Chandigarh may become India’s first smart city

CHANDIGARH - Chandigarh could be the first Indian smart city as the government moves to create many hi-tech cities in the country.

Referring to the NDA's proposal to set up 100 smart cities in the country, finance minister Arun Jaitley said, "The first Indian smart city to be created probably could be Chandigarh. There are satellite cities around Chandigarh which are being created."

Elaborating on his point, he said Gandhinagar is an example of a smart city and towns like Noida and New Raipur are attracting foreign investments.

"Noida and Greater Noida on the outskirts of Delhi, New Raipur in Chhattisgarh ... these are recent experiments we have made and good experiments we have made. Foreign capital is available to them (since) we have opened up the sector," the minister said on the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit here.


Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the first Indian smart city to be created probably could be Chandigarh.

Smart cities would be built in a way so that they have uninterrupted power, water, proper sanitation, efficient management of solid waste, decongestion of roads, last mile connectivity and effective use of ICT.

Several countries like Japan, Germany, Sweden, Singapore, Israel, UK, US, Hong Kong and the Netherlands besides MNCs have shown interest in building smart cities in India.
Smart cities to be called integrated townships
 The nomenclature for 'special townships' will be changed to 'integrated townships'. 

The state cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to amend the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act to carry out the change in nomenclature. Mantralaya officials said the term 'integrated' would mean that the townships would be economically sustainable as 20% of the 100 acres would be utilized for economic activity. 

This is a precursor to the government creating 134 new townships across Maharashtra, which will be developed as 'smart cities'. A new set of development control regulations will be framed for these townships. "The walk-to-work concept can materialize only if we create sustainable townships," said an official. Most of these townships are being envisaged near Mumbai and Pune. 

Cities must compete with each other for 'smart city' tag

Cities trying to make it to the list of "Smart Cities" would have to compete with each other. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly said there should be competition among city authorities to assess their preparedness and capability to undertake this ambitious task. 

Sources said while chairing a high-level meeting on his flagship smart city initiative on Monday, PM said that cities where authorities and local government are serious in enacting reforms in urban governance should be selected under this scheme. So, the selection will be based on a city's performance and initiatives it has taken for good governance, cleanliness and urban reforms besides having some economic activity. 

A government release said the PM has called for identifying parameters that could be laid down for smart cities. "He asked officials to identify the basics of infrastructure, quality of life, and citizen-centric services that would be essential to cities of the 21st century. He said cities should be identified as hubs of economic activity... He said one of the aims of the smart city initiative should be to improve the quality of urban governance, thereby lending greater strength to the overall governance processes of the country," it said.

Modi has also said that focus of such cities should be on "waste to wealth" - solid waste management and waste water treatment - and government officials need to visualize "urban-dependent" population in addition to "urban" population while planning for smart cities. 

Modi has also asked the urban development ministry to convene a workshop of all central and state urban development authorities soon to focus on legal reforms related to urban development. Sources said the authorities and state government officials would be told about the criteria to select smart cities and they would be asked to provide necessary information. "Then there will be a screening or evaluation by an expert committee to include a city in the list," a source said. 

TOI has learnt that while the target is to develop 100 smart cities, government would take up a few of them. The scheme would include retrofitting in the existing cities, new urban areas, satellite towns and even a portion of the existing big cities.Government to set up 100 smart citiesNEW DELHI: Government is planning to set up 100 smart cities across the country that will provide all modern amenities, education and employment opportunities. 

Urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the project of 100 smart cities is in conceptualization stage and details are being worked out through discussions with all stake-holders, including state governments. 

"The cities are yet to be identified," he said. The minister said education, employment and entertainment are considered to be the key factors which forced people to migrate from rural areas to urban centres. 

"Opportunities of education, employment and entertainment are concentrated mostly in urban and semi-urban centres and these three factors are forcing more and more people to leave rural areas and migrate to towns and cities," he said. 

Naidu said Census of India has projected the urban population till 2026 and by that year, the country's urban population which was 27.8 per cent in 2001 is expected to increase to 38.2 per cent. 

The minister said in terms of the total urban population, it is at 31.6 per cent as per 2011 Census, while the World Urbanization Prospectus shows the level of urbanisation in 2011 in China 50.6 per cent, in Indonesia 50.7 per cent, in South Africa 62 per cent and in Brazil 84.6 per cent.Dec-end was deadline for smart cities planNEW DELHI: With the urban development ministry still caught up in preparing the concept note for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 100 smart cities scheme, the PMO has set this month end as the deadline to make a final presentation. Sources said the deadline is aimed at fast-tracking the scheme so that some work can start by the end of this financial year.

The ministry is staring at surrendering most of the Rs 6,274 crore budget allocated this year for the smart cities programme and a new mission for renewal of urban infrastructure in place of JNNURM. TOI has learnt that so far about Rs 800 crore from this allocation has been utilized under urban transport head and another Rs 200 crore could be used by March. 

Since the conceptualization of smart city project and the new mission to replace JNNURM are still under process, there is hardly any scope for the ministry to utilize substantial allocation. "You can't utilize more than 33% of the unutilized allocation in the last quarter," a government source said.

Meanwhile, with the government yet to finalize the new urban renewal mission, the future of about 250 unfinished infrastructure projects in big cities under JNNURM is hanging in balance. The Centre has stopped releasing any fund for these works. Sources said the ministry in its new mission proposal to the Cabinet will include the provision to provide about Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 crore annually for such projects so that these can be completed. 

Pushing for completion of these projects, a parliamentary panel on UD has observed, "It would be a monumental waste of public money to have expended thousands of crores on incomplete projects only due to the lack of coordination and flexibility between Central and state governments. This would be a most undesirable state of affairs." 

The committee found that no urban infrastructure project has been completed in the seven mission cities of Uttar Pradesh while only 33 out of 71 projects in Gujarat, 16 out of 46 projects in Karnataka and 17 out of 50 projects in Andhra Pradesh have been completed. It has recommended completing at least all remaining projects of JNNURM within a time-bound manner and these should be funded by the Centre.Singapore offers help in Modi’s smart city projectNEW DELHI: Singapore has offered to build some of the smart cities that are on the top of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda.India is keen Singapore builds another Tianjin knowledge city that can be replicated in different parts of the country, an interest that was conveyed to K Shanmugam, Singapore's foreign minister. 

In an exclusive conversation with TOI, Shanmugam said, "Singapore wants India to succeed. A strong and vibrant India is essential for peace and stability in Asia." 

The Prime Minister wants Singapore to be involved in infrastructure activities in India.

"PM talked about ports and port management, skill development, building of smart cities, rejuvenation of India's rivers and water solutions. In terms of technology and experience in water solutions, we will share whatever we have," Shanmugam said.

Modi is keen that Singapore companies which are engaged in water management in Gujarat take on water solutions in other parts of the country as well, including rejuvenation of the Ganga, he said. 

The high level of diplomatic engagement will pick up pace, he said. "Our defence minister is due to visit next month. This will be followed by the visit of Ms Sushma Swaraj also in August.

In September, our former PM Goh Chok Tong will be here. Then our two PMs will meet at a multilateral forum. Next year, our two presidents will visit each other to commemorate the 50th anniversary of our diplomatic relations as well as the 50th anniversary of the creation of Singapore state." Goh Chok Tong was a Modi favourite at Vibrant Gujarat summit.

 A bilateral core group will be tasked to work out the details of the smart city that Singapore would be required to build, Shanmugam said.

"I suggested we can take this further where a small group of ministers from both countries take up these ideas and work with senior officials to give them concrete form. PM thought this was a good idea. The team can develop these ideas and by the time the two PMs meet later this year, there can be some kind of outline." 

India's ambition is huge, he said. "The Prime Minister is thinking in terms of 100 smart cities. Obviously we don't have the capacity to do so many. We proposed that we can do one city and that can be replicated as in China, where we have the Tianjin knowledge city, and smart cities in Suxhou, Guangzhou and Szechuan." 

India's focus, at this point, he said, was internal "as it should be". Therefore, it would not be proper to expect an Indian role in say the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. But an India that is an economic power will play a balancing role in Asia. "That's what we support," Shanmugam said.