2015 was a landmark year for cities all over the world and paved a concrete path for a bright urban transition. The UN released its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for the next fifteen years; in Paris, 195 countries signed an agreement at the Conference of Parties-21 (COP-2) and committed themselves to take sincere steps to save the environment; and the Indian government launched an array of city-centric initiatives. 2016 will be a crucial year as it will see the initial implementation of these flagship missions and schemes. How India crafts its urban development vision this year will profoundly impact the future of our cities
2015 witnessed the launch of not only new urban missions but also various initiatives on multiple development fronts that touch upon the periphery of urban development. It is expected that 2016 will accelerate the process of urban rejuvenation with effective implementation of these initiatives. That’s one thing the New Year always offers: expectations of a better future. It is both an opportunity and a challenge for local authorities to capacitate themselves inspite of their scanty skill base, and limited administrative and financial powers.
With the announcement of the first 20 smart cities in the very first month of the year and linking development in cities with multiple focussed schemes of the central government such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, AMRUT, Housing for All, Solar Cities, Make in India and Digital India, all levels of the government will have to join hands for making these initiatives a success. Several reasons can be adduced for India’s shift from unplanned urban growth to planned urbanisation that promises state-of-the-art amenities coupled with efficient service delivery mechanisms. The world watches in awe at the speed and scale of this transformation as Indian cities are among the most populated and polluted cities of the world. Indian cities can become a beacon of hope for others looking to manage urban migration and build more liveable cities.
The United States of America (USA) may have cities that have better infrastructure and service delivery mechanisms than other global cities but following India, it also launched its own Smart Cities Initiative in September 2015. It will be going overboard to say that Indian urban missions have inspired the USA to launch such initiatives, as their cities are already well-governed and boast of a better city system than our cities but Indian cities, despite being poorly resourced and heavily burdened, have an opportunity to lead the way towards smartness.
According to a press statement released by the White House, the initiative will invest over $160 million in federal research and leverage more than 25 new technology collaborations to help local communities tackle key challenges such as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime, fostering economic growth, managing the effects of changing climate, and improving the delivery of city services. The new initiative is part of this Administration’s overall commitment to target federal resources to meet local needs and support community-led solutions.
Recently, the US government’s Department of Transport launched the Smart City Challenge through which one city will be selected in a nationwide competition. The city will show what is possible when communities use technology to connect transportation assets into an interactive network. The challenge will concentrate federal resources and funding of up to $40 million into one medium-sized city that puts forward bold, data-driven ideas to improve lives by making transportation safer, easier, and more reliable.
Growing aspirations
Not since the thrilling days of the economic liberalisation have we seen the same excitement and enthusiasm amongst citizens. People are excited with the idea of high-tech cities, bullet trains, efficient delivery of civic amenities, improved urban mobility with Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) and light trains, industrial corridors, smart buildings, etc. The thrills of introduction of Inter- net of Things (IoT), Big Data, and other sensor based technological advancements in service delivery systems are electrifying the young. People are now aware what other cities around the world are offering to their citizens and expect their corporations to provide similar facilities.
Many such projects have been initiated or are to be initiated in many cities of the country but scaling-up the projects nationwide to all cities and towns is a colossal challenge; especially when local authorities lack capacity and funds. Some of these plans, which have already been implemented, were successful in some cities but not in others. For example: the BRT is a success in Ahmadabad and Indore but failed badly in Delhi. The dismantling of BRT corridor in the national capital has already begun. There is a need to assess the local conditions and ways of handling initiatives to understand what will work in a city and what will not. Just picking up and adopting a technology used elsewhere will not help. Assessing local conditions, opportunities and limitations is necessary.
All the grand plans of leveraging state-of-the-art technology in managing cities is expected to have a trickle-down effect, but will that work when the ratio of highly skilled to unskilled staff in the implementation agencies commanded mostly by state governments is disproportionately low. The Indian government has pumped in money and resources to improve the functioning of our city systems. Undeniably, policies adopted by Indian government in the last year have helped build a climate of trust across the spectrum of warring stakeholders including city leaders, administrators and citizens. Many multi-national companies have come forward promising financial and technical assistance to augment the pace of improving operational efficiency of service delivery mechanisms in our cities.
There is no doubt that our cities are improving—some with greater energy than others. If the government intends to make our cities world-class then there is a need to devolve more powers to urban local bodies to meet the growing aspirations of their citizens. The problems of cities can be resolved in alternative ways by reducing the flow of population to cities through use of appropriate technologies to expand productivity in the villages. We must push for better technologies at all levels—advanced, intermediate, elementary—in villages, towns and cities to ensure a bright future for the next generation.
Genesis of change
Cities are facing multiple challenges and there is a growing need to arrest the deteriorating conditions in urban centres. Cities are often seen as functioning nodes in a prospering economy.
According to France 24, Paris, the French capital, which until the end of 2015 was defined as the relatively small old Paris area within the ‘Périphérique’ ring road, expands as of January 1, 2016 to become the Métropole de Grand Paris (Metropolis of Greater Paris). The Metropole will be administered by 209 councillors chosen by local authorities in the new expanded Greater Paris which will include the suburbs (banlieue) and now cover 814 square kilometres. It will incorporate three entire administrative regions, all the Capital’s major airports and just under seven million people. In comparison, Greater London covers an area of 1,572 square kilometres and a population of 8.5 million. The Metropolitan Council will be responsible for urban planning, housing and the environment. The changes coincide with plans to expand the city’s metro public transport system to connect the Capital’s suburbs to the heart of the city.
Similarly, other cities around the globe are making efforts to rejuvenate their urban spaces with innovative urban planning initiatives. Joburg 2030, the initiative launched by the Johannesburg City Council, is a visionary plan that intends to reshape the city’s economy and geography and ultimately transform it into a world- class business centre with services and standards of living on par with the capitals of the developed world. The plan seeks to boost investment in the city, raising economic growth in order to provide Johannesburg residents with a sustainable increase in wealth and quality of life, and the Council with increased revenues for improved services and more efficient delivery.
We need not only learn from the success stories of global cities but also avoid the mistakes some national governments made in the process of urbanisation. Like in China, the government has indulged in overdrive of urbanisation. They created hundreds of small and big cities featuring everything from high tech malls to sports stadia. But such cities, despite providing world-class facilities, could not attract sizeable population. These cities are now knows as Ghost Cities. According to a book Ghost Cities of China written by Wade Shepard, “a ghost town is a place that has become economically defunct, a location whose population and business base drops to ineffectual numbers. Ghost cities are the result of prematurely built and underfunded urbanization projects that lose backing midway through completion.” There are hundreds of such towns and cities in China. This is a staggering fact because it is expected that one in eight people on Earth would live in a Chinese city by 2030.