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G.S. 3
Mahesh

30/04/22 00:00 AM IST

Smart City's nerve Centre

  • WHAT
  • WHY
  • WHEN
  • WHERE
  • WHO
  • HOW
What is smart cities mission?
  • The Smart Cities Mission aims at developing 100 cities, which were shortlisted, into self-sustainable urban settlements.
  • The mission was launched on June 25, 2015 and was projected as one aimed at transforming the process of urban development in the country.
  • Among its strategic components is ‘area-based development’, which includes city improvement (retrofitting), city renewal (redevelopment) and city extension (greenfield development), plus a pan-city initiative in which ‘smart solutions’ are applied covering larger parts of the city.
  • Key focus areas of the scheme include construction of walkways, pedestrian crossings, cycling tracks, efficient waste-management systems, integrated traffic management and assessment.
  • The scheme also assesses various indices to track urban development such as the Ease of Living Index, Municipal Performance Index, City GDP framework, Climate Smart Cities assessment framework, etc.
  •  Smart solutions can also be used to expand housing opportunities, employ solar power for energy needs, ensure efficient street lighting, build energy-efficient green buildings, and make governance citizen-friendly, accountable, transparent, and cost effective.
Why Integrated command and control centre important for smart city? 
  • The Smart Cities Mission includes setting up ICCCs for each such city as a vital step.
  • These ICCCs are designed to enable authorities to monitor the status of various amenities in real time.
  • Initially aimed at controlling and monitoring water and power supply, sanitation, traffic movement, integrated building management, city connectivity and Internet infrastructure, these centres have since evolved to monitor various other parameters.
  • The ICCCs are now also linked to the CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems) network under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
  • The ICCC acts of a smart city acts as a “nerve centre” for operations management. It processes a complex and large pool of data sets at an aggregated level. For example, it is now the go-to source for integrated traffic management monitoring.
  • The ICCC is the nodal point of availability of all online data and information relating to smart services included in a smart city, such as like LED street lighting, CCTV surveillance cameras, air quality sensors, smart parking system, WiFi, electricity and water supply and billing, GIS, e-hospitals, property tax management, estate management, engineering systems, asset management systems, and other services.
  • During the pandemic, they also served as war-rooms for Covid-19 management.
When Smart cities was launched? 
  • The Smart Cities Mission (SCM), launched in 2015, seeks to improve the quality of life in 100 cities and towns of India.
  • Overall, its progress has been uneven, with many cities yet to achieve the desired levels of transformation.
  • It is a joint effort of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), and all state and union territory (UT) governments.
  • It initially aimed to be completed by 2019-20, but has since been extended.
  • One hundred cities and towns in different states and UTs of India have been selected under the SCM—they are home to more than one-third of the country’s population.
  • The Mission aims “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,and ensure that these cities are “liveable, inclusive, sustainable, (and) have thriving economies that offer multiple opportunities to people to pursue their diverse interest.In other words, according to MoHUA, “smart cities are cities that work for the people.
Distribution 
  • The geographical distribution shows that a large number of chosen cities are from the following large states – Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
  • Only one or two cities have been selected from each of the hilly regions, the north-eastern states, and the UTs.
  • The populations of the selected cities vary from as little as 11,201 (Kavaratti in the UT of Lakshadweep) to a maximum of 12.4 million (Delhi).
  • The total population of the 100 chosen cities/towns, as per Census 2011, is about 130 million. Thus, approximately 35 percent of India’s urban population live in the selected cities.
Where Smart cities outperform current form of cites? 
  • The SCM will improve infrastructure and services (i.e. housing, water supply, sanitation, electricity supply, health, education, mobility, safety and security, IT connectivity and digitalisation), while maintaining a clean and sustainable environment, and strengthening urban governance. The development and application of ‘smart’ solutions to overcome various urban problems is the main feature that distinguishes the SCM from previous urban-reform initiatives. 
  • Two kinds of development are proposed in the selected cities -
  • Area-based development: This involves selecting areas of specified size for redevelopment, retrofitting, and greenfield development. The entire city is not selected. For example, the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi has a total area of 1,483 sq km, of which only 2.2 sq km, which is administered by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has been selected. In Chennai, the area of T. Nagar, spread over nearly seven sq km, has been chosen.
  •  Redevelopment implies razing an existing built-up area and creating a new layout. Examples of this form of development are the Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project in Mumbai, and the East Kidwai Nagar project in Delhi. Retrofitting, on the other hand, provides for upgrading an existing built-up area. In this model, existing structures remain intact.
  • Pan-city development: Here, smart solutions are applied over larger areas of the city to improve liveability. These could include setting up an intelligent traffic management system, which would reduce average commuting time as well as travel costs, or wastewater recycling and smart metering for better water management.
  • Both kinds of development call for planning, implementation, monitoring, and financing.
  • Implementation: To implement their ‘smart city’ proposals, cities had to constitute a special purpose vehicle (SPV), headed by a full-time chief executive officer, and have nominees of the central, state and local governments on its board. The SPV can acquire the assistance of consulting firms, and appoint project management consultants (PMCs).
  • Financing: The central government and state/urban local governments share equal responsibility for mobilising funds. A total of INR 1,000 billion has been allocated for the 100 cities over the five-year period for which the Mission was initially planned. This works out to about INR 2 billion per city per year.
Who initiated initiatives to enhance the SCM impact? 
  • MoHUA has initiated a number of programmes to enhance the SCM’s impact.
  • Digital infrastructure and tools to ensure data availability and skill building are being created under a National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) launched on 23 February 2021. Examples include India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX), which is an open-source platform that will provide data on numerous urban indicators. 
  • Capacity-building is being promoted through the National Urban Learning Platform (NULP). It conducts virtual training programmes to build leadership qualities and facilitate partnerships.
  • An Ease of Living Index (EoLI) 2020 has been computed for 111 cities to keep city governments informed of the well-being of citizens. It shows the gaps in urban policies, planning and implementation initiatives, and offers an opportunity to plug them.
  • A Municipal Performance Index (MPI) 2020 has also been calculated for the 111 cities. This describes the quality of urban governance (the performance of municipalities). 
  • An India Smart Cities Awards Contest (ISAC) has been organised every year since 2018 to recognise the best performing cities.A special award was also instituted at the third edition of the contest in 2020 to recognise the most innovative responses to the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Over 10,000 internships have been offered under The Urban Learning Internship Programme (TULIP), launched on 4 June 2020,which offers experiential learning opportunities to fresh graduates.
Challenges 
  • Management: The SPVs are not functioning well. In Panaji, for example, which was among the cities selected during the fast track round in May 2016, the SPV functioned without a Board for over a year.
  • Finance: An analysis of the financial data reveals that the Centre, as well as most state and local governments, are finding it difficult to mobilise funds, transfer them to SPVs, and use them efficiently.
  • Technology: Smart cities rely on sensors and network-connected devices and systems that generate large volumes of data, which are vulnerable to hacking by cyber criminals who can steal confidential data, shut down access to essential resources, and gain illegal access to security cameras.The data needs to be adequately protected.
How much has been spent?
  • Out of the total outlay of Rs 2,05,018 crore, projects worth Rs 93,552 crore were proposed to be developed by the Centre and state funds.
  • In a recent statement, the Ministry noted that, almost 100% of these projects — projects worth Rs 92,300 crore — have been work-ordered.
  • The Smart Cities Mission has thus far included 7,905 projects worth Rs 1,93,143 crore that has been tendered, out of which 3,830 projects worth Rs 60,919 crore have been fully completed.
  • Financial progress has accelerated: from 2018 when the total expenditure was Rs1,000 crore, it has now increased to Rs 45,000 crore.
  • According to its proposed investments in the Mission, the Ministry plans to spend Rs 43,040 crore on mobility, Rs 25,435 crore on energy and environment, Rs 43,441 on social economic development, Rs 41,481 crore on area development, and Rs 29, 465 crore on water and water management.
ICCCs management in COVID-19
  • During the peak of the first wave, when countries were struggling to figure out ways of combating the virus, the government used the ICCCs as war-rooms for managing the outbreak, with real-time surveillance and monitoring of districts across the country that were affected by the coronavirus disease.
  • Converted into war-rooms, the smart cities’ ICCCs used the central data dashboard and provided information about the status of Covid-positive cases in various administrative zones of these cities, officials aware of the exercise said.
  • The war-rooms were also used for tracking people under quarantine and suspected Covid-19 cases.
Other Recommendations 
  • The SCM should be a long-term programme, not restricted to five or six years as currently envisioned. Indian cities are at a low level of development, and given the quality of governance, and the social and economic problems facing these towns and cities, any transformation will take a long time.
  • Training programmes should be organised to build managerial and financial capacities of the staff employed by the SPVs and urban local bodies. Training needs must be properly identified. SPVs should be supported with adequate funds, trained personnel, and proper equipment.
  • The Centre, and more so state governments and urban local bodies, should make a greater effort to mobilise funds. More revenue needs to be generated through efficient taxation, and alternate sources of financing found. The potential of municipal lending needs to be tapped.
  • The process of fund transfer from the Centre to state governments/urban bodies to SPVs should be made easier.
  • Greater efforts should be made to maintain infrastructure assets created under the Mission.
  • The role of the Integrated Command and Control Centres in cities should be expanded. In cities such as Moscow, such centres are effectively providing a variety of services, including traffic management, health, and security services.
  • Smart cities should be made cyber secure by ensuring data security and encryption.

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