life of local population, they informed.
The new capital city of Chhattisgarh is a ‘green field’ city and is planned to develop its infrastructure gradually in order to provide world class amenities and facilities to its residents and visitors.
NRDA has taken the next step in ‘Smart City’ development with plans now for ‘Information & Communication Technology’ (ICT) enablement of infrastructure and citizen services, officials informed. Naya Raipur is already among five other cities in the country chosen as ‘Demonstration Cities’ for the Centre’s ambitious Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP).
The final five cities participating as ‘Demonstration Cities’ under Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP) are — Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Mysore (Karnataka), Naya Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad (Maharashtra).
Detailed project profiles were prepared by all cities with assistance of the SUTP Consultants and then endorsed by the SUTP Steering Committee to be included to SUTP as ‘City Demonstration Projects’, officials stated.
It plans of developing a project comprising IT-enabled systems to manage a host of utilities using state-of-the-art technology.
The design would comprise IT enabled land management system, city surveillance besides a host of other systems till now popular and being used only in the developed countries.
The other city management systems include intelligent lighting systems, pay and use parking systems, city guide map available through web browser, intelligent transport system, city level wi-fi touch screens across the city, display boards across the city for providing real-time information, emergency alert and crisis response systems, traffic re-routing applications based on real time traffic data.
It may be recalled that Naya Raipur has emerged in the country with the largest land bank of a mammoth 237 square kilometres (23,700 hectares).
The NRDA has plans of developing a ‘transport hub’ spread over an area of 161.9 hectares in the new capital city.
The hub would include setting up light Rail Transport System (lRTS) stations. The area being earmarked for the ‘Transport Hub’ would be 12.55 per cent of the total area of the new capital city, officials stated.
On the other hand, notably , the Chhattisgarh Government will also be utilising ‘Centralised Project Management Software System’ (CPMS) for automation of Project Monitoring, Controlling and Reporting task for key projects undertaken in the entire State.
The Government is investing significantly in the State to build physical infrastructure-highways, bridges, water & electrical distribution system etc.
In order to closely monitor and control these major Infrastructure Projects from inception to closure, Government of Chhattisgarh wants to implement Centralised Project Management System.
Chhattisgarh Infotech and biotech Promotion Society (CHiPS), is the nodal agency of Department of Information Technology and Biotechnology, Government of Chhattisgarh in the State of Chhattisgarh to implement the software based monitoring project.
The Centralised project management software system would be used for monitoring work of major departments and agencies such as Chhattisgarh Road Development Corporation (CGRDC), Chhattisgarh State Power Development Corporation ltd (CSPDCl), Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA), Public Works Department (PWD) and Water Resources Department (WRD).
This apart, a Centralised Project Management Unit (CPMU) – Team of consultants would work as an interface between Secretariat and Government Implementing Departments and system integrators to ensure proper monitoring of the project works.
Notably, Raipur city was selected among 100 cities to be developed as Smart City in India due to various achievements, initiatives and all-inclusive approach. Accordingly Raipur city had submitted “Smart City Proposal” (SCP) for Raipur City to Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India with required consent of Government of Chhattisgarh and statutory authority of Raipur Smart City.
The city of Raipur has been selected to be developed into a Smart City under the fast track mode of first phase of the Smart Cities Mission.
The Smart City Proposal of Raipur includes the Smart City solutions which involve the use of technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services with in the city of Raipur (The Smart Solutions Projects).
Raipur City is to promote Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) with dedicated pedestrianised corridors and enhanced ‘walk ability’ options.
This was stated in the ‘Smart City Proposal’ for Raipur submitted during Stage II of the ‘Smart City Challenge’ of India Smart City Mission of the Union Ministry of Urban Development.
The NMT mode had been focussed to bring pollution levels further down in the city, officials informed.
The citizens of Raipur foresee themselves living in environmentally clean, socially cohesive, sustainable, using renewable energy sources, utilising scientific water and waste management, employingsmart transportationand a safe city with a responsive ‘Smart Governance Framework’, the document mentioned
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has taken up ‘Transit Oriented Development’ (TOD) in Naya Raipur besides Ahmedabad, Delhi (Kakardooma), Nagpur and Navi Mumbai, the Central Government has informed.
The Ministry would like this to be expanded to other cities as well, it informed.
To effectively address the emerging urbanisation challenges, the Union Ministry of Urban Development has come out with a multi-pronged policy framework to promote living close to mass urban transit corridors, the Ministry informed.
This new initiative seeks to promote TOD which enables people to live within walking or cycling distance from transit corridors like the Metros, Monorail and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors, currently being taken up on a large scale.
The Ministry has formulated a ‘National Transit Oriented Development Policy’ which will be discussed with the States and Union Territories at a National Workshop on Urban Development to be held on Tuesday next week.
This policy seeks to enhance the depth of understanding of States and UTs on TOD as a viable solution to many of the challenges like haphazard urban growth and sprawl, mobility, rapidly rising private vehicles on roads, pollution, housing choices etc.
This new urban design and planning in the form of TOD, is being incentivised by the Union Ministry under two more initiatives viz, Metro Policy and Green Urban Mobility Scheme which also will be discussed with States and UTS for taking them on board.
Under TOD, city densification will be promoted along mass transit corridors through vertical construction by substantially enhancing FARs (Floor Area Ratio) backed by promotion of Non-motorised Transport Infrastructure for walking and cycling to transport stations, development of street networks in the influence zone of transit corridors, multi-modal integration, effective first and last mile connectivity through feeder services to enable people access public transit in 5 to 10 minutes from home and work places.
Dense living along transit corridors besides resulting in enhanced living and travel experience, will also improve ridership of mass transit systems. If properly executed, TOD could emerge as a means of financing mass transit project, for which the demand is growing.
TOD promotes integration of land use planning with transportation and infrastructure development to avoid long distance travel in cities through compact development as against the present pattern of unplanned and haphazard urban growth.
Under the new Metro Policy, TOD has been mandatory while under Green Urban Mobility Scheme, TOD has been made an essential reform and is given priority for receiving central assistance.
The Ministry’s initiative comes in the context of over 300 km of Metro lines being operational in seven cities, another 600 kms of metro line projects under construction in 12 cities and over 500 km projects under consideration.
The Ministry has supported BRTS projects in 12 cities which are under different stages of progress and eight more cities are set to take up BRT projects. Mass Rail Transit System of 380 km length is being taken up in Delhi.
Transit Oriented Development will be financed by channelising a part of increases in property values resulting from investments in transit corridors through Betterment levies and Value Capture Financing tools. Increased private sector participation will result in economic development and employment generation.
TOD Policy also aims at inclusive development by ensuring mixed neighbourhood development in the form of a range of housing choices including affordable housing and ensuring spaces for street vendors.
The Chhattisgarh Government will encourage use of public transport by way of allowing more density along the public transport corridors which makes public transport financially sustainable and on the other hand, reduces the usage of personal vehicles in its new capital city, officials here informed.
The concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is being adopted to make Naya Raipur a sustainable city.
To construct bus shelters within walkable range from the sectors, to connect the sectors and BRT shelters with cycle tracks and walkways, to design the shelters with facilities of bicycle parking thereby reducing the emission of green house gases, congestion on roads and reducing accidents.
The Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) has plans of developing a ‘Transport Hub’ spread over an area of 161.9 hectares in the new capital city.
The Raipur Smart City Project is promising 24x7 water supply to the residents when ready. Improvement and revamping of existing water supply , transmission and Distribution Network under ‘Mor Raipur City Center Area’ (MRCC) will be done through PPP model on DBOT basis , officials informed.
Currently, Raipur is supplied 277 MlD of water from various sources. The population of Raipur as per 2011 Census is 10,26,539. Considering current population as 12 lakh, the average per capita supply in Raipur is about 200 lpcd, supplied intermittently for a period of 2-3 hours per day mostly.
The MRCC area receives 11 MlD and its current population is about 67000. At present, water from 4 ESRs (Motibagh, Ganj, Deven Nagar, and Tank No.7) are serving the Area Based Developmnt (ABD) Area of Raipur.
The total number of house service connections in ABD area is around 6700, currently there are many type of loses in the Water Supply Distribution Network, which includes loses due to pilferages, leakages in lines etc.
The Smart City Proposals includes area based proposal for a particular area (MRCC Area) which will be developed into a smart area, thereby improving liveability of the whole city (the “Area Based Development Project”).
The ABD area considered for retrofit and redevelopment model development is 777 acres. It is predominantly commercial with equal presence of wholesale and retail.
The area contains 3 significant water bodies, sports infrastructure, households, and a plethora of heritage areas too. MRCC is envisaged as a transformational project converting the Raipur urban heart into a Clean, Connected, Cohesive and Credible Raipur; A project replicable in other parts of Raipur as well as other smart cities of the State.