Smart City project is a major initiative of the Union Government with involvement of states, too. The first lot of 20 cities has been earmarked as part of the plan to make 100 cities “smart” through the next three years. The idea is to make them citizen-friendly and sustainable.
Critics are already of the opinion that the money will largely go waste, for the reason that it is difficult to refashion a city of teeming populations and that too, with small sums. A hundred crore means little today considering the depths to which India’s cities have sunk due to lack of urban planning over the years since Independence. Half of it will anyway be waylaid by vested interests in the implementation stage.
Every rain brings misery to the nation’s big cities and exposes the chinks in the system. This year, Gurgaon highlighted the mess that so-called big cities are trapped in. A few showers turned this developed city into a pool of chaos.
The same happens with New Delhi, Mumbai and most of India’s mega cities. Bad public transport, lack of proper drainage facilities, death traps on the roads and sidewalks, compromised sanitation and unplanned growth have created cities that promise big but fail in the very basics.
In Mumbai, people have had to spend whole nights in trains that fail to move on flooded tracks. The effort to create a new city, New Bombay or Navi Mumbai, was sabotaged by real estate lobbies in the metropolis in the 70s and 80s. Navi Mumbai ultimately turned out to be an industrial hub for new industries that came forward to set up units. With governmental vacillation holding back the initiatives, neither the old city of Mumbai benefited, nor the new city.
Overall, life in the western metropolis remains chaotic, and travel is a nightmare even in ordinary times, let alone in rainy seasons. Other cities are experiencing similar issues.
While five-year plans have come and gone, the housing sector remains untouched and unattended, leaving a free hand to real estate sharks to rule the roost and exploit people.
Haphazard growth has given Indian cities their terribly ugly looks. So much so, India today does not have a single city to hold aloft to the world as a model city. Capital Delhi has absorbed much of the dynamics of chaotic development in terms of urbanisation in recent decades, while cities such as Mumbai and Kolkata remain in a shambles and have progressively lost their old charms. Chennai’s growth dynamics was partially shifted to Bangalore, turning the Karnataka capital into a mess in terms of transportation as also civic amenities.
Fashioning planned new cities is suggested by some. Land prices have skyrocketed in old cities, even as living conditions are at abysmally low levels. Both water and electricity are in short supply in most cities. The dirty urban sprawl, encroachment and the menace of mosquitoes and other pests that lead to serious health problems for citizens need immediate attention.
Not just the civic bodies, city dwellers remain unconcerned about the city’s cleanliness and flout rules at the drop of a hat. Only smart citizens backed by an efficient government can create smart cities.
The Smart City project promises assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management. It also promises efficient public transport systems, proper IT connectivity, e-governance and a safe environment for citizens. A very tall order. Nearly 100 billion has been earmarked for the project.
Not a big sum for 100 cities, considering the situation which cities are in today. It would be a drop in the ocean, and facilities will have only marginal improvement. The Smart City idea on the part of the government requires a new look.