India is world’s second largest urban system next to China having more than one third of its population living in cities and towns. It is projected that in the next two decades, there would be enormous rise of cities and towns, which would be home to a bubbling population. Similarly, over the same period, most of the villages around the cities would be transformed into large slum pockets, left unplanned and deprived of minimum amenities.
Understanding these ground realities in 2005, the then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh launched perhaps independent India’s first major urban infrastructure with reforms linked programme Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) in some selected 65 cities all across the country. Within 10 years, the cities prepared their City Development Plan with reforms timeline and signed Memorandum of Agreement with State and National Government to access funds for grounding projects.
However, the irony is that even after 10 years of the JNNURM, India still struggles to have a single city stand out on international standard. There may be hundreds of excuses and reasons supporting JNNURM and criticising the outcome. In fact baring a few projects, most of the renewal mission projects didn’t show much visible results that were expected. There are many causes why the JNNURM could not deliver the desired results.
First, too much ambitious thrust was on City Development Plan and City Investment Plan without taking into view the ground reality. Even in some cases, the documents were consultant-driven to fulfill the need to access funds by ignoring the process of public consultation or having owned by city. The result was that even the Mayor or the City Municipal Commissioner was not aware of such documents existing in their offices. Second, although JNNURM was supposed to drive reforms in specifically grounding 74th Constitutional Amendment provisions, in reality, many States, just for formalities’ sake, took resolution that services were given to municipal bodies but in reality municipal bodies did not get any such privilege. Third, no professional urban manager worked in place of bureaucratic driven Municipal Commissioner.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advocated for 100 Smart Cities in India. America, Japan, China, Singapore, Australia, South Korea, UK, Spain, Germany, France, Netherlands, etc have offered their support to help out India so far as the ambitious project is concerned. The big question is will the present Government rise above the limitations of the JNNURM and formulate policies and goad them with sheer activism to reach the goalIJ Since declaration of the project of Smart City, over six months have passed and the Government is yet to launch the mission officially probably defining how does a Smart City would look like apart from the other formalities to access funds.
If Amsterdam is a Smart City then it’s due to its citizens who resolved that city would be designed so that much space could be given for riding bicycles. The result being Amsterdam is safe from pollution, almost accident-free, inclusive and child-friendly etc. Similarly, Singapore, 40 years ago, was a city of slums and drugs, but today, it is Smart in a manner that its urban infrastructure reaches before a housing society develops. This makes people closer to concept of Neighborhood Township with access to all that urban residents would dream of and is well connected by most efficient and affordable public transport system. Seoul, 40 years ago, was city of hell but it is now most advanced in technology. Its leadership demolished flyovers over a polluted canal and transformed the polluted canal into one of world’s largest city oasis. Major city roads were converted into public space along with one of the finest public transport systems with high-speed internet accessibility. In Stockholm, the garbage is collected directly from the households using vacuum-based network similar to water supply mechanism, which ultimately generates energy.
These cities demonstrated better utilisation of green infrastructure, public participation in governance, hunger for innovation and better use of technology. If India is determined to produce Smart City, then the mindset must work to restore the pristine purity of all water bodies which are now sewerage carriers. Roads must be designed to facilitate bicycling and pedestrians’ movement. Above all, the authorities must ensure the city is governed by professionals hired from the market and not from traditional civil service.
Our cities must unlock its grid so that people could easily commute from one place to another without depending much on personalized vehicles or car. The focus should be diverted to public transport system, bicycling and walking. The cities must have the best and technologically most efficient waste management system. Affordable housing projects should be initiated for the poor and lower income group. Besides, there should be high speed rail connectivity between major cities within five hundred km, and IT-driven facilities. Recently, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu listed '4 S and 4 P' formula for Smart City project that is, “Smart leadership, smart governance, smart technologies and smart people make a city smart.” But the concept seems easier said than done. For this to materialize, our people must show respect for honesty and abjure corruption.
(Dr Rout is an urban planner, and founder, local Governance Network)