Smart Cities Essays - Ministry Of Urban Development, Free Essays

Smart Cities Essays - Ministry Of Urban Development, Free Essays Ministry of Urban Development Government of India June 2015 Smart Cities Mission Statement & Guidelines Government of India Ministry of Urban Development (June, 2015) Contents 1. The Challenge of Urbanization 5 2. What is a smart city 5 3. Smart City Features 7 4. Coverage and Duration 7 5. Strategy 8 6. Proposal Preparation 9 7. Smart Cities Selection Process 10 8. How Many Smart Cities in Each State/UT? 11 9. The Process of Selection of Smart Cities 11 10. Implementation by Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) 12 11. Financing of Smart Cities 13 12. Funds Release 14 13. Mission Monitoring 15 14. Convergence with Other Government Schemes 17 15. Challenges 18 Annexures Annexure 1: Scope of work for the Smart City Consulting Firm 21 Annexure 2: Number of cities allocated to States based on urban population and number of statutory towns 23 Annexure 3: Challenge Stage 1: Preconditions and Documents to be submitted by each State 25 Annexure 4: Challenge Stage 2: Criteria and Indicative Table of Contents 33 Annexure 5: Structure and Functions of SPV 37 Annexure 6: Utilization Certificate Format 41 Annexure 7: Score Card for Smart Cities 42 5 Smart Cities Mission 1. The Challenge of Urbanization 1.1 Cities are engines of growth for the economy of every nation, including India. Nearly 31% of Indias current population lives in urban areas and contributes 63% of Indias GDP (Census 2011). With increasing urbanization, urban areas are expected to house 40% of Indias population and contribute 75% of Indias GDP by 2030. This requires comprehensive development of physical, institutional, social and economic infrastructure. All are important in improving the quality of life and attracting people and investments to the City, setting in motion a virtuous cycle of growth and development. Development of Smart Cities is a step in that direction. 2. What is a smart city 2.1 The first question is what is meant by a smart city. The answer is, there is no universally accepted definition of a Smart City. It means different things to different people. The conceptualisation of Smart City, therefore, varies from city to city and country to country, depending on the level of development, willingness to change and reform, resources and aspirations of the city residents. A Smart City would have a different connotation in India than, say, Europe. Even in India, there is no one way of defining a Smart City. 2.2 Some definitional boundaries are required to guide cities in the Mission. In the imagination of any city dweller in India, the picture of a Smart City contains a wish list of infrastructure and services that describes his or her level of aspiration. To provide for the aspirations and needs of the citizens, urban planners ideally aim at developing the entire urban eco-system, which is represented by the four pillars of comprehensive development institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure. This can be a long term goal and cities can work towards developing such comprehensive infrastructure incrementally, adding on layers of smartness. 2.3 In the approach to the Smart Cities Mission, the objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of Smart Solutions. The focus is on sustainable and inclusive development and the idea is to look at compact areas, create a replicable model which will act like a light house to other aspiring cities. The Smart Cities Mission of the Government is a bold, new initiative. It is meant to set examples that can be replicated both within and outside the Smart City, catalysing the creation of similar Smart Cities in various regions and parts of the country. 2.4 The core infrastructure elements in a Smart City would include: i. adequate water supply, ii. assured electricity supply, iii. sanitation, including solid waste management, 6 iv. efficient urban mobility and public transport, v. affordable housing, especially for the poor, vi. robust IT connectivity and digitalization, vii. good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation, viii. sustainable environment, ix. safety and security of citizens, particularly women, children and the elderly, and x. health and education. 2.5 As far as Smart Solutions are concerned, an illustrative list is given below. This is not, however, an exhaustive list, and cities are free to add more applications. 2.6 Accordingly, the purpose of the Smart Cities Mission is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to Smart outcomes. Area-based development will transform existing areas (retrofit and redevelop), including slums, into better planned ones, thereby improving liveability of the whole City. New areas (greenfield) will be developed