Equi-City conducts training workshop on Smart Cities for elected representatives

Against the background of economic and technological changes caused by the globalisation and the integration process, cities face the challenge of combining competitiveness and sustainable urban development simultaneously. Evidently, this challenge is likely to have an impact on urban issues such as housing, culture, economic, social and environmental conditions. Even though the vast majority of the urban population lives in mid-sized cities, the main focus of urban research tends to be on the ‘global’ metropolises. As a result, the challenges of medium-sized cities, which can be rather different, remain unexplored to a certain degree.
Medium sized cities, which have to cope with competition of the larger metropolises on corresponding issues, appear to be less well equipped in terms of critical mass, resources and organizing capacity. In this connection, Indian cities are not an exception and there is an inevitable requirement to introduce city smartness in the system to attain sustainable urban development.
The contemporary thinking about the integrated smart sustainable city as a system can only be turned into reality with a smart, integrated approach to both delivery and strategy. In an interconnected urban system, trees and green walls naturally cool streets and buildings; their green waste can be transformed into energy via anaerobic digestion or similar biological treatment; this energy can be used to power a fleet of street cleaning vehicles; the vehicles can make use of the recycled grey water from nearby apartments; the organic waste from the apartments can be used in greenhouses on the roof; and this can deliver food back to the apartments or the café at street level, and so on. Nutrient cycles are closed, water cycles are closed, energy is transferred from one system to another, and communities are engaged. Benefits are environmental, social and economic. So the idea of the smart city has become important not simply due to the emergence of the internet over the last two decades but also due to political, organizational, social, cultural and spatial challenges now facing city governments.
Smart Cities Mission is an urban renewal and retrofitting program by the Government of India with a mission to develop 100 cities (the target has been revised to 109 cities) all over the country making them citizen friendly and sustainable. The Union Ministry of Urban Development is responsible for implementing the mission in collaboration with the state governments of the respective cities.
Moving forward on these aforementioned objectives the Equi-City Team along with the Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Limited (NSSCDCL) and All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) organized a one-day training workshop on Smart Cities on October 23, 2018 at Town Hall, Nagpur. The workshop was conducted to sensitize the elected representatives on the Smart City Mission Guidelines and Proposal, mainly focusing on awareness generation among the elected representatives about the concept of Smart Cities Mission. Currently, Nagpur stands at two position in implementation ranking of Smart City Challenge amongst 100 cities.
The training workshop commenced with the introduction and welcome note by Jayant Pathak, Regional Director of AIILSG, Nagpur. The workshop was inaugurated by Nagpur Mayor Nanda Jichkar in the presence of Opposition Party Leader Tanjai Wanve; Additional Commissioner Ravindra Thakre, Assistant Commissioner Mahesh Dhamecha, Technical Director, AIILSG, Pashim Tiwari and Equi-City Project Head, Dr Amrita Anand. The CEO of NSSCDCL, Dr Ramnath Sonawane was the expert for the Smart Cities Training Workshop. He gave insight into the concepts and guidelines of Smart Cities Mission and then elaborated on Nagpur Smart City Proposal which will carry out Area Based Development of Punapur, Bharatwadi and Pardi area and the Pan-City Solution for Nagpur.
The Mayor expressed that the elected representatives should feel proud that they are a part of building a Smart City. Along with being smart, the development should be environmentally viable and sustainable. Nagpur is getting smart gradually with the implementation of Smart City Proposal such as Pan-City solution under which CCTV cameras are installed and Wi-Fi connectivity is provided to the citizens at all the major junctions, City Operation Centre (C-O-C) has also been established in NMC. The Mayor also gave example of the usability and importance of Pan -City Solution by recalling the incident of heavy rains in Nagpur which was monitored and controlled with the help of C-O-C. The Mayor suggested that the elected representatives should visit and understand the working of C-O-C.
Thakre, Additional Commissioner, talked about the problems faced by the citizens when any new development takes place. He suggested that technologically advanced smart solutions should be found out for the problems faced by the new generation. He also proposed to all the elected ward members to take maximum benefit of this training and reach out to citizens and explain the ‘Smart City Concept’ effectively to them.
Dr Sonawane said that ‘Smart City’ concept is often misunderstood as only to be high-rise buildings, wide roads and smart infrastructure but the provision of basic services such as water supply, sewerage management, and solid waste management is also included in the Smart Cities Mission. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation has appointed NSSCDCL as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to implement the Smart City Proposal in Nagpur city. He gave information about the demographics of Nagpur city and explained the land use change and urban growth in Nagpur from 1990 to 2017 and explained the reasons of unplanned and haphazard growth in Nagpur city to the elected members.
He also explained that a Smart city is the one which has basic infrastructure and uses smart solutions to make infrastructure and services better and relies on area-based development.
Following are the important points discussed during the training conducted by Dr Sonawane on the concept, objectives and guidelines of Smart Cities Mission and Nagpur Smart City Proposal.
The objectives of Smart Cities Mission are to provide basic infrastructure, quality of life and clean and sustainable environment with integration of smart solutions and set example to be replicated both within and outside the Smart City and catalyze the creation of similar Smart Cities.
The strategy of Smart Cities Mission is given below:
Pan city initiative in which at least one Smart Solution is applied through out the city
Develop Areas step-by-step by three modules of area-based developments (ABD)
a) Retrofitting – Development of an existing built area greater than 500 acres so as to make it more efficient and livable,
b) Redevelopment- Replace existing built environment in an area of more than 50 acres and enable co-creation of a new layout, especially enhanced infrastructure, mixed land use and increased density.
c) Greenfield- Develop a previously vacant area of more than 250 acres using innovative planning, plan financing and plan implementation tools with provision for affordable housing, especially for
the poor.
The Vision of Nagpur Smart City is e3i – To transform India’s Heart – Nagpur into the most liveable Eco-friendly, Edu-city that electronically connects people with the government.
Nagpur Smart City Proposal is based on four agendas Smart Mobility, Smart Environment, Smart Governance, and Smart Living.
There are 20 Projects undertaken in Nagpur Smart City Proposal. Out of these 19 projects are under Area Based Development and one project is under Pan City Solution.
The Area Based Development module undertaken in Nagpur Smart City Proposal is Retrofitting of 1730
acres of Pardi-Bharatwada-Bhandewadi-Punapur through Town Planning Scheme.
Some of the impactful projects under Nagpur Smart City Proposal
are as follows:
Tender SURE – Design and construction of roads, bridges, culverts, sidewalks, Mechanical Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) works on Tender SURE Concept for ABD area under Nagpur Smart City Project.
Project Green Light – To install 1,36,000 LED lights in 10 zones of Nagpur Municipal Corporation.
Nirmal Nag River Project – Nag River Pollution Abatement Project
The Pan City Proposal consists of City-wide solutions such as installation of 1200 km of fiber-based city-wide connectivity, 100 smart kiosk terminals, internet connectivity for general public at 136 locations and city surveillance through 3800 CCTV cameras, mobile vehicles and drones. It consists of Smart Strip intervention which will have smart transport, ICT based SWM, Smart Lighting, Smart Parking, Smart Traffic and Environmental sensors. The Pan City proposal will also set up two control centres – Command Control Centre and City
Operation Centre.